Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Civil War Shotput

Here's a little story about an artilleryman from Eli Lilly's battery during the battle of Chickamauga. The battery had been deployed beside the Alexander house at the opening of the battle, and were supporting Wilder's lightning brigade. That's when this amazing story occurred.
Excerpt is from "This Terrible Sound" by Peter Cozzens.

Captain William Fowler's Alabama Battery returned the fire from a hill a half mile away. The first Rebel shell arched toward Lilly's gunners with an "awful, unearthly screeching. It seemed as if it never would strike it was so long coming...We all knew, from the sound of it, that it would strike someplace close by," recalled cannoneer Henry Campbell. The shell crashed through the trees. It bounced in front of gun number two, ricocheted off the corner of the Alexander cabin, then fell back among the horrified artillerymen with the fuse sizzling. Private Sidney Speed coolly picked up the shell and heaved it over the cabin, where it burst harmlessly on the other side. An amazed Captain Lilly cited Speed for gallantry in his after action report."

Hokey smokes!!!

Friday, June 5, 2009

FUBU

So there are a lot of research articles and such out there that fellow reenactors and amateur historians have put many long hours into, and this is another of those types of sites.

These guys are the Salt River Rifles, and have some excellent stuff on their website. Check it out, its very interesting!

http://www.geocities.com/saltriverrifles/articles