The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1915-08-07
Copyright, 1sak hy j w. Ms1asR.
An rights reserved.

dent men, who never IN their lives had
acted on impulse, now acted without
seconds pause for reflection. Men who
had cared all their lives only for their
own little affairs were all drunken
now and thought It nothing to IRE one
shot for their country and die behind
stone wall in the dirt
In Acushnet an old whaling captain.
prosperous, weighty citizen, emptied
his shotgun into a raiding party and
was left dead under his forsythias
with the golden blossoms from the vol
ley torn shrubs covering him
Between Taunton and Pawtucket
militia company Of field artillery that
had been unable to move its gun be-
cause it lacked horses got 1t from its
hiding place and with a party Of vol
| unteers who had no firearms fought
behind piled bags Of cement against
enemy cavalry till artillery had to be
brought from miles away to destroy
them.
South Of Woonsocket a band made
up of thirty Massachusetts, militia In
fantry and sixty factory hands from
the town prevented two companies of
hostile infantry for almost two hours
from crossing the Blackstone river. 1t
was not because they could shoot or
J knew how to fight. It was because
they meant to stay there till they died
And it was not until they were dead
that the invaders succeeded In cross
ing.
New England women who had spent
their lives in homely, simple duties
brought out clippers Of water to parch
ed men and cheered them on They
} hid fleeing men In barns and stood by,
defant, when pursuing soldiers drag
ged them out and shot them before
their eyes.
Men took down old muskets that had
been over chimney places for a gem
Grafton. Their wives and mothers
kissed them as they went out 10 fight.
Grandparents saw their sons and
their sons sons lie in ambush in ances-
trail pastures that had not echoed TO a
ruder sound than the lowing Of cows,
and they saw them vanish away In
5 red storm and did not weep.
Dynamitel DynamiteI went the
word through Massachusetts, and Con-
3 necticut. This was something that the
5 unarmed country had and that it knew
how to USE Even the peaceful farm
ers had it and were practiced in han
ding it from long work in blowing out
. stumps and rocks. Irish construction
0 gangs, italian road makers, workers of
every tongue and race from pits and
5 quarries, Joined the New England men.
They blew up sunken road through
. which artillery was numbering. They
5 blasted away a steep bank and buried
troop of cavalry. They blew up a
5 mined road in front of infantry, and
when it retreated sprang second
mine under the soldiers feet that ex-
4 terminated a battalion.
. Railroads and roads were blown up
before advancing troops and behind
them. Men blew up bridges and pre-
vented their own escape so that the
armed forces caught them as in trap
? and slaughtered them at leisure. Via
5 ducts and works were dynamited that
never could have been Of any use to
the euGmE. II was lDL4AcScf bJbDEAA-
less destruction-but in that very lack
5 of system lay its danger to the enemy
< forces.
Had all the men In New England
who were engaged In this wild lighting
i been gathered in one body the trained,
q disciplined soldiers could have disposs
ed of them in an action so simple that
o they might scarcely have named it a
skirmish. But this was like q forest
5 fire, that, stamped out in one spot.
breaks into roaring fame in another.
As it sweeps from tree tops to tree
. tops and creeps underground and
flames out in quick fury miles away.
so the war fire raved through Massa-
. chusetts and Connecticut to be crushed
2 out only in detail with detailed, bitter
: work through all that long, hot, dusty
day.
. It was serious This uprising of an
undisciplined population could not de
. feat or even damage seriously the greAi
army. But it could hamper it. il
would force wide scattering of troops
u to break down the sporadic opposition
It would make dangerous country
dangerous In front Of the advancing
IS soldiers. dangerous in their rear, con
tinuaIly dangerous around them.
: In that sense 1t was more serious
S than deliberate military opposition by
the American army would have been
Had the enemy commander faced only
70 a defending army 1t would have beer
a quiet, technical matter of advances
i guards against advance guards. Thes.
pawns in the old game of war would
have thrust each other back here. re