Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 06.djvu/205

Rh night, when the upper floor was covered with sleeping men, an improvised infantryman who had been relieved from duty walked in, and preparatory to taking his stand at the fire, threw his musket carelessly in the corner. A loud report and angry exclamations immediately followed. The sergeant of the guard, noticing the direction of the ball, hurried up stairs, and to the disgust of the sleepy fellows, ordered all hands to "turn out." Grumbling, growling, stretching and rubbing their eyes, the men got up. Some one inquired, "where's Pryor?" His chum, who had been sleeping by his side replied "there he is asleep—shake him!" His blanket was drawn aside, and with a shake he was commanded to "get up!" But there was no motion, no reply. The ball had passed through his heart, and he had passed without a groan or a sigh from deep sleep to death. The man who was killed and the man who was sleeping by his side, under the same blanket, were members of the Second company Richmond Howitzers. The careless man who made the trouble was also an artilleryman, from one of the other batteries.

Shortly after this accident, after a quiet day, the men retired to their huts and the whole camp was still as a country church-yard. The pickets on the river's edge could hear those on the opposite side asking the corporal of the guard the hour and complaining that they had not been promptly relieved. Suddenly a terrific bombardment commenced and the earth fairly trembled. The men, suddenly awakened, heard the roar of the guns, the rush of the shots and the explosion of the shells. To a man only half awake the shells seemed to pass very near and in every direction. In a moment all were rushing out of their houses, and soon the hillsides and bluffs were covered with an excited crowd, gazing awestruck on the sight. The firing was away to the right, and there was not the slightest danger. Having realized this fact, the interest was intense. The shells from the opposite lines met and passed in mid air—their burning fuses forming an arch of fire which paled occasionally as a shell burst, illuminating the heavens with its blaze. The uproar, even at such a distance, was terrible. The officers, fearing that fire would be opened along the whole line, ordered the cannoneers to their posts; men were sent down into the magazine with lanterns to arrange the ammunition for the heavy guns; the lids of the limbers of the field-pieces were thrown up; the cannoneers were counted off at their posts; the brush which had been piled before the embrasures was torn away, and with implements in hand all stood at attention till