The National tribune., 1907-11-14
Artillery Fire.

From the elevated position Of Jack
sons artillery he was enabled to Civ,
us copious showers of iron hail, and /
you read Comrade Cunningham's ac
count of this affair you will remembe
] that ne spoke of q number of cavalry
charges being made in town across thu
| bridge and even up over the hills OF
! the opposite side of the river Now
don't think me bOasting when / tell yot
! that / led the only charge that wa.
| made in the town or near the bridge
that day; not that / had any desire tc
capture Stonewall Jackson's artillery ol
even to successfully bring off his much.
coveted wagon trains. No. indeed.
vaulted into my saddle, and took wha1
j then thought a due south course
straight back from the bridge, anxious
10 get out of range of those terrible
guns. which were being served with
such rifie-like accuracy, and this was
the first time I had called on my new
"Secesh' horse to get me out of dan
ger. This was SO well done that after
a straight dash Of one mile was a good
100 yards abe; of the column at a
point where / could make my horse
Jump the gulley on the left side of the
road. II was then necessary to tear
down stake and ridered fence, which
i could not induce my horse to push
down.
About This time the head of Carrolrs
column somewhere below the bridge
seemed TO furnish q better artillery
practice than anything else in sight.
Col Carroll saw the bridge still
standing, and thinking his pet scouts
had been blown from the face of the
earth. as a hummingbird could not long
survive in the vicinity of the bridge, he
very judiciously retired his column one
and three-quarters miles down the river,
and took up position at or near an old
coal pit or elevated piece of ground
Here he placed two sections of battery
ard commenced a vain attempt to bat
ter down the bridge, which operation
proved a failure.
The scouts came In about 10 O'clock
and reported large quantities of infan-
try, artillery and cavalry crossing the
bridge to our side of the river, and their
line of battle was formed across the
bottom, our left resting at the coal pit
at the side of the hill or mountain, and
right resting on what judged to be the
old bed of the river. Not more than
half a mile in length in front lay field
of wheat almost ready to harvest, and
farther on was field of young corn
about Is inches high, all of which was
harvested that day and the next.
As soon as reached my regiment
Capt. Patterson told me he had been
wanted to buy my horse, which I sold
to him, tho I was loathe to part with
an animal that had developed such
wonderful speed, and took my place as
a file closer in my company After
waiting till past IL o'clock for the enc
my to put in an appearance, Col. Car
roll ordered Col. Gavin. of the 7th Ind,
to deploy his regiment in our front at
intervals of four PAGES and find the
enemy. We advanced. crossing the level
fields Of wheat and corn for some 400
yards to a rail fence standing on slight
ly higher ground. Col. Gavin had just
halted the line of skirmishers, and
while comrade was tearing a place in
the fence, which was a mass Of vine and
underground. a rebel yell announced
the presence of the Johnnies. Gavin
from his elevated seat on his old gray
horse had a fair view OF the field, as
he thought, and from the number of
field and staff officers on horseback In
plain view (the underground and briars
hiding the rebel infantry making
charge on us), he mistook 1t all for q
charge Of cavalry. TO guard against
the same he double-quicked his deploy-
ed regiment into double column by di-
visions. then formed hollow square to
guard against cavalry, colors and field
officers in center marched back as cool
ly as il on parade, and took our place
on extreme right Of line Of battle.
The rebel skirmishers reached the
fence rnat we had just left by the time
we were SO yards away. and the entire
rebel line of battle was at the fence
pouring q fire into US before we We're
halfway across tina. Dottom. This