THE CANNON'S MOUTH.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 185, 5 August 1880, Page 4

THE CANNON'S MOUTH.

[American Paper.] There is nothing connected with a battle so exciting as to see a battery of flying artillery take, position. Troops open right and left, drivers lash and shout, horses plunge and rear, and guns and caissons dash through and over everything until reaching the chosen spot. A lice of men waiting for the fight" to open will, sbow pluck and enthusiasm with the booming of the firat gun, and the foster the battery is worked tbe more impatient will the supports become for close work. Ho one will say that an army could be successful without artillery, and yet those who hold the " cannon's mouth" to be king of terrors or the jaws of certain destruction will feel disappointed when they come across statistics showing how little damage is inflicted by cannon compared with the musket. It is often said of a man, "He would not be afraid to march up to the cannon's mouth ;" and yet it: is not a high compliment to bis bravery. Just previous to the first fight at Bull Bun a brigade of infantry made a reconnaissance towards Blackburn's Ford lo see bow the enemy was posted. A Michigan regiment, in reserve just outside the fight, was opened on by six field-pieces in plain bight. The firing was rapid and lasted for half an hour, and yet not a man in' the regiment was even wounded. Massachusetts troops advancing into tbe woods, fought against cannon mounted on an earthwork for fully 20 minutes, and yet all their loss was from the musketry of foreign troop?. On this occaasion no less than 200 round-sbofc x and shell were utterly wasted. During the Sunday fight at Bull Kun, a full battery, posted an the left and just outside tbe fight, kept up a continuous * and rapid fire on the highway threequarters of a mile away, over which the Confederates \ were marching as they went into action or changed positions. ' Shot and shell could be seen to strike, but outside of tearing a cover on 0 an army waggon, and the killing of a horse -or two, no damage was done. At Pair Oaks the artillery fire was fierce and seemingly destructive. . Trees were rent and shivered, great furrows ploughed in tbe ground, and shells screamed everywhere over the battle-field. Yet the loss of life by musketry was in the proportion of twenty to one. The third Michigan Infantry lost more men in five minutes by infantry fire than any brigade lost all day by shot or shell. The daily papers used to make a great ado over artillery duels, which were pronounced fiendish, blood-thirsty, and so forth. At Antietam a Union and a Confederate battery, not over half a mile apart, and in plain sight of each other bad one of these duels, lasting 40 minutes. The guns were worked for all they were worth, and when the duel ended the Union loss was a horse kil-

led, the wheel of a caisson shattered, and two infantry men lying in support killed. A change of position sent the writer's regiment over the ground occupied by the Confederate battery, and here were found two disabled horses, a dead artillerist, and the wreck of a caisson. During the forty minutes that these 12 guns were banging away with such little result, four or five sharp-shooters just to the, right killed more than a dozen men, and made no t fuss over it. Lee bad a splendid position for bis artillery at Predericksburg, yet the Union troops swept forward unmindful of the fire until they reached the point where tbe Confederate infantry could begin work. Shells exploded in the air or beyond the line, roundshot took men singly, and no great damage was done until grape and cannister came into play. The Union guns on the other bank of the river, numbering at least 150, boomed away for several hours at the town and at Lee's troops above, yet they did not cripple the enemy as much, as the fire from a single infantry regiment. At Savage Station, where M'Clellan was changing base, a Union battery was charged by a Confederate regiment. They came across an open field, in plain view, and on level ground, with six guns playing away on them, yet they captured the battery with the toss of only 11 men killed, and four of these were killed by one shell. A Union regiment rallied on the guns, fought over them hand to hand and recaptured them, and in 10 minutes each regiment lost over 100 men. It is popularly supposed to be a forlorn hope when men rush forward on a battery, but any old soldier would take his chances there sooner than in trying to dislodge infantry from the cover of a stout rail fence. At second Bull Eun the writer's regiment swept forward to capture some fioldpieces which had got their range down fin 9, and were creating considerable havoc. There were four cannon, and they covered about the same front that the advancing regiment did. They used shell at first against us, and in twelve or more rounds we lost only three men. They then changed to grepe and canister, anil before reaching the guns our total loss was 15 men. We marched square at. the cannon, preserved a good front, and the artillerists could not have had a better chance. Had we been advancing on 100 infantry behind a fence or in. rifle-pits our loss would have- been four times as great. At Gettysburg more thaa 400 cannon belched away for hours, shaking the ground ns with en earthquake, but the loss in killed and wonnnded was not ns great as that inflicted by eny brigade in action. More, than 100 Con federate fieliS-pieces were^turned on Round Top ?or two long hours, anj yet infantry rested there and munched their hard tack almost a coolly bs in camp. When

Lee retreated acd Sheridan pursued his. wajrgon train over the mountain roads, the rearguard of the Confederates plsutftd (wo Beld-pieces in the narrow road fo deck poreuif;. They tverewell served, bed arntnuoition, stcd eeetued to command tho entire approach ; the lose wes only but three n?en. The fire of artillery is destructive only when it hits, the Bfituc as infantry, but it is oesipr to p,hoot a man with fi muekct than with a * cannon. A shell has been known to blow 12 men into fragment?, but porhfips 20 ofher shells were t?Rßtpd before the one bit. A round shot may crneh two men as it ploughs through a repiroent, but it will teke no more. Grape nnd c&nister will do murderous vroik at short range, but that range can only be had oncft in a while, acd then preserved for only two or tLree rounde.