"When the Federal troops fell back from our lines, they were under an enfilading infantry fire, enfilading artillery fire and mortar Battery fire. Then next a flag of truce was sent over and an agreement reached to bury the dead. As there would be no fighting during the truce I got permission to go to the crater and review the slaughter....I could have obtained protection behind [our earthworks], but I felt the truce would protect me and I took a short cut across an open field instead of zig-zag course made by earthworks. Just before I reached my destination I heard a crack of a rifle some distance behind the enemy’s line and just then the familiar whiz of minnie ball and I knew the blue belly was after my goat. I made for the fortifications in time to escape a second shot.
"Our lines were not far apart and on one acre of land
there was said to be 5000 dead men. It was a terrible sight to see so much blood and
so many mutilated bodies. Several trenches paralleling each other were dug and the
men were piled on each other and covered with earth. We lost several men in the
artillery duel. There was not a night but what our line was bombed with mortar
batteries. It was a beautiful sight on a dark night to watch the shells from a
15-inch mortar battery with their lighted fuses crossing each other in their flight
through the air. As the shells whistled through the air they made a noise the boys
interpreted to mean 'which way, which way'. If an exploding of the shell was in
front, the fragments which formed were dangerous; if over head they were not feared; and
if they exploded back of our lines no danger was attached. As time passed, we paid very
little attention to this nightly crusades."
(David Washington Pipes of the Washington Artillery of New Orleans, unpublished Memoirs,
July 30, 1864 account )
"We started a fire and cooked our morning
meal. Bugler blew "Boots & Saddles" and off we went on the double-quick for
the third days fight at Gettysburg....We commenced firing as soon as we got into position,
as the rebs were trying to turn the flank of our army. We kept firing into the rebels
ranks and mowed them down like grass. General Hancock came riding along and told our
captain to cease firing and save our ammunition as we would need it more later; and it
proved afterwards that we did.
"Some hours afterwards the rebels concentrated their forces for a grand charge. Then I tell you we had all we could do to keep them back. We opened on them right and left; it was terrific for a while. We had but a few horses of the battery left and the battery boys were getting scarce. We lost more in men and horses in a short space of time that day, than we had lost in many battles before it.
"When we were told to cease firing, we were told to shelter ourselves the best we could....Many of us took shelter from the storm of shell and bullets...[i]n the rear of the rock [where] there was a large crevice and many of us crawled into it for safety. I was the last but one in the crevice of the rock; my legs were not sheltered. One of the boys of the battery named John Olin came along and lay his head down on my hip. He had not been there but a few minutes when a shell came from the rebels, came over and burst about ten feet from us. A piece of it hit him on the hip and took a piece out of him, as big as a saucer. He went up into the air like a bird; was afterwards picked up and carried to the rear.
"I had one of my horses left, tied him to a small tree
when we were behind the rock. The shell that burst when Olin got hit also struck the horse
and killed him.
(William Archibald Waugh, unpublished Memoirs, 5th Massachusetts Light Artillery,
Company E)
"We were under the crest of a hill occupying a position that ought to have been held by from four to six brigades. The only troops there were Cooke’s regiment of North Carolina infantry, and they were without a cartridge. As I rode along the line with my staff, I saw two pieces of the Washington Artillery (Miller’s battery), but there were not enough men to man them. The gunners had been either killed or wounded. This was a fearful situation for the Confederate center. I put my staff-officers to the guns while I held their horses. It was easy to see that if the Federals broke through our line there, the Confederate army would be cut in two and probably destroyed, for we were already badly whipped and were only holding our ground by sheer force of desperation. Cooke sent me word that his ammunition was out. I replied that he must hold his position as long as he had a man left. He responded that he would show his colors as long as there was a man alive to hold them up. We loaded up our little guns with canister and sent a rattle of hail into the Federals as they came up over the crest of the hill.
