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(copyrighted, all rights reserved.)
BY JOSEPH M. BROWN.
CHAPTER IX.
Suddenly, however, from the summit of Pine
Mountain, northwest of Little Kennesaw, the Con
federates perceived a sky-rocket ascending the
heavens.
It hardly cleaved its glittering way upward,
through the canopy of gloom, and exploded, scat
tering its thousand sparks in as many directions,
ere from the hill behind Noonday creek, east of the
Western & Atlantic Railroad, another was observed,
climbing upward, upward, upward, through the
drifting mists, and, like a child of the stars, seek
ing the zenith to join its parents in splendor.
Almost as high as the great peak it rushed ; then,
as it burst with a sharp report, the head of this
messenger of fire seemed crowned with a galaxy of
dazzling brilliants.
Its radiant spaiks were still falling like a shower
of gold, when from near the Hardage house, aud
from the Lattimer place, two others shot aloft, each
dragging a chain of light behind it. Then from
Brush Mountain westward to the Wallace farm and
far to the south, the air seemed alive with blazing
serpents, darting upward, hissing, leaving a trail of
fire i ehind, and spitting baleful embers at the
mountain, before the darkness breath d its chilling
breath upon them and, dissolving in convulsive
agonies, they sank from view.
“Magnificent!” exclaimed General French, who
with his comrades was looking, almost entranced
with admiration, upon the awe-inspiring scene,
“I have never beheld so grand a spectacular drama
as this which is rising from behind and amid the
myriad footlights down before us.”
“Yes,” replied Major Storrs, “but our artillery is
throwing some of war’s most poisonous bouquets
under the noses of those who seek to terrify us by
its display.”
“The majesty on high!” ejaculated Lieuten
ant Manning, “what a glittering panorama ‘our
friends, the enemy,’ are exhibiting to us!”
“Oh, my! brother Manning,” put in Lieutenant
Mothersbead, “here we’ve caught you at the
theatre (of war;) and, —who would have thought
it? —looking at a spectacular drama, as General
French calls it.”
“Well, there’s no ballet about it,” said the
preacher-lieutenant with a laugh, “so you’ll make
some allowance for me on that score.”
“Yes, but I fear it means that there will soon be
some bullet!” exclaimed Captain Canniff, with the
French accent on the last syllable of his last word.
“Boom! boom! boom! boom!” —like the roll of
the thunder of fate, from east to west the opening
roar of Sherman’s cannon broke upon the ear. In
one grand volley, following the signal of the sky
rockets, they hurled forth a howling tempest of
shells toward the crest of Little Kennesaw.
The next instant a shower of flashing lightnings
seemed to dart forth from the midst of miniature
greyish-colored clouds above the forests at the base
of the mountain, or far up its sides, or beyond
either end, and high in the air behind it, while the
rattling din of their explosion echoed and re-echoed
around the cliffs and clear back to the ears of the
THE KENNESAW GAZETTE.
angry Federals who had sent them upward on their
futile errand of wrath.
“Ha! ha! ha! ha!” “Whoopee!” “Try it again,
Yanks!” “Shooting at the stars!” “Hurrah for
the night!” and scores of similar expressions burst
from the Confederates, as a peal of jolly and
derisive laughter rang from one end of the long
crest to the other, on perceiving that not one, out
of probably fifty shells, had struck within a hundred
yards of the parapets.
“What was it I said about their shooting at the
stars, gentleman?” asked Colonel Barry with a
comical emphasis of tone.
“Oh, you are the hero of the prophecy!” General
French good-humoredly replied.
“Yes,” said Major Storrs, “I think this will be a
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field night for us. We may not get much sleep for
the next few hours; but I’ll guarantee that our eyes
will not be as red as theirs to-morrow morning.
That was a grand pyrotechnic display they gave us
a few minutes ago; but before we get through with
this bombardment I opine their shells and ours will
make a grander and more terrible one.”
“That’s so,” exclaimed Pat Quinn, “I think the
chances are that we are all going to get on a ‘grand
bum’ to-night, and that there’ll be a good many red
eyes on both sides by daybreak.”
During all this period the batteries on both crests
of Kennesaw were maintaining a continuous shel
ling, and their missiles were flying, frequently with
great precision, into the camps of the Federals.
