The Democratic sentinel and Harrison County farmer. [volume] (Cadiz, Ohio) 1851-1852, 1851-08-06
Catching Bullets in the Mouth.

There is man now living in East Dixfeld,
Oxford county, Me-, who actually caught in
his mouth ball discharged from musket.
He was at the battle of Bridgewater, in the
war of 1919, and while biting off the end of
a 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 pas
sed into his throat. He raised it, went to
the hospital, stayed out the remainder of his
enlistment, and returned home with the bull
let in his mouth.-Erchange paper.
The New Orleans Picayune, one of whose
editors was an eyewitness ofmost of the lea
ding battles in Mexico copies the foregoing
paragraph and appends to it the following
relation:
Wecan relate an nincident evenmore strange
than this. Attbe siege ofMonterey, in GAG,
and while Gen Worth's troops were advan-
cling to storm the small fort known as La
Soldada, man named Waters, an excellent
soldier belonging to Capt. Ben McCulloch's
Rangers, caught large grape shot directly
in his mouth. 1t was fully the size of hens
egg, was 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 off the four lower teeth as with a chisel,
split his tongue in twain, carried away his
palate, went through the back of his head,
and striking tendon glanced down and lodg-
ed under the skin on the shoulder blade,
where it was extracted by surgeon and
safely placed in the pocket of Waters fer fu
ture reference.
No man thought the wounded ranger
could live-he could swallow neither food
nor water. We saw him two nights after
wards, in room in the Bishops Palace,
which had been converted into hospital,
sitting bolt upright among the wounded and
the dying, for the nature of his terrible hurt
was such that he could not lie down without
suffocating. His face was swollen to more
/ than twice its ordinary size--he was speech
less, of course-his wants were only made
known by means Of a piece of broken slate
and pencil, and he was slowly applying wei
sponge to his mouth, endeayoring to extract
moisture, which might quench the fever and
intolerabe thirst under which he was suffer.
ing. BY his side lay young Thorn IS, of Ma
ryland, member of the same company, who
was mortally wounded the morning after, and
who was now dying. Wounded men, struck
that afternoon in Worth's advance upon the
the Grand Plaza, were constantly being
brought in, the surgeons were amputating
and dressing the hurts of the crippled soldiers
by pale and sickly candle light, and the
'groans of thosein grievous pain added new
horror to scene which was at best frightful
We recollect perfectly we'll poor fellow
struck in both legs by a grape shot while ad
!vancing up one of the streets. He was beg
{ ging Justify, after one of his limbs had beer
amputated, that the other might be spared
him on which to hobble through the world
Poor Thomas, as gallant spirit as ever liv
led, finally breathed his last; we brought Wa
ters fresh cup of water with which to mois
ten his wounds, and then left the room tc
catch an hours sleep; but the recollections o
that terrible night will not soon be effaced
from our memory.
n"
The above incidents occurred on the nigh
of the 23rd and morning of the Gath of Sep
tember, 1846. During the early part of the
month of February following, while passin,
into the old st. Charles in this city, we werC
accosted with strange voice by a fine look
ing man who seemed extremely glad to SCI
us, although he had most singular and un
accountable mode ofexpressing himself. W.
recollected the eye as one we had been fanil
lar with, but the lower features of the face
although in no way dis6gured, for the life o
us we could not make him out
"Why, don't you know me?" in mum,
bling, half indistinct and forced manner said
the man, still shaking our hand vigorously
l"I'm Waters"
And Waters it was, in reality, looking as
well and as healthy as ever, and without
showing the least outward sign that he had
ever caught grape shot in his mouth. A
luxuriant growth of moustachios completely
covered his upper lip, and concealed any
scar the iron missile might have made; an
imperial on his under lip had any appear.
ance of wound at that point; and with the
exception of his speech there was nothing to
show that he had ever received the slightest
injury about the face. His tongue, whicl,
was terribly shattered, was still partially be-
huiADOu, lOAuOihiS dIIOulduuh uOth utiHCult
land tiresome; but he assured us he was ey-
cry day gaining more andmore the use Of it.
and in his own words he was soon to be ''iust
as good as new"
! tits needless to say thatwe were truly re,
ljoiced to see him-to meet one we had nev
| er expected to encounter again in such ex
Icellent plight. Any one who could have
seen him sitting in that apartment of the
Bishops Palace, his face swollen, and with
Ia gravity Of countenance which would have
been ludicrous even to the causing Of laugh
ter had it not been ior his own precarious
situation and the heart-rending scenes around
would have been equally as much astonished
and rejoiced as we were, on again SO unex-
Ipectedly beholding him.
EE- An American sailor has been arrested
lI .1 n