OCR Text |
Show IMPROVED WEAPONS. At the bcittle-of Buena Vista Jeff Davis's regiment regi-ment of Mississippi riflemen was charged upon by 4000 Mexican lancers. Davis threw the regiment regi-ment into the form of a V and with their rifles, without bayonets, repelled the charge. It was rated as one of the most brilliant and wonderful performances ever seen on a battlefield. So it was. The rifles were muzzle loading and fired by a percussion per-cussion cap.., The effective range of the guns was about 200 yards. But at a gun store up town there is an ill-favored and vicious looking pistol about six or seven inches long that has an effective range of 1200 yards; which at 200 yards will drive a bullet through a telegraph pole, and it can be fired ten times as rapidly as a man can pull the trigger. By an ingenious arrangement the recoil Is neutralized, neu-tralized, so that a delicate woman could fire the weapon without any shock to her hand or arm. Had the Mississippi regiment been armed with those pistols and had waited until the Mexicans were within 200 yards of their line, they could have about annihilated that column of lancers, men and horses, before the remnant could have got out of range. Buena Vista was fought fifty-five fifty-five years ago. Is it not safe to calculate tnai in fifty-five years more war between civilized nations will be impossible because of its overwhelming destructiveness? |