A Well Preserved Union Artillery Position

A Union artillery battery stood on a commanding hill about 400 yards behind the front lines, where Union officers watched for activity along the Confederate lines and opened fire with a barrage of shells whenever they spotted a target. Southern cannoneers responded, but their projectiles either ripped into the ground in front of the Union guns or passed harmlessly overhead. Rarely during this two week battle were the guns silent, and the constant shelling tested the nerves of the soldiers, prompting one to remark that “you would have thought that the whole world had let loose its ‘dogs of war’.”

Highland Springs, Virginia · United States