Cannonade

“ As the sun rose higher and higher in the sky the cannonade grew fiercer and fiercer. Over the peaceful hills, the shining water, the stubbles, the pastures and wheat fields, delicate white balloons of bursting shrapnel were constantly seen. At a hundred different places along the far-flung battle line Allied infantry were worming their way towards the enemy, anon rising from their cover at the sound of a shrill whistle, rushing ahead, and dropping again into concealment amidst the rattle of rifles and machine guns. ”

“ During the 8th of October, the troops were under arms, in expectation of an attack, and a cannonade was kept up at intervals during the day. About sunset, according to directions which he had given, the corpse of the brave Gen. Frazer, attended by his suite, and by the Generals Phillips, Reidesel, and Burgoyne, was carried to the great redoubt, and there buried. A cannonade was kept up for some time on the procession, till the Americans discovered its character, when they ceased, and fired minute guns in honor of the deceased. ”

“ At the moment the men felt that they could have conquered thrice their numbers—their countenances brightened, and every peal seemed to impart an electric delight to their bosoms. The cannonade continued without an instant's intermission until 10 o'clock in the evening, when it ceased; but the mortars continued to throw shells during the whole of the night. Immediately after the cannonade ceased, the Congreve rockets were despatched upon their destructive missions. ”

“ For some hours the attack and defence were so equally well supported, as scarcely to admit any appearance [45] of superiority in the cannonade on either side. The wonderful construction of the battering ships seemed to bid defiance to the heaviest ordnance; shells rebounded from their tops, and a thirty-two pound shot scarcely seemed to make any impression on them. The effect of the red-hot shot was doubted; sometimes smoke came from the ships, but the fire-engines within soon occasioned it to cease, and the result was uncertain ”

“ The French cannoniers who handled them were brave fellows, for they killed several men on board the Success, nor were they silenced, and the beach swept of the inhabitants, till the commodore's ship, together with the Rose, Flamborough, and Diligence, opened their broadsides to the land, and filled the whole bay with smoke, making every rock and mountain echo to the reverberations of a cannonade that lasted till seven in the evening, for we had a dread of masked batteries among the shrubberies and hedgerows near the shore. ”

“ When I fell back to the edge of the clump of timber, where when first coming on the ground I had formed to help Wood, I was ordered by Rosecrans to prepare to make a charge should the enemy again assault us. In anticipation of this work I massed my troops in close column. The expected attack never came, however, but the shot and shell of a furious cannonade told with fatal effect upon men and officers as they lay on their faces hugging the ground. ”

“ Cann′ibally (Shak.) . [Sp., a corr. of Caribals (Eng. Caribs) , the native name of the West India Islanders, who ate human flesh.]
Cannikin, kan′i-kin, n. a small can. [Dim. of Can.]
Cannon, kan′un, n. a great gun used in war: a stroke in billiards in which the player hits both the red and his opponent's ball.—v.i. to cannonade: to make a cannon at billiards: to collide.—n. Cannonade′, an attack with cannon.—v.t. to attack or batter with cannon.—ns. Cannonad′ing; Cann′on-ball, a ball usually made of cast-iron, to be shot from a cannon ”

“ More than twenty thousand loyalists, men, women, and children, of the highest rank, crowded the beach and the quays, in a state of indescribable consternation, imploring rescue from the infuriate army of the republicans howling like wolves around the walls of the city, eager to get at their prey. In increase of the horror of the scene, a most furious cannonade was in progress all the time from every ship and every battery. Cannon balls tore their way through family groups. ”

“ The chief inconveniency to which a ship is exposed, on the contrary, is, that the low-laid cannon in a fort near the brink of the sea, may strike her repeatedly, on or under the surface of the water, so as to sink her before her cannonade can have any considerable efficacy. ”

“ Haig and Powell with the launch and second yawl swept the shore on the right, and the gigs had orders to advance slowly on the left. We approached in good order and quickly. When we came within musket-shot, the armed vessels commenced a heavy cannonade, to which compliment we replied with cheers only, until within half pistol-shot, when we returned the fire with grape and canister from our twelve-pound carronade. ”

