The first shot has only a tiny charge of explosive, and the cannonball barely makes it out of the muzzle before falling to the ground.
One of these fellows, after being separated from his corps, had been struck by a cannonball which had cut off both his legs and killed his horse.
Here he was interrupted by a loud report, and a cannonball came tearing through the trees and pitched in the sand not a hundred yards from where we two were talking.
A cannonball struck Saint Ruth, as he stood in the middle of the battery and killed him instantly.
