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I'll venture to say that before night the eight-inch howitzers of that battery had utterly demolished it, and so ended whatever usefulness it had had for the Germans. It was cruel business to be knocking the towns and factories of our ally, France, to bits in the fashion that we were doing that day there and at many another point along the front.
He renews the attack "with redoubled fury," and a gallant resistance is made, but he forces a way into the outer enclosure of the chateau that crowns the hill. British howitzers are at once discharged upon the French and compel them to retreat. New assaults are then made. Overwhelming numbers seem to bear down upon the Allies.
They were going to take the School from us, Sir, and the frigate; but we've got ahead of 'em, now you and the Massachusetts boys have come down," and he twinkled all over with delight. "We can't study any more. We are on guard all the time. We've got howitzers, too, and we'd like you to see, to-morrow, on drill, how we can handle 'em. So they thought they wouldn't try us that time."
" P. M. B. Young's " " Thomas L. Rosser's " MAJ.-GEN. W. H. F. LEE'S Division. Brig.-Gen. Rufus Barringer's Brigade. " J. R. Chambliss's " Artillery Reserve: BRIG.-GEN. W. N. PENDLETON, Commanding. BRIG.-GEN. E. P. ALEXANDER'S DIVISION.* Cabell's Battalion. Manly's Battery. 1st Co. Richmond Howitzers. Carleton's Battery. Calloway's Battery. Haskell's Battalion. Branch's Battery.
Three times did the very same thing occur. In our third attempt we got possession of one of their howitzers, for which a desperate struggle was making, when we were at the same moment charged by infantry in front and cavalry on the right, and again compelled to fall back; but, fortunately, at this moment we were reinforced by the arrival of the second brigade, and, with their aid, we once more stormed their position and secured the well-earned howitzer, while the third division came at the same time upon their flank, and they were driven from the field in the greatest disorder.
But if the French can drive the Germans out of the Bois-le-Prêtre and establish big howitzers on the crest the Germans are still holding, there will soon be no more Metz. The French guns will destroy the city as the German cannon destroyed Verdun.
Towns are proud of having escaped altogether, and proud of the number and size of the shells received. "Did you get any?" I asked the division staff officer who had told me about the session the six-inch howitzers had enjoyed. A common question that, at the front, "Did you get any?" A practical question, too.
It was extremely dark, there was a dampness in the air that suggested rain, some Boche howitzers were firing over our heads across the canal, and a steady "putt-puttr-putt-putt" in the direction of the strong point, that less than half an hour ago had fallen, told of a machine-gun duel in progress.
General Bragg had directed Morgan to detail two thousand men for the expedition. From the two brigades commanded respectively by myself and Colonel Adam R. Johnson, Morgan selected twenty-four hundred and sixty of the best-mounted and most effective. He took with him four pieces of artillery two 3-inch Parrotts, attached to the First Brigade, and two 12-pounder howitzers, attached to the Second.
These monitors, which had been renamed Mersey, Humber and Severn, drew less than nine feet of water and could take up positions not far from shore, from which their 6-inch guns and 4.7-inch howitzers, of which each vessel carried two, were able to throw shells nearly four miles across country, the range being given them by airmen.
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