“ We cut some boughs of trees to keep us out of the mud, and lay down to sleep on them, wet to the skin; but the cannonade of the afternoon had been succeeded, after dark, by a continued firing of musketry, which led us to believe that our piquets were attacked, and, in momentary expectation of an order to stand to our arms, we kept ourselves awake the whole night, and were not a little provoked when we found, next morning, that it had been occasioned by numerous stragglers from the different regiments, shooting at the pigs belonging to the peasantry which were grazing in the wood. ”

“ Already it has been observed that much of the surprise and confusion which terrifies those who have no bayonets, when subjected to a cannonade and at the same time brought face to face with a bayonet charge, arises from the fact that they cannot see to shoot straight, owing to the haze produced by the smoke and its blinding effects upon the eyes. ”

“ A thick smoke, kept up by burning wood and wet straw, concealed for some time the progress of the work from the enemy, while the continued thunder of the cannon overpowered the noise of the axes. He kept alive by his own example the courage of his troops, and discharged more than 60 cannon with his own hand. The cannonade was returned by the Bavarians with equal vivacity for two hours, though with less effect, as the Swedish batteries swept the lower opposite bank, while their height served as a breast-work to their own troops. ”

“ These, whenever the monstrous but timid animals attempted to pass them, set up a shout, which in most instances proved sufficient to turn them back into the water; when, having collected a vast number on one shallow bank of sand, the whole of the hunters commenced from all sides a regular cannonade upon the astonished brutes. ”

“ Day and night the cannonade continued without intermission—we, as well as we could, keeping up a reply. Several shot having struck the Charon and Guadaloupe, they were removed farther down the river. It will be impossible to account for the killed and wounded in each day’s action. ”

“ Crillon, who was of opinion that it could end only in the destruction of both the army and the fleet.
They contented themselves, therefore, with maintaining a vigorous cannonade from the land-works, and during the remainder of the month they expended daily from 1000 to 2000 rounds. ”

“ A most infernal cannonade was now renewed by both our antagonists, and returned by us with equal fury; but it was now a dead calm, and the vessels rolled so much with the swell that the shot were not so effective. By degrees we separated more and more from our enemies, and the firing was now reduced to single guns. During this partial cessation our antagonists had drawn near to each other, although at a considerable distance from us. We perceived that the Spaniard was sending two of his boats full of men to supply the heavy loss sustained by his comrade. ”

“ Two of the men were allotted to each of the guns to keep the embrasures in good order. This they usually attended to while the gun was loading, and not a few displayed a stoical coolness and intrepidity in repairing the damaged merlons, and clearing away the debris occasioned by the enemy’s cannonade. ”

“ A cannonade which, to the uninitiated, would seem sufficient to destroy every thing before it, will be faced with the utmost equanimity by veteran [Pg 54] troops, if the artillerist have the range too "long." It is always very annoying, however, as there is no telling when a shell may prove a little "short," and distribute its fragments for rods along the line. The men are usually ordered to lie down, unless directly engaged. The shell cleaves the air with a frightful sound, that is but faintly described by the word "shriek." ”

“ Washington had watched with intense anxiety the effect of the revelation at daybreak. An American, who was on Dorchester Heights, gives a picture of the scene. A tremendous cannonade was commenced from the forts in Boston and the shipping in the harbor. "Cannon shot," writes he, "are continually rolling and rebounding over the hill, and it is astonishing to observe how little our soldiers are terrified by them. The royal troops are perceived to be in motion, as if embarking to pass the harbor and land on Dorchester shore, to attack our works. ”

“ Before the cannonade had commenced, a part of the right wing of the British army had advanced across a low meadow and brook, and occupied an orchard on our left. The weather was almost too hot to live in, and the British troops in the orchard were forced by the heat to shelter themselves from it under the trees. We had a four pounder on the left of our pieces which kept a constant fire upon the enemy during the whole contest. After the British Artillery had fallen back and the connonade had mostly ceased in this quarter, and our detachment had an opportunity to look about us, Col. ”