"That little battery shot harder and faster, with a sort of human energy, as though it realized that it was to hold the thousands of Federals at bay or the battle was lost. So warm was the reception we gave them that they dodged back behind the crest of the hill. We sought to make them believe we had many batteries before them. As the Federals would come up they would see the colors of the North Carolina regiment waving placidly and then would receive a shower of canister. We made it lively while it lasted. In the meantime General Chilton, General Lee’s chief of staff, made his way to me and asked, ‘Where are the troops you are holding your line with?’ I pointed to my two pieces and to Cooke’s regiment, and replied, ‘There they are; but that regiment hasn’t a cartridge.’
"Chilton’s eyes popped as though they would come out of his head; he struck spurs to his horse and away he went to General Lee. I suppose he made some remarkable report, although I did not see General Lee again until night. After a little shot came across the Federal front, plowing the ground in a parallel line. Another and another, each nearer and nearer their line. This enfilade fire, so distressing to soldiers, was from a battery on D.H. Hill’s line, and it soon beat back the attacking column.
"Meanwhile, R.H. Anderson and Hood came to our support and
gave us more confidence. It was a little while only until another assault was made
against D.H. Hill, and extending far over toward our left, where McLaws and Walker were
supporting Jackson. In this desperate effort, the lines seemed to swing back and
forth for many minutes; but at last they settled down to their respective positions, the
Confederates holding with a desperation which seemed to say, ‘We are here to
die’."
(General James Longstreet)
"The six hundred men of the 37th Georgia, 20th Tennessee, and the 4th Georgia Battalion of Sharpshooters followed Bate into the Poe field at 5:00 P.M. For perhaps an instant the Confederate soldiers could see the black outline of cannon barrels trained on them from across the field in the fading daylight. There followed immediately the brilliant orange flashes, and then the report of twenty guns firing simultaneously, blanketing the field in smoke and blood. Bate's horse was torn to pieces by canister shot. The Tennessean mounted another horse and kept on until it, too, was shot down. Both Regimental Commanders were struck and the Commander of the sharpshooters fell at the head of his men, nearly half of whom were killed or wounded. For a brief time - perhaps three or so minutes - the Confederates withstood the barrage. Men fell at the rate of nearly one every second. After 180 men had been hit, Bate led the rest back into the woods.
"Ambrose Bierce watched the slaughter from behind the
cannons. Bierce said, 'Nothing could be heard but the infernal din of their discharge, and
nothing seen through the smoke but a great ascension of dust from the smitten soil. When
all was over and the dust cloud had lifted, the spectacle was too dreadful to describe.
The Confederates were still there - all of them, it seemed - some almost under the muzzles
of the guns. But not a man of all those brave fellows was on his feet, and so thickly were
all covered with dust that they looked as if they had been re-clothed in yellow. ‘We
bury our dead,’ said a Gunner grimly.' "
(Peter Cozzens, This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga, pp.256-257)
"....We arrived near the
battleground of Gettysburg on the morning of July 2, 1863. On our way up we could
see our soldiers engaged with the enemy. We had come to a halt when an orderly rode up to
our captain with orders to advance with action. We went into the fight on the double-quick
and took our position near the peach orchard on the left of Cemetery Hill.
"We commenced firing at once with shrapnel shell. It was a terrible ordeal to pass through. The air was full of bursting shell and the minnie balls were falling thick and fast around us and many of our battery boys were mustered out that day. There were times during the engagement that day that the rebel batteries would charge on us and we were giving them grape and canister as fast as the boys could load and fire. We would then hitch prolong and fire retiring and then advance. We lost many horses. All day we kept it up.
"At last darkness came upon us and we left the field for the night. That
night, coming off the field I shall never forget. One of the horses attached to a gun,
[to] which I belonged, fell down as we were coming away from the field. The remainder of
the battery passed by and left us there to get the horse up and then come along after
them. The horse was tired and it was some time before we could get him up on his feet.
After a while, we got him up"...
