The National tribune., 1909-08-19

turned out this would have been need
less sacrifice of life. Shortly after this
incident / was sent out in command of
la body of sharpshooters composed of a
detachment of our regiment and small
detachment of the 9Th Mich. Our stunt
was to roll cotton bales as near to the
rebel works as possible, and quiet the
rebel sharpshoOters. who were annoy
ing our siege artillery. We succeeded
in rolling the cotton bales as far as the
outer ditch of the rebel works We
found the ditch at this point to be about
II or IA feet wide and about 10 or IL
feet deep. The works on the opposite
side, l should judge, were about 10 or
IL feet in hight. At this time 1 no
about 500 yards, an outwork of some
|size-was battery of 12-pound brass
Napoleons. But as this work was con-
Siderably in advance of our position it
gave me no uneasiness.
After we had been firing for some
moments on the rebels in our front,
happened to glance over to the right
and see one of those Napoleons glisten-
ing in the sunlight and more guns be-
ing dragged out of the work. The
batterymen had evidently attached pro-
longs to the guns, and as the work was
a tete-de-pont and open to the rear,
they had dragged them out by hand.
Be this as it may, the guns were there,
ready to do business. I saw at once
that We were between the devil and the
deep sea. If we changed front to face
the battery we would be exposed to the
fire of the rebel riflemen only few
feet in our front. If we remained as
we were we were exposed to an enfilad-
ing fire from the battery. So 1 quickly
ordered my men to concentrate their
fire on the battery, and opened the ball
t.-;,, ,-ffI
to 500 yards and taking a. shot at the
men of the nearest gun. At the crack
of my rifle the cannonier, who had just
finished loading the gun, and the gum
ner at the breach of the gun both fell
was pleased to learn after the sur
render from the boys of this battery
that I did not kill either of these men,
The cannonier had his right arm
broken and the gunner was shot in the
right shoulder. About this time the
Johnnies in our front had succeeded in
some manner in setting fire to our cot
ton bales, and before many moments
in spite of all our efforts, the battery
men succeeded in getting their guns
into action. Myself and a man by name
of Preston were secreted behind the
extreme right-hand cotton bale of our
line. At almost the first shot a shell
struck fairly in the center of our cot
ton bale and exploded, completely de-
stroying it. There was not enough of
| 1t left to conceal a chipmunk Strange
TO say. neither of us was hurt but one
| half of Preston's canteen YVES cut off
clean and smooth by a fragment of the
| shell. AS / looked around 1 saw that
my men had already left the field, as
| they were unable to hold their ground
after the bottom bales were burned So
Preston and myself quickly beat a re-
| treat. l don't claim that we retreated
| in good order, but we went, and we
must have presented comical appear
ance. for we were white with cotton
from head to foot.
| A short time after this our regiment
was ordered to run a mine under the
citadel, which we did by making a DIT
about IA feet square and deep enough
to clear the outer ditch. The ditch
and breastworks were of about the
same dimensions as those / have de-
scribed. We soon ran a drift about 40
feet in length under the rebel work,
with chambers extending to the right
and left under the main works of the
citadel. The day of the surrender we
We're busily engaged rolling powder in
to the mine. The fireworks were sched-
uled for the next day, but the surren-
der stopped the performance. During
the time we were mining the works the
Johnnies had habit of amusing them
tseives and annoying us by lighting the
fuses of 10-inch shells and rolling them
down into the pit at the mouth of the
tunnel. After we had flied the outer
ditch with the dirt from the mine and
raised something of an ;embankmant
between us they overcame this difficulty
by making V-shaped trough, and thru
this they rolled the shells until our boys
fastened a moose onto the end Of the
trough and pulled it away from them.
| One day during this time squad of
our boys who were not or duty IN the
tunnel were lying in grogp in the pit,
playing cards to pass thb time uEtll
they were called to relieyi the squad
working in the tunnel. Suddenly, with.
out warning. In rolled 1D-inch shell,
the fuse burning and splitting fire. The
boys all sprang for the mouth Of the
tunnel, with the exception OF Preston.
the man before mentioned ais baing with
me at the battle Of the cotton bales.