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"Give the more than we can"

Metcalf nodded slowly "Yes, we can't take that away from them"

Sandecker came out of his chair and pointed "Look there, on the steamboat where the wind has blown the smoke off to the side"

"What is it?"

"Isn't that a pair of cannons?"

Metcalf caht They look like old monuments from a town park"

At two hundred yards Laroche raised his sword and yelled, "Batteries one and two, train and priuns"

"Battery one primed and aimed," shouted back a man in antique wire spectacles

"Battery two

ready, Major"

"Then fire!" The lanyards were jerked and the two antique cannon belched their loads of ballbearing grapeshot fro claps The first shot actually penetrated the side of the towboat, crashing into the galley andthe ovens The second soared into the pilothouse, taking off Captain Pujon's head and carrying away the wheel Dazed by the unexpected barrage, Lee Tong's men slackened their fire for several seconds, recovered and opened up with renewed ferocity, concentrating on the narrow slits between the cotton bales where the cannon barrels protruded

Now the smoothbores were run back while the artilleryBullets whined over their heads and shoulders, and one man was struck in the neck But in less than a ain

"Aie away!"

Laroche nodded and relayed Pitts orders The guns were run out and the next broadside swept the towboat's bow, causing an explosion of coiled rope and cable, but the tenacious grip on the barge remained unbroken

Coldly, almost contemptuous of the deadly blitz that swept the Stonewall Jackson, the le-shot muskets and waited for the command to fire