WAR'S HAPPENINGS;

Star (Christchurch), 30 September 1893, Page 1

WAR'S HAPPENINGS;

(Detroit Free Press). When Major Anderson held Fort Sumter against the Confederates the bombardment waa characterised as terrific, and yet not one-tenth of the damage was done by that thirty-hour cannonade as by three or four houra' work by the ironclads. The eleven and fifteen-inch shells were horrible missiles. Let one of them explode in a common brick building, and the four walls would be blown to fragments and the roof 'sent Bky wards in a cloud of broken timbers. When they exploded on striking the face, of the walls the concussion produced great cracks extending from six to ten feefc in. several .directions, and just where the shell struck the bricks would be ground to dust in a circle two feet aoroaa. But i#any g&Abejdiel-s penetrated the walls to the depth of a foot or eighteen inches, before exploding, and then the havoc was truly appalling. Waggon loads of dirt and brick and dust would be thrown high in the air and flung all over the island, and the whole fort would tremble undor the shock. The awful screams of the iron missiles as they rushed at tbe walls were, plainly heard in Charleston, and such a cloud of dust hung over Sumter that the gunners often lost sight ofthe ironclads. TONS OF IEON TO KIDIi A MAN. It is the most curious thing about war I that while a single bullet may now and then kill an enemy who thinks himeelf safely sheltered, hours of t3ie most terrific bombardment may not destroy a Bingle life. During the two days' bombardment in October, when 1115 shot wero flung at the fort, not one single person was even wounded, although nearly ,1300 missiles struck the walls or fell within. Only one man waa ever struck by a misbile entire. On one occasion an officer who stood on the parapet directing the planting of a new flagstaff, was struck by a fifteen-inch shell which exploded on the inßtant. In no other way could a human being have been so thoroughly wiped o^ tho face of the earth. Three or four clots of blood, the end of a finger, and a bloody lock of hair were all, that could be found of the victim. SOME STRANGE FIGURES. •The, heaviest loss of life occurred one evening in 1864. Thirteen confederates sought shelter from the fire of the monitors in a brick bomb-proof constructed a year beforo. A 300 pound Parrott shell from one of the fleet struck in snch a manner as to cave in the brick roof on the men, and every one of them was crushed to death. As near as could be figured by those in the fort, one man was wounded for every 5000 pounds of metal thrown, and one killed for every 9500 pounds. By this figuring at least thirty. 300-pound shells were thrown for every man killed. Placing the cost at the lowest figure, the Federals paid at least GOOdols m cash for every death in that fort. The operations around Charleeton, directly aimed at Sumter, cost the Federal Government from 20,000,000 dollars to 25,000,000d01s and 10,000 lives. THE VALUE Ol? A PENCE IN BATTLE. At the battle of Chickamauga, the Federal General Wood, commanding a division, was left for a time, by some blunder, with only a brigade at band. He could ccc the Confederate battle-lines advancing to flank _bl_e Federal army. Between him and them, crossing the centre of a valley, was a stone and log fence. Wood eu cidonly realised that if he could secure and hold the fence he could make his inferior force a match for the enemy preparing to move. The Confederate commander saw the valuo of the position at the same moment, and it was a question of which side should get there first. On the Federal side it rested with the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth 1 Ohio, that regiment being noarest the 1 fence. When ordered forward the men gripped their muskets at a " trail," pulled down their caps and lowered their heads, and at the word they rushed as if breasting a hailstorm. More than one poor fellow went down under the rain of bullets and fragments of shell, but the fence was reached and cover obtained. The Sixtyfourth, Sixty-fifth and the Fifty-eighth Indiana followed, and tho wholo brigade i were scarcely under cover when the ■ Confederates wera within a stone's throw. > They had to give back before the terriflo fire, and for a time were badly demoralized. Before they could flank Wood out pf his ' position the gap in the Federal linea had been filled. THE BAILKOAD IN WAR. | While Sherman wbb operating around . Atlanta the Federals struck the Macon t road four or five different times, at four or five different places, aud worked suoh . destruction each time that the line was re- , ported permanently disablod, and yet with--1 in thirty hours the Confederates had every- ( thing repaired. On one occasion Kilpatriok i destroyed four miles of track at once. The

| ! rails wore removed, heated in the centre, | and bent around trees until the ends passed I each other. Every culvert was torn out, j every cut filled up by blasting down the i banks and every tie burned up. Kilpatrick | reported to Sherman that the break could | not be repaired in a month, but the cars I were running in less than sixty hours. Ten | thousand Federal cavalry worked for a \ month to disable the Macon line but oould | not do it. Sherman had to move his whole | army before he conld accomplish that I. ovent. As soon as the Federals had cut ' and destroyed the line and retired, a force ' of Confederates set to work on the roadI bed ahd a few hours would place it in ! order. Fresh ties were cut, rails were | brought ttp from the store laid aside for | such' an' emergency, 1 and trains were aoon" ; running. The tios would bo twice the usual distance apart, and not bedded, but, ac trains reached theae breaks they slowed down and crawled safely over. It was the came when Forest and Wheeler were operating on Sherman's line. Twelve miles of road were destroyed on one occaoipn, and this destruction ! included the blasting down into' cuts of so much rock and earth that a Confederate civil engine or said that ten thousand labourers could not repair the cfat&agea in three weeks. They wero repaired within four days. While soldiers became adept | in the work of destroying railroads, they became equally skilful in the matter, of repairing them. Sherman had to destroy thirty miles of the Augusts, xoad beforo he could permanently cripple it. 1 THE TEESIBLB ABATIS. Let a regiment move out. of the shelter of a piece of woods to charge a breastwork defended by infantry and artillery, and one man out of every two will be killed or pounded by shell or round _hot while the lines are forming. Within one minute from the time the nearest man comes within range of the musketry and grape ! forty mon will drop. During the rush at least twenty more will go down, and as the troops reach the works they will meet with such a fire as will break up all organisation. One time in forty the works will be carried. Thirty-nine times out of forty the attacking troopa are. driven back with a loss of from 200 to 500 meu. j Take that same breastwork, having a | head-log to fire under, and run an abatis along its front, and it is nothing short of murder to send men against it. Let the abatis be simply a windrow of small trees and brush, and no column can pass it with- | out a halt. Men must lay down their muskets and drag at the obstruction and the broken lines must be re-formed, and that when within thirty feet of the muskets having a dead rest. Make the abatis of sharpened stakes, with their butt ends driven deep into the earth and the centro firmly fastened with a rail running parai- I lei with the works, and 600 men behind the works can held them againEt 5000. Let telegraph wires be strung from tree to tree or post to post, as was sometimes done, and unless the attacking party bring axes their dead will be piled up three feet deep all along the wire fences. ' AtSpottsylvania there was a slashing in front of that point on Lee's lines called tl_9 Horseshoe. The butts of the fallen treea were towards the works — their sharpened limbs towards Grant. Confederates stationed in this Horseshoe killed an average of ten Federals each. An abatis near Lost Mountain, during Sherman's Georgia campaign, aided a force of 600 Confederates to defeat a movement made by a Federal force pf 4400 men. At Fredericksburg the Btone walls were an abatis and could not be passed. At Gettysburg Hancock's position was made impregnable by such walls. At second Bull Bun every position on either side covered by walla or fences was held to the last.