"Seeing Colonel Steadman's right wing...heavily pressed and in danger of being flanked, I ordered Lieutenant Edrington to open upon him [advancing Union forces] with shrapnel and shell. He fired with great rapidity, coolness and precision"Colonel Benjamin W. Johnson15th Arkansas RegimentCommander of Fort DesperateTaken shortly after the siege, this photograph shows a 12-pounder howitzer lying on its wooden platform. On may 27, one of the Union batteries located opposite Fort Desperate fired a shell, which destroyed the gun and also killed Lieutenant Jesse B. Edrington, the gun's commander.The gun platform was located to your front in Fort Desperate's right front corner and its location is marked today by a raised area of earth. Soldiers of Battery B, 1st Mississippi Artillery Regiment, manned it. The same shell that killed Lieutenant Edrington injured two of these men. Afraid of losing another 12-pound howitzer, the only other artillery piece at Fort Desperate, Colonel Johnson moved it to a safer position near the rear of the works.
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