The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1913-03-14
LAST FIGHT IN ARMoR.
Sally of Steel Clad Soldiers From Old
French Fort.


The last fight in armor occurred dur
ing Napoleon 5 time. In 1899, the main
army of the French having withdrawn /
from the town of Aquila, a body of
some 400 soldiers remained in the town,
whose inhabitants were well disposed
toward them.
But the peasants of the surrounding
region were bitterly hostile and, rising
in revolt. penetrated the town and drove
the Frenchmen into the fortress, which
was small and weak, yet powerful
enough to hold the insurgents at bay
with its cannon.
These insurgents numbered ten or
twelve thousand. They barricaded the
street and loopholed the houses so that
they were safe from attack, but this
did not satisfy them. They wished to
take the fort. which. without artillery,
was manifestly impossible. Finally.
says Harper 5 Weekly, some cunning
brain devised a scheme that came near
to being successful
Between the fort and the nearest
houses there lay on the glacis. without
carriages and resting upon pieces of
wood, II guns which the French had
not had time to take into the fort with
them. The position of the guns ex-
posed them to fire from both sides so
that it was not thought thev would be
iuterfered with though by way of pre-
caution two of the guns of the fortif-
cation were kept trained upon them.
One night the sentinel heard a noise.
He fired. but the sound continued and
did not immediately cease after other
shots, though it seemed to draw farther
off. When daylight came it was seen
that under cover of darkness the Insur-
gents had reached the nearest gun. at
tached a rope to the breech, and then
fastening the rope to capstan in the
nearest house, had attempted to haul
the piece away.
Had it been a military man who tried
the trick he would have succeeded, but
the peasants did not know enough to
thrust rollers under the gun before
hauling, and consequently the breech
dug a furrow into the soil, which soon
became dee enough to stop further
/ progress.
Nevertheless. the besieged were much
/ lrrltated by the occurrence and deter
mined to prevent 4 repetition of 1t.
They cannOnaded the house from which
the rope issued. but when the walls fell
they found that the capstan was IN the
cellar and consequently uninlured, al
though blocked for the time by debris.
This did not content them. Then 1T
was that the commandant of the fort
remembered having seen slowed away
IN IT somewhere a dozen suits of an
clent armor. He selected IL of his cool
. est men. gunners and grenadlers. clothed
them in this armOr and sent them out
to spike the guns.
Covered with steel from head to foot
and carving spikes and hammers the
) men marched heavily, awkwardlv out
{ of the fort and moved in dead silence
| toward the coveted guns, the white
, smoke curling above their mailed fig
, ures and bullets pattering harmlessly
against antique helm and corselet
. MANY of the peasants were horror
struck and believed the strange figures
: to he diabolical and invulnerable, while
1 after the first anxious moment was
p passed, their own comrades looking
from the walls. broke into exultant
rOarS of laughter.
: The 10 latter day knights returned
safely from their raid, having spiked
the guns and cut the rope. Though
many times hit. they had but one wound
among them, a slight one received by 9
soldier who had wrongly adjusted 2
.'brassart - so that it fell off and left
his arm exposed. The insurgents Were
discouraged. and though the lockadt
continued. there was little more fight
: ing and the besieged were soon relieved
e by their friends.