The Daily Dispatch: June 18, 1861., [Electronic resource]

Walker's Rifle Battery.

‘ "There was no dodging the shots from this battery, for in avoiding one, if you could see it, you might run your head against another, they were so incessant." He says the battery on the hill moved lower down and sent a ball from a rifle cannon just astern. He also says:

"The enemy now fired in volleys; gun succeeding gun in such rapid succession that I had to close my note-book, in which I had been, to this moment, recording every shot from ourselves and the enemy. The balls, or rather slugs, fell around us, across the bow and the stern, and over our deck, as thick as hail.

‘"One ball went so close to my port ear that I felt what I had often heard and read of before — the wind of the ball. The enemy, in fact, fired with admirable precision. One ball struck a long boat, another tore off part of the planking of the bulwarks, grazed the wrist of Vickers, struck the gun-carriage, and fell on the deck."’ He really thought it had killed some, (we reckon it did) ‘"It was a sugar-loaf shaped concern — an ugly customer."’ He says it ‘"became apparent it was no manner of use firing at that battery, and we sheered off,"’ That ball made it ‘"apparent."’

‘"Lieut. Pendergrast's cap was knocked off by the wind of a shot, and on Saturday,"’ he says, ‘"a Pawnee officer had the glazed cover of his cap taken off, and the shot did not hit the cap itself."’ That last is a good shot, or an awful lie.

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