The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1916-10-21

proof, bury itself in the sand and ex-
plodge, throwing up tons of sand
which came back down over every
thing. These shells were round and
exploded with fuse. At length there
came along one of these huge black
spheres and striking the fort glanc-
ing lick near the top, it did not busy
itself but rolled over and fell in the
parade ground, continued to roll for
little and then stopped. A sergeant
of artillery by the name of Snipe,
walked out Immediately to it and
when he reached it he turned and
looked at us and said, '.The damn
thing is smoking yet" He had
scarcely uttered the words when it
exploded with tremendous noise,
scattering its fragments in every
direction. When the smoke had clear
ed away it was found that Sergeant
Snipe had been instantly killed and
his body torn to pieces-terribly
mangled.
Soon after the evacuation of Wag-
rer the Edisto Rifles did garrison
duty for short while in Fort Sum-
ter, which was then undergoing ter
rife bombardments from land and sea
and had suffered great damage and
was finally beaten and shattered to a
mass eff debris Of broken brick, NOR
tar and stone, and was several times
assaulted but never taken and was
only evacuated when Sherman march
ed through South Carolina But what
set out to relate was an incident
which took place while we We're in
Sumter which shows the accuracy
some of the Federal artillerists had
acquired in artillery firing. One day
a young signal officer by the name of
Huger, went, to the top of the fort
when no firing was going on, and
rested his telescope on the parapet to
/ take observations. Only his head
could be seen by the enemy above the
iparapet and he was seen by them and
they trained gun on him from Cum
ning's Point and shot his head off. If
this stood alone it might be classed as
an accidental shot, but similar in
stances occurred too often for it to
have been accidental; for instance,
every evening just at sunset cannon
was fired from Sumter which was
known as the shutdown gun" and at
the same time the flag which was kept
floating over the fort all day was
hauled down, and the enemy at Cum
ning's Point had gotten into the habit
of aiming gun at the flag and just
at the moment it was being lowered
they would fire, and time and again
they would cut the halyard in two be-
fore the flag got down. We came to
know and look out for this shot just
as regularly as our shutdown gun was
fired.
And Dew | am going to bid farewell
to Norris Island, Fort Wagner, Cum
ning's Point and Fort Sumter, as I
think I have said enough about them
4OA dWtAi1C dL IE1SLt anu DIS SdlQ
would cut this thirteenth number
short, will jump you to an oak
grove on the left hand side of the
turnpike road leading from Peters
burg to Richmond, Va, about five or
six miles out from Petersburg. The
time was a few days after the battle
of Wathall junction which occurred
on the 9Th day of May "a. Some few
days after this while marching on this
turnpike I saw a tall, wide board set
up in the ground and lettered like a
tombstone and upon inspection I found
it to mark newly made grave and
the epitaph thereon was this:
Killed in action May 10th, 1864,
FANNY,
The War-horse of Darden.
She was fast, fearless and faithful.
Let her rest in peace.
With this token of the love of
good soldier for his faithful steed, /
close this number. Laurie Izlar.
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