The latter had by this time extinguished the
greater portion of their fires; but the incessant
flashes of light from the guns in all their batteries
were reflected against the smoke, and afforded even
a better mark for their enemy’s aim than they pre
viously enjoyed. To get the range of the nearest of
these they, in some instances, depressed their guns
considerably and reduced charges, while to reach
the farthest they elevated their muzzles by sinking
the trails into pits already dug behind them, which
they ordinarily kept filled with rocks easy to remove.
The intense darkness of the night was the source
of very great disadvantage to the Federals. They
could not even see the mountain; and the blaze
from the few guns the Confederates had, notwith
standing the zealous energy with which they were
worked, was visible but two or three times a minute,
and then apparently darting out from the sky,
sometimes nearly a couple of hundred yards apart.
There was no comparative object by which to locate
their position, and Colonel Barry’s remark was a
very apt one, as they seemed literally like stars in
the heavens; and so far as aiming at them was con
cerned, they were even worse than stars, for their
flash, like lightning, was only seen for an instant
at a time, and, before the piece could be sighted
toward it, it had disappeared behind the clouds,
' and even the explosion of their own shells was no
accurate guide, as it was impossible to tell by look
ing at the flash whether it was near the Confeder
ate guns or two hundred yards before or behind
them.
Still with the pluck and indomitable perseverance
i which are characteristic of the American soldier
wherever found, they gamely returned the fire
which was so annoying to them, and, from battery
after battery, over a hundred guns hurled the his
sing bolts of wrath against the mount of terrors.
As during the day, their attention was principally
directed toward Little Kennesaw, and, as nearly as
they could determine it, their missiles thundered
around its crest.
; Their aim, while at no time perfect in the dark-
ness, nevertheless gradually became better,
until by about eleven o’clock the bombard
ment reached its culmination, both as
regarded its accuracy and magnitude.
Those who surveyed it from the crest
of Great Kennesaw declared that it was
impossible to describe the terrible beauty
and majesty of the scene. It was a con
stantly changing panorama of splendors,
whose magnificence awed while it fasci
nated.
The rapid succession of brilliant flashes
out of the darkness which enveloped the
other peak appeared as lightning darting
from a monstrous chain of thunder clouds,
while the tumultuous roar from their midst
caused, as it were, the very mountain itself
to quake.
But not here did the storm of warlike
glories exhaust itself. The most resplen
dent spectacle it presented was in the
meteor-like rush and the dazzling explosions of the
scores aud hundreds of shells which were poured
forth from the Federal batteries far below them.
As they rushed upward frequently the sparks from
their fuses like fiery rainbows arched through the
gloom, and, to use a soldier’s words, —“each scat
tered a bag of gold,” as it burst with blinding blaze
and terrific detonations agaiust the mountain side
or high in the air above or beyond it.
“Look!” exclaimed Major Preston to General
Reynolds, who was with him on the summit of the
great crest, “it is like a shower of falling stars!”
“Yes,” was the response, “and it is hardly more
pernicious to our boys. The Yankees, somehow
or other, don’t seem to be able to get the range of
the summit with any certainty. You see, nearly
forty of their shells explode down against the slope,
or pass over the ridge and light up the southern
side, to where one strikes near the parapet. I have
been watching the level of our guns as shown by
the blaze when they fire, and that of the bursting of
the enemy’s shells. The honors to-night are clearly
ours. The Yankee bombardment is simply a
magnificent display.”
“Ha ! see that!” exclaimed Major Preston, “one
of cur shells and a Yankee Parrott shell met ’mid
air and exploded almost simultaneously by concus
sion with each other. Such a scene isn’t witnessed
once for every ten thousand shells fired. Wasn’t
it a grand sight?”
“It was as brilliant as a collis’on between two
sky-rockets,” answeied General Reynolds, “only
it was more terrific.”
In Marietta during this time hundrtdsof anxious
citizens and soldiers crowded the streets anel highest
hillsand the bridge over the railread south of the
depot, having been awakeneel by the astounding
uproar of the artillery.
All eyes were turned toward Kennesaw Moun
tain, which was soon determined as the battle
center, and with breathless interest they watched