The battery was disputing with a distant antagonist and the gunners were wrapped in admiration of their shooting.

They were continually bending in coaxing postures over the guns.

They seemed to be patting them on the back and encouraging them with words.

The guns, stolid and undaunted, spoke with dogged valor.
The precise gunners were coolly enthusiastic.

They lifted their eyes every chance to the smoke-wreathed hillock from whence the hostile battery addressed them.