The National tribune., 1909-08-19

Nhistling Dick, a 10-inch howitzer,
mounted far in the interior of the rebel
works and fired at very high eleva-
ton. The Lady Davis. to the best of
my recollection, was a 100-pound Arm
strong gun, and was present from the
merchants of Liverpool, England. Right
here let me digress to say that at the
first battle of Bull Run my old regi-
ment, the I'd Me-, captured, prisoners
who were armed with English Enfield
rifles. 1 also noticed that all the rebel
dead and wounded had these rifles,
marked on the lock plate, If 1 recollect
rightly, with the little old English
crown, and thereafter thruout the war
this crown literally stared us in the
face on every battlefield.
But to return to the subject. Not
many days after the dismounting of the
Lady Davis severa. large guns suddenly
appeared in the rebel works in our
front. These were not regularly mount
ed. but were bedded into the works.
Battery No. 20 and all our light artil-
Iery in the vicinity Immediately opened
and tried to dismount them. One gun
in particular, located in almost the
exact spot where the Lady Davis had
stood, seemed to receive the most at
tention from our gunners. Quite con-
troyersy arose over the question wheth-
er this was an actual gun or only
dummy made from log of wood.
was convinced that this gun was the
simon-pure article and no fraud, and
made a bet with some of the boys of
my company to that effect. But as
there was no way of settling the matter,
/ resolved to investigate at the first
favorable opportunity AS it happened,
the next day was sent out in command
of detachment of sharpshooters from
our regiment. Our immediate duty was
- do,
from annoying our men in the trenches.
After stationing my men and instruct
ing them TO protect me as much as pos
sible from the rebel sharpshooters /
started for the rebel works. At this
time this part of the works had been
subject for nearly two months not only
to-the fire of our land batteries, but also
to the heavy fire Of our gunboats and
the 15-inch mortars of the mortar feet,
consequently the slope of the hill be-
tween our trenches and the rebel works
was honeycombed with shell holes. BY
sneaking from one OF these holes to
another ] gradually approached the
rebel works undiscovered by the enc
my. When about so yards from the
works ] noticed wire running from
the works and entering the ground.
That was a very suspicious circum-
stance, so / retraced my steps to our
own works, secured a pick and spade,
and proceeded with due caution TO in
yestigate.
found, as I had surmised, a torpedo.
This was nothing more nor less than a
five-gallon demijohn, filled with ounce
bullets. with bursting charge In the
center This was fixed to be hred by
a common percussion primer, such as
was commonly used by the artillery.
Why the rebels did not fire on me while
engaged in digging up this torpedo has
n "a
was in plain view and not more than
90 Yards from their works. But my
boys made il business to plug every
head shown above the works, and this
probably kept them from seeing me.
returned to our works, taking the tor
pedo along as a souvenir, then started
again for that gun. At the point where
i approached the rebel works / did not
notice any ditch, or IL there had been
one IL had been entirely obliterated by
the fire of our heavy guns. / found the
gun to be a 10-inch Columbiad and
loaded nearly to the muzzle, as the
Johnnies afterwards told me, with a
choice assortment of bullets, tenpenny
nails and railroad spikes OF course,
these guns, in case of an assault by
our troops could only be discharged
once, but at close range would do much
damage to column of infantry. These.
of course, were old dismounted guns,
with the trunnlois hHoShcu oli anu VI
no further use TO the enemy. After
sufficiently investigating the gun and
having satisfied my youthful curiosity
in regard 10 that matter, i proceeded
to mount the works. At this particular
point there appeared 10 be no guard
stationed, but the troops on duty had
stacked their arms and were lounginB
around on the ground, Tor the most
part engaged in playing cards. ] could
not resist the temptation to give those
Johnnies a scare; in fact, j fairly ham
kered to leave them some token OF my
love and esteem; so. quickly jerking
my revolver from my belt, j emptied
1t at the nearest group OF rebels. and
then lost no time in beating retreat.
At this point ! think the works were
not less than IL feet in hight. / dis
finctly recoIlect that I took two good
leaps to reach the foot Of the works.