“ The moment I came into view a Minie-ball sung by my head and passed through the clothes of the cannoneer, Barton McCrum, who was a few steps from me, suggesting to both of us to lie low until called for as videttes. Perched in the tops of the trees beyond the half-mile of open field in our front, the enemy's sharpshooters, with telescope sights on their rifles, blazed away at every moving object along our line. It was noon before their artillery opened on us, and, in the firing which ensued, a large barn a hundred yards in our front was set on fire by a shell and burned to the ground. ”

“ Must Rosa lose her sister, because she foolishly wishes to be a man, and to fight the water-snake?"
"See there!" replied Canondah, pointing to a deep wound in the neck of the alligator, and triumphantly waving her bloody knife; "I plunged it to the hilt in his throat. The daughter of the Miko of the Oconees knows how to strike the water-snake. But," added she, indifferently, "this one was young, and already benumbed, for the water begins to be cold. Canondah is only a weak girl, but she could teach the young white man to strike the water-snake." ”

“ There were some faculties which Kanana possessed that made the warriors all envy him. He had a remarkable power over animals. No other Beni Sad could ride a camel or a horse so fast as Kanana. The most refractory creature would obey Kanana. Then, too, Kanana was foremost in the games and races. No other shepherd's eye was nearly so quick as Kanana's to detect an enemy approaching the flocks at night. No other young Bedouin, watching the ripening grain, could throw a stone from his sling so far and so accurately at the robber birds. ”

“ From the branches of a neighbouring cypress, the two girls now stripped quantities of Spanish moss, wherewith they speedily composed a soft and luxurious bed in the interior of the cotton-tree. This done, they rolled blocks of wood and fragments of trees to the entrance, apparently to form a rampart against the nocturnal intrusion of bear or panther. These preparations completed, they returned to the wounded man. Canondah passed her left arm under his legs, and signed to Rosa to grasp her hand, whilst their arms should serve as a support to his back. Rosa blushed and hesitated. ”

“ Because, who knows, fellows, but what it might a glanced off the top of the water, and landed,” and he winked at Allan, who was in the canoe with Jim Hasty close by.
14“I don’t hear any answer floating back,” remarked Thad; “and so we’ll have to believe that either the bear is lying there, stone dead, or else has skipped out to safe quarters. Bears never can stand being fired at by cannon, they tell me.”
“Cannon!” burst out Giraffe at this moment, for he had managed to possess himself of the new gun by pointing to it, and having Eli Crooks pass it along. “Cannon! well, I should smile! ”

“ By a long course of usury and legal persecution the Cannon brothers had become detested in their own community, and when they sued O'Day, or Daw, for cutting down a bee-tree on one of their farms he had tilled, and then enforced the judgment of ten dollars, Daw,—now a [Pg 559] man in growth and of Celtic vindictiveness,—loaded his gun and started for Cannon's Ferry, and waylaid Jacob just as he was leading his horse off the ferry scow. ”

“ The cannonading has grown quick and terrific along [Pg 317] the lines, below the city (north side) , with occasional discharges nearer, and farther to the left (north) , as if the enemy were attempting to flank our army.
The sounds are very distinctly heard, the weather being damp and the wind from the southeast. We can distinguish the bursting of the shell quickly after the discharge of the cannon.
The firing ceased at dark. It rains hard and steadily, now. What a life! what suffering, in mud and water, without tents (in the trenches) , burdened with wet blankets, and perhaps without food! ”

“ As soon as they were within Reach, we fir'd upon them briskly, but they were not dismay'd, and notwithstanding the Number of Men they lost, they came up even to our Palisadoes, where some stoop'd, and others leaping [Pg 230] on their Backs threw themselves over with great Agility and terrible Fury: In the mean time our Cannon, which were charg'd with Stones, did Wonders, and yet for all this, if they had but attack'd us in several Places at a time, instead of attacking us in one only, we should have been infallibly ruin'd. ”