(William Archibald Waugh, unpublished Memoirs, 5th Massachusetts Light
Artillery, Company E)
"....Marched eighteen miles, when
we met the enemy. Skirmished with them for the next four miles, when we found that
they were in force and had formed their line of battle. Our columns were at once
deployed into line, and our advance was sharply engaged. Hamilton's battery was then
ordered forward. Four pieces of the battery, including my section, were placed in
position, within two hundred and fifty yards of the rebels line, under a severe fire of
musketry. We went in with four pieces, fifty horses, eighty-two men and two
officers, viz: Capt. H., Lieut. Myrick, Lieut. Dodge and myself. In twenty minutes
we lost forty-four men, forty horses, two pieces and four officers, when we managed to get
off with what little there was left....It was our misfortune to have for support a negro
regiment, who, by running, caused us to lose our pieces. The fight lasted three
hours, when finding his small army so much cut up, the General ordered a retreat....
(Lieutenant George E. Eddy, 3rd Rhode Island Artillery, from a letter published in the
"Boston Herald", March 1, 1864 concerning the Battle of Olustee, Florida)
"...Well Sister we were in the 4 days fight at Bull Run &
it was a perfect run for some of the troops. Fricroys fight was the hottest fight
our Battery was ever in. We lossed 4 men killed & 15 wounded....Several of our
boys had thare limbs shot of. Some of them were cut in two. That day the Rebels
fired at our Battery with 3 Batteryes of Artillery. Our Infintry would not stand
thar ground. On Saturdays fight we lossed 1 man killed & 7 wounded. In all
we lossed 5 killed & 22 or 23 wounded. Satterdays fight was a hot time. We fired
out of our gun 700 rounds. The Infintry gave way & run. We lossed our
Caissons & some 24 horses. The Rebels made a charge to take our Battery.
But we made out to get our guns off. I was helping to limber up & thar was a
Rebel struck at me with his musket but did not hurt me any. Thay drove us for some
distance. We fell back to Centerville on Sunday Morning."
(James Hemphill Maclay, letters home, September 6, 1862, written near Munson Hill - Bull
Run; Battery B, 1st Pennsylvania Light Artillery, 43rd
Regiment, 14th Reserve Union Army
"We often hear the sneering criticism that at such and such a
battle but one or two percent of the enemy's loss was due to the fire of artillery. Any
such test is entirely erroneous. Not only do the guns exert a tremendous moral effect in
support of their infantry, and adverse to the enemy, but they do far more. They often
actually preclude heavy damage from the enemy by preventing him from assaying an assault
against the position the guns occupy. Then, again, by forcing the enemy to seek cover,
they eliminate their antagonists to that extent. Let us hear no more of artillery
efficiency as measured by the number of its victims." - Colonel Wise
(Paddy Griffith, Battle Tactics of the Civil War, p.171)
"Nationals and Confederates, young, middle-aged, and old, are scattered over the woods and fields for miles. Poor Wright, of my old company, lay at the barricade in the woods which we stormed on the night of the last day. Many others lay about him. Further on we find men with their legs shot off; one with brains scooped out with a cannon ball; another with half a face gone; another with entrails protruding; young Winnegard, of the 3rd, has one foot off and both legs pierced by grape at the thighs; another boy lies with his hands clasped above his head, indicating that his last words were a prayer.
"Many Confederate sharpshooters lay behind stumps, rails,
and logs shot in the head. A young boy, dressed in the Confederate uniform, lies with his
face turned to the sky, and looks as if he might be sleeping. Poor boy! what thoughts of
home, mother, death, and eternity, commingled in his brain as the life-blood ebbed away!
Many wounded horses are limping over the field. One mule, I heard of, had a leg blown off
on the first day's battle; next morning it was on the spot where first wounded; at night
it was still standing there, not having moved an inch all day, patiently suffering, it
knew not why nor for what."
