Delaware City press. (Delaware City, Del.) 1913-19??, 1913-03-07
LAST FIGHT IN ARMOR
WAS NOT in THE MIDDLE AGES,
AS MIGHT BE IMAGINED.
ouiek-Witted French Commander, In
1899, Clothed His Soldiers In Steel
and Sent Them to Spike Guns
Which Annoyed Him.


The last fight in armor occurred
during Napoleon's time. In 1893, the
main army of the French having with
drawn from the town of Aquila,
body of some four hundred soldiers
remained in the place, whose inhab-
itants were well disposed toward
them. But the peasants of the sur
rounding 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, with
out artillery, was manifastly impossi-
BILE. Finally some cunning brain de-
vised a scheme that came near to be-
ing successful
Between the fort and the nearest
houses there lay on the glacis, with
out carriages and resting upon pieces
of wood, twelve guns which the
French had not had time to take into
the fort with them. The position of
the guns exposed them to fire from
both sides, SO 1t was not thought they
would be interfered with, though by
way of precaution two of the guns of
the fertilization were kept trained up
on them.
One night the sentinel heard a
noise. He fired, but the sound con-
tinued and did not Immediately cease
after other shots, though 1t seemed
to draw farther off. When daylight
came it was seen that, under cover of
darkness, the insurgents had reached
the nearest gun, attached 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 sue
ceeded, but the peasants did not know
enough to thrust rollers under the gun
before hauling, and consequently the
breech dug furrow into the soil
which soon became deep enough to
stop further progress.
Nevertheless, the besieged were
much irritated by the occurrence and
determined to prevent repetition Of
it, 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, un
injured, although blocked for the time
I by debris This did not eeatent them
Then it was that the conlmandant Of
the fort remembered having seer
slowed away in it somewhere dozeI
suits of ancient armor. He selected
twelve of his coolest men, gunneri
and grenadiers, clothed them in thi'
armor, and sent them out to spike thu
guns.
Covered with steel from head to foo
and carrying spikes and hammers, tn
men marched heavily, awkwardly, on
OF the fort and moved in dead silence
toward the coveted guns, the whit
smoke curling about their mailed fig
ures, and bullets pattering harmlessl
against antique helm and corselei
Many of the peasants were horror
struck and believed the strange fig
ures to be diabolical and invulnerabl
while, after the first anxious momen
was passed, their own comrades, looi
ing from the walls, broke into exu
tant roars of laughter.
The twelve latter-day knights r.
turned safely from their raid, havin
spiked the guns and cut the rop
Though many times hit, they had bt
one wound among them, slight on
, received by a soldier who had wron
ly adjusted "brassart," so that 1t fe
off and left his arm exposed. The il
surgents were discouraged; an
though the blockade continued, thei
was little more fighting and the b
: sieged were soon relieved by the
friends.-Harper's Weekly.