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(COPYRIGHTED. ALL. KIGHTS RESERVED.)
BY JOSEPH M. BROWN.
CHAPTER 11.
“Say, Colonel,” exclaimed a North Georgia moun
taineer, named Partridge, to Col. Young, “what
do you make out of that body of Yankees down
there in the field, near the railroad? Don’t you
think we could creep down die mountain, and get
the range of ’em, and make ’em behave ’emselves?”
“Yes,” answered the colonel, “they seem to be
making observations; and it might be well to run
them behind cover. Suppose you sharpshooters
get down among those crags yonder, and try them.”
“Well, we’re the chaps to do it,” sang out a
Texan.
“Love is love and beauty’s beauty;
But killing Yanks, ah! that is duty.”
sing out a couple of others; and then the word was
p issed along the line that the sharpshooters would
have the privilege of entertaining themselves for
the next hour or two without restraint.
There were about twenty of these who were
picked men, —selected for fine marksmanship, and
furnished with good Whitworth and Enfield rifles,
the best which could be captured from the enemy.
Partridge was a volunteer member of this body,
having joined the army after some of Garrard’s
cavalry had burned his cabin and turned his family
out in the woods. He captured his own rifle, a
Whitworth, from a Federal sharpshooter whom he
waylaid and killed near Cassville.
They disappeared among the bushes down the
mountain side, in the neighborhood of a steep,
craggy formation of outcropping rocks, where there
was perfect shelter from danger from shells.
“Say, Captain Ward,” yelled Partridge, “if they
get to shootin’ b’ilin’ pots at us you must show ’em
that your Parrotts can say ‘Pretty Poll,’ too.”
“Ha! ha!” laughed the captain good-humoredly,
“we’ll drop some shells among them if they open
upon you; make that group of officers get back out
of sight. They are taking too leisurely a look
at us.”
“All right, we’ll make ’em do it, even if we have
to wake up the batteries,” halloed Partridge, as he
passed out of sight.
“My Parrotts, eh!” laughed Captain Ward, turn
ing to Major Storrs, “well, Parrotts or Napoleons,
they are the same to him if we will only drop a shell
or so down yonder should the Yankee artillery open
upon him.”
“Yes,” answered the major, “Partridge does not
care anything about names so he gets the thing he
wants. A wonderfully fine marksman he is; and
we will soon hear from him.”
“Why, great heavens! Minon, what does this
mean?” exclaimed Captain Ward, as he walked
back on the crest of the ridge, and suddenly met
one of his sergeants, who was only a few steps in
front of a beautiful lady and a little boy.
“Ah! Captain Ward, let me introduce you to
Miss Harper, and to Master Jack Harper,” said the
gallant young artilleryman.
Captain Ward’s polite bow was met by a most
graceful one from the young lady, while little Jack
came forward and extended his hand, saying, “And
is this your Captain Ward, Mr. Minon? Why he’s
a mighty good-looking man to be a cannon man.”
The captain grasped Jack’s hand cordially, and
answered, “Thank you, Master Jack, I am Captain
Ward, the cannon man.”
“Well, then, Captain Ward, I want to join your
cannon company, and be one of your soldiers.
I want to learn to shoot one of your biggest cannon.
They make a heap of noise.”
“Ha! ha! ha!” laughed the captain, “do you
think you are large enough, Jack, to shoot a can
non? Then.you must know that all of my soldiers
have to obey orders; and I am afraid that you
would want to get away if I ordered you to stay
when the Yankees got to throwing big bombshells
all around
THE KENNESAW GAZETTE.
“Oh! Td stay if you ordered me to,” answered
Jack in a tone of very positive earnestness, “please,
Captain, can’t I be one of your soldiers?”
“Yes, said Miss Harper to the captain, “it is
Jack’s highest ambition to be a soldier, and shoot
the cannon. He has been begging for several days
to be allowed to come up on the mountain, and see
the ’soldiers and the cannon; so last night Mr.
Minon promised that if to-day was fair, he would
bring Jack up. He had no idea he would be called
upon to do so; but this morning after the clouds
scattered, Jack summoned him to make good his
promise, and, after some argument, carried his point.
Mother, however, would not agree to let him come
’till Mr. Minon said he would take special care of
him; and then I was persuaded to come along,
as there was no danger to-day, and help keep him
within bounds.”
“And, Captain, it would have made you proud
of our Georgia young ladies if you had seen how
bravely Miss Harper stood the trip up the mountain
side ’till we arrived here about a half hour ago.
She did not seem to be as tired as I was.”
“Oh, no, it is not a feeling of weariness, but of
apprehension of danger which disturbs me,” said his
fair comrade. “Do you think we are going to have
any fighting to day, Captain Ward?”
“Well, I hope not up here to any great extent,”
answered the latter, “at least for a little while yet.
Come forward with me, and look over at the
Yankee camps on the north and west.”
“Yes, let’s shoot the cannon at ’em, Captain
Ward,” sang out Jack.
“Come here, Miss Harper,” said Captain Ward,
“and let us survev the panorama which war spreads
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out before us. Look south now to that prominent
hill which rises so conspicuously out of the plain,
about two or three miles from here. That is the
centre of General Cheatham’s position. His divi
sion occupies a strong line of entrenchments on its
crest, extends beyond it also to the south, and comes
up this way for a few hundred yards until it reaches
the portion of our line which is held by the gallant
Pat Cleburne and his famous division.