The aftermath of Murfreesboro, January 5, 1863
(John Beatty, The Citizen Soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p.211)
"Just after we [of the Rockbridge Artillery, Army of Northern Virginia] got to the top of the hill, and within fifty or one hundred yards of the position we were to take, a shell struck the off-wheel horse of my gun and burst. The horse was torn to pieces, and the pieces thrown in every direction. The saddle-horse was also horribly mangled, the driver's leg was cut off, as was also the foot of a man who was walking alongside. both men died that night. A white horse working in the lead looked more like a bay after the catastrophe. To one who had been in the army but five days, and but five minutes under fire, this seemed an awful introduction...As we drove into the road again, I saw several infantrymen lying horribly torn by shells, and the clothes of one of them on fire....[Moore would later count twenty-seven holes in various walls of a house that had been struck by three artillery shells.]...Being an artilleryman, and therefore to be exposed to missiles of that kind, I concluded that my chances for surviving the war were extremely slim.
"Still photographed on my memory is the appearance of the body of one of the Second Virginia Regiment being hauled on our rear caisson. His head had been shot off, and over the headless trunk was fastened a white handkerchief, which served as a sort of guide in the darkness....One of the drivers, Fuller, was lying on the ground, his head toward the enemy. A shell entered the crown of his head and exploded in his body!
"So great was the loss of horses, there being over a
hundred in this battery killed in battle, that during the last year of the war they were
unhitched from the guns after going into action and taken to the rear for safety."
(Edward Moore, The Story of a Cannoneer Under Stonewall Jackson, ¶ 1, pp. 31, 35, & 49; ¶ 2, pp. 78, 162; ¶
3, p. 315)
"The hoarse and indistinguishable orders of commanding officers, the screaming and
bursting of shells, canister and shrapnel as they tore through the struggling masses of
humanity, the death screams of wounded animals, the groans of their human companions,
wounded and dying and trampled underfoot by hurrying batteries, riderless horses and the
moving lines of battle - a perfect Hell on earth, never, perhaps to be equaled, certainly
not to be surpassed, nor ever to be forgotten in a man's lifetime. It has never been
effaced from my memory, day or night, for fifty years."
(William Archibald Waugh, unpublished Memoirs, 5th Massachusetts Light Artillery,
Company E)
"Now Minty was in trouble, and he
had to act fast. "My only means of crossing the creek was Reed's Bridge, a narrow,
frail structure [that] was planked with loose boards and fence rails, and a bad ford about
three hundred yards farther up," he recalled. By the time Minty's first squadron
trotted across, the head of the rebel column was only five hundred yards away, 'carrying
their arms at right shoulder shift, and moving at the double quick as steadily as if at
drill.' Mrs. Reed stood on her porch and jeered the troopers as they rode past her house.
'You Yanks are running! Our army is coming! Our friends will not hurt me!' Just then
Bledsoe's Missouri battery swept the house with canister, throwing her mangled body
against the door."
(Peter Cozzens, This Terrible Sound: The Battle of Chickamauga, p. 105)
Casualties of Re-enacting
North College Hill, Ohio
A Civil War battle re-enactment left an Indiana teen seriously injured Sunday after the
cannon he was loading fired [prematurely] in a North College Hill park. Brett Vicchrilli,
14, of Greencastle, Indiana, was in front of the cannon when it fired, throwing him
several feet in the air and leaving him with injuries to his right arm, face and chest. He
was in critical condition....The explosion occurred as the McCallister
Battlers...prepar[ed] a counterattack on a field artillery unit....
