Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1851-08-02
BULLETS IN THE MOUTH.

a musket. lie was at the battle of Bridge
water, in the war of 1912, and while biting
off the end of cartridge, for the purpose OF
loading his gun, was struck by ball, which
entered the left side of his face, knocked
out eight Of his teeth, cut off the end OF his
tongue, and passed into his throat. He raj
sed it, went TO the hospital said out the re-
mander of the enlistment, and returned
home with the bullet in his pocket.-Er-
change paper.
We can relate an incident even more
stranger than this. AT the seige of Monte
rey, in 1916, and while General Worh's
troops were advancing to storm small fort
| known as La Soidada, a man named Waters
an excellent soldier belonging TO Capt. Ben
| AlcCulloch's Rangers, caught large grape
shot directly in his mouth. 1t was fully the
size of hens egg, rough, uneven in shape,
and in its course completely carried out the
four upper front teeth of the ranger and part
of the jaw, cut of the four lower teeth as
with chissel, split his tongue in twain, car
red away his palate, went through to the
b''oN Vi MS ltdNlj anu stlIhlIlS d ttlIuOH
glanc ed down and lodged under the skin on
the shoulder blade, where it was extracted
by surgeon and safely placed in the pock-
ct of Waters for future reference.
No man thought the wounded ranger
would live-he could swallow neither food
nor water We saw him two nights after
wards, in a room in the Bishops Palace
which had been converted into hospitab
sitting bolt upright among the wounded and
the dying, for the nature Of his terrible hurt
was such that he conld not lie down without
sulIocating. His face was swollen 10 more
than twice its ordinary seize, he was
specchess of course, his wants were only
made known by means of piece of broken
slate and pencil and he was slowly applying
a wet sponge to his mouth, endeavoriuS TO
extract moisture which might quench the
fever and ntolerable thirst under which he
was suffering. BY his side lay young
Thomas, of Maryland, member of the
same company, who was MORALLY wounded
the morning after, and who was now dy-
ing. Wounded men, struck that afternoon,
in Worth's advance upon the Grand flaZa,
were constantly being brought in, the surge
ons were amputating and blessing the hurts
, OF the crippled soldiers by pale and sickly
candle light, and the groans Of those in
grevous pain added new horror TO scene
which was at best frightruI. We recolect
, perfectly well poor fellow. struck in both
legs by grape shot while advancing up one
of the streets. He was begging lusliy, after
one Of his limbs had been ampntated, that
the other might be spared him on which 10
, hobble through the world. Poor Thomas,
S brealhed his last ; we brought Waters ii
= fresh cup of water with which 10 moisten
, his wounds, and then left the rocm to catch
an hours sleep; but the recolections of
that terrible night will not soon be ellaced
from our memory.
n
! The above incidents occurred on the night
of the 22d and morning of the 81 h Sepem-
, Der, 1916. During the early part Of the
month of February following, while passing
iulO lllC OINl S'' SItiCS III Nlllo wy We NtlO
a accos,ed with a strange voice by fine look
t ing man, who seemed extremely glad 10 see
: us, although he had a most singular and un-
:, accountable mode of expressing himself
E We recoeced the eye as one we had beer
familiar with, but the lower features of the
face, although in no way disfgured, for The
. life of US we could not make out.
/. "Why, don't you know me !" in a mum
n bling half indstnct and forced manner saiC
the man, still shaking our hand vigorously
n 'Im Waters"
d And WateIs it was, in reality, looking a
10 well and as healthy as ever, and wiIhou
> the least outward sign that he had eve
1t caught grape shot in his mouth. A luNu
ID RANT growth of moustachlos completely GOV
oil cred his upper lip, and concealed any sea
at the irUn missile might have made an i'm
ID pera on his under lip hid any appearance
:, of wound at that point and with the eX
4 ceplion of his speech there was nothing /
r.. show that he had ever received the slightes
injury about the face, His tongue, who
" was terribly shattered, was still PARTIAL
:. benumbed, rendering articulation both diff
a cult and tresome but he assured US h
was every day gaining more and more tn
" use of it, and in his own words he was 500
ID to be 'just as good as new"
lie Ii is needless to say that we were truly re
5, oced 10 see him-to meet one we ha
ne never expected to encounter again in sue
le excellent plight. Any one who could hav
he seen him sitting in that apartment of tn
as Bishops Palace, his face swollen, and wit
ne a gravity of couutenance which would hav
a been ludcrous even TO the causing of laugh
IN ter had it not been for his own precarou
m situation and the heart reniiug scene
I'll around, would have been equally as niue
ne astonishQl and rejoiced as we were, 0
ne again so unexpectedly beholding him.-N, c
y Picayme,