“Ah! what heroes Cleburne and Cheatham are.
They are the two lions of the Confederate army, —
Cheatham combining the resistless impetuosity of a
Frenchman in a charge, with the bull-dog grip of an
Englishman or Russian, when told to hold a position
against whatever odds are hurled against him ; and
Cleburne, with the fiery gallantry of an Irishman,
as he is, in assault sweeping everything before him
like a tornado; and shooting out, if I may use the
comparison, the fervid heat of an iron furnace
against all who attempt to penetrate whatever
stronghold he is directed to occupy.
“Then beginning this side of the Marietta and
Dallas wagon road, within less than a mile from
here and following the line up this way, is the divi
sion of General Bate, of Tennessee; while right
adjoining him, and coming up to the very foot of
the mountain beneath us, is your Georgia general,
Wm. H. T. Walker, a comparatively small man in
stature, but one who could give Julius Caesar
some lessons in courage if the great Roman were
alive to-day. These four divisions compose Gen
eral Hardee’s corps.
“Then General French’s division starts near the
foot of the mountain and comes up to where we are,
and runs along before us around the side of the
mountain, and thence crosses the ravine to our
right and up almost to the very summit of Great
Kennesaw over yonder, where he joins General
Walthall, whose courage is the admiration of the
army; thence, as we go down the mountain to its
base we could see, if we were on Big Kennesaw,
where Featherston’s division ends almost at the
Western & Atlantic Railroad, and Wheeler’s dis
mounted cavalry occupies the trenches which up to
yesterday General Hood’s corps have held, and
which extend for nearly a mile east of here; but
General Hood’s command has been transferred from
that position io our extreme left, and occupies a
line of works which rim probably a mile or two
southward. He had a pretty tough fight down
yonder yesterday near Kolb’s farm, and I am sorry
to say we got the worst of it. The Yankees, you
see, are swinging to their right and to our left
which is south of us. They are attempting to get
possession of the railroad in our rear, and all of
General Johnston’s anxiety now, I think, is to
maintain- his communications. We must protect
the or we cannot hold Marietta and Kenne
saw Mountain.”
“God grant that they may never secure a further
lodgment on our State road!” said Miss Harper,
“for Kennesaw, the citadel of Georgia, must be
held, or the waves of war’s tempest will dash
around Atlanta itself.”
“Yes; that is true,” said Captain Ward, “ifKen
nesaw is given up Atlanta will have the enemy at
her doors. And, speaking of Atlanta, now look to
the southeast, and you can plainly see the church
spires and the smoke from the foundries in Atlanta,
twenty miles distant. There is the goal of Sher
m?”’s ambition. There is the heart of the Con-
federacy ; and if the Yankees can pierce it,
the South will receive her most desperate
wound.”
“What mountain is that which rises
‘solitary and alone’ out of the plain to the
Left of Atlanta?” asked Miss Harper.
“That is Stone Mountain,” said Captain
Ward, “one of Georgia’s curiosities. See,
it sits upon the level horizon like a huge
cone or helmet.”
“Yes, sir,” answered the young lady,
T now remember it well.”
“Ah! by the way, Miss Harper,” said
Captain Ward, “direct the field-glass
ilmost immediately south of us to that
house in a grove just by the Dallas road
from Marietta, and in the suburbs of
Marietta. That is Mr. Kirkpatrick’s house,
which is General Johnston’s headquarters.”
“Oh, Captain Ward,” said Jack, “the
Yankees are down there all along the front
of our men, ain’t they?”
“Yes, Jack,” replied Captain Ward,
“it is too true that they are ; and they are
very close neighbors, too. We had much
rather have their room than their company;” —
then turning to Miss Harper, he continued:
“Right in front of our line, and not more than
some three or four hundred yards distant on an
average, the Yankee army is maintaining its death
grapple with ours. Look and see, almost as far as
the eye can reach to the southwest, those white dots
on the earth show the thousands of tents of the
Yankee army. You observe they come in a sort
of irregular line up from the south to the west,
then make an angle and whiten the fields and
forests below us on the north. Occasionally you
see hundreds of them apparently grouped together
like a town. These are where some divisions are
in reserve, instead of being located in line of battle
behind regular works. There must, be at least ten
thousand of them in reach of the eye. Then
notice the white specks which are moving in long
lines. Those are the Yankee wagon-trains. There
are some ambulances for the wounded among them
which our boys make them have a good deal of use
for. Down yonder to the south in front of Cheat
ham's and part of Cleburne’s lines is Hooker’s
corps, —'Fighting Joe’ Hooker, as the Yankees call
him, and it must be admitted that he is a pretty
tough fighter; but he has met his match without
any question when he faces our redoubtable Ten
nesseean and the ‘Confederate Irishman,’ as the
Y r ankees call Cleburne. Up at Ringgold, just
two days after our defeat at Missionary Ridge,
Cleburne gave Hooker a whipping which will go
down to history. Hooker, by the way, has the only
corps of eastern troops who are in Sherman’s army.
The rest are western men; and we find the western
pioneers are generally harder fighters than eastern
shop-clerks; but Hooker partially counteracts that