Authorities [initially] had no explanation for why the cannon fired prematurely.... "The loader had seeded a batch of powder and was pushing in another bag when the cannon accidentally fired," said Ray McConnell, a civil war re-enactor from an artillery unit...."Before the misfire, a crewman had inserted into the muzzle a long-handled stick with a corkscrew-like attachment. The stick is twisted around inside the muzzle to remove debris left from the last firing," Patrolman Davis said. Brett then inserted into the muzzle a long stick with a wet swab, this one designed to moisten and extinguish any embers," Patrolman Davis said. Brett next inserted a prepared charge - 8 ounces of cannon-grade black powder inside an aluminum foil pouch - and rammed it to the rear of the gun. The teen then rammed the charge a second time to pack it in tightly, again following [their company’s] proper procedure, Patrolman Davis said. "When he tapped it the second time, it went off," Patrolman Davis said.... Keith Ashley, state commander of the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War, said the cannon was a scaled-down version of a Napoleon Mountain Howitzer. "Extensive training is done to ensure actors know how to use the weapons," he said.
One spectator watching the re-enactment for the first time with his 4-year-old daughter said he was stunned and knew immediately these weren't planned events. "When the cannon exploded, I saw a person thrown into the air," said Larry Keller of North College Hill. "I saw a (cannon ram)rod fly completely across an open field."
....[After several weeks of investigation, the] cannon blast that injured a 14-year-old boy during a Civil War re-enactment..."has been ruled an accident", police said. "A stray ember apparently remained inside the cannon's muzzle, causing the premature detonation when the boy packed in gunpowder," said Patrolman Daniel Davis of the North College Hill police. "It was an unavoidable accident," Patrolman Davis said. "All the proper steps [outlined by that re-enacting company] were followed....He had clearly enough supervision. His father, stepfather and uncle were there. I don't see any negligence."
...."He has lost the sight in his right eye and has damage to the left eye," Patrolman Naegele said. "He has what's called a traumatic cataract (on the left eye). It blocks sight, and they're not sure whether or not the eye is burned." Brett's right hand has undergone reconstructive surgery and will need more. He also suffered burns to his face and chest. "Doctors must wait to determine whether any sight in the left eye can be saved," Patrolman Naegele said.
"New safety rules, still being discussed, may include an
age limit for working with the cannons," said Jerry Thamann, the city's safety
service director.
(The Cincinnati Enquirer, October 20, 21, 22 1997; November 14, 1997)
Footnote: Sadly, their conclusion is mistaken. It was an avoidable accident, as they wrapped their powder only in aluminum foil and did not first seal it in a plastic bag, as is the far safer practice. We are unaware of any premature discharges that have taken place involving a properly wrapped and rolled charge. The boy was working the No. 1 position on his stepfather's cannon in full view of a crowd of over 2,000 spectators when the incident occurred. Adults were in positions No. 2 through 4. The gun commander was his uncle. The No. 3 person received minor injury to his thumb and was not hospitalized. The cannon was set up for ignition using commercial .22 blanks.
The cannon was a 3/4 scale replica of a 12-pounder Napoleon manufactured by LaPine, New York, owned by the boy’s stepfather, also present at the event. Police obtained a video taken by a spectator. Using the tape, it appears that 26 seconds passed between the firing of the previous round and the final round being "tamped." The worm was inserted and removed as well as the sponge being inserted and removed. How thoroughly this was done cannot be determined. The police report states that they were told an 8-ounce charge of Fg was loaded and was being tamped after having been seated when the charge detonated.
Later investigation revealed that there were 10 ounces of FFFg sporting grade black powder and 11 1/2 ounces of white flour in a typical round taken from the impounded ammunition box. Powder and flour were enclosed by 3 layers of aluminum foil. The flour was apparently poured into the aluminum form first and gunpowder loaded last. Rounds were then loaded into the cannon with rounded top going down the muzzle first. It is speculated that it was loaded this way to accommodate a hemispherically-shaped chamber. Many people mistakenly think that the harder they ram the charge, the louder the sound effect. It should have been seated and the rammer withdrawn. It was reported that the worm was made smaller than the bore so any remaining foil could be easily removed from the hemispherical shaped chamber. The chamber configuration has not been confirmed. The worm and the rammer were homemade specifically for the cannon by the gunner.
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