Many of those who intended to join him looked
upon his enterprise as so hopeless that they abandoned it and joined
other commands. A sufficient number, however, rallied around him at
Jackson, Mississippi, and, on the 4th of May, 1862, his company was
organized by the election of officers, and on the 16th was mustered
into service. Meantime, the chance of getting an armament was hopeless
indeed. At last, however, Captain Fenner found, lying abandoned by the
railroad, the ruins of a battery, which had been destroyed on the eve
of evacuating New Orleans, under the apprehension that it would have
to be left, but was subsequently brought off. The guns were spiked and
rammed with wads and balls, the spokes and felloes of the wheels were
cut, the trails hacked to pieces, and all the ordinary means of
disabling a battery had been resorted to. The task of reconstructing
this ruined battery was undertaken, and, after much difficulty,
successfully accomplished.
"Then came the trouble of obtaining horses, harness, and other
equipments, which had to be wrested from reluctant and ill-supplied
quartermasters and ordnance-officers.
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