The western Democrat. [volume] (Charlotte, N.C.) 1852-1870, 1855-06-15
A Surgeons Life i'm the Trenches.
CAMP BEFORE SEBAsToPoL, April

CAMP BEFORE SEBAsToPoL, April 6.
Tn nv last last letter told you that was 60
nm 70 The ranches well, went, and had enough
IN But suppose you would like TO hear the
whole story, so snail begin at the beginning.
There are two batteries there, Nos. and g.
No. battery is much the most dangerous. So,
.ller doing what was wanted there, went to No.
The ground of 1t is composed OF gravel and
large stones, and. OF course, the battery is con-
srructed of the same material. The consequence
was that every shot flied by the enemy threw up
q perfect shower Of stones, some of them very
large and, as the fired al every day, every one
was hit more or less, some severely; fortu-
naelv although this morning am black aud blue,
and nv back aches from large stone that fell
upop il, was not hurt. They kept me running
between tbs TWO batteries all day and most dsa-
creeable work II was, as in one place there was
no cover at all, and in getting into No. Z. there
was a sort of channel which we had to run through,
that was always getting balls through it.
The escapes we had were most wonderful
One time it was almost miraculous. was lean
ing on the carriage of gun that was loaded and
run out, speaking TO the artillery officer who was
uoinng il. He had his face on the looking through
The sight a shot came from the Russians hit our
gun in The bore, and knocked off two fee! of the
muzZIe, wOundIng by the spnters every man of
the gun crew except two, and the artillery off,
Ger and myself, four out OF nine-the men literal
" fell around me- Most Of them were slightly
wounded, how any escaped, particularly the off
Ger who had his face the gan, | cannot tell.
OF course we have TO dress the men, the
worst cases, where they lie; and the Russians
having got your range, most likely send another
shot nearly in the same place as the first. This
IS so well known that the rule Is, in such cases,
to run behind a traverse or any shelter. So does
lhafa mi he
who must go 10 his men matter where. To
give you an instance OF this A man got his hand
blown off in No. 7. They sent Tor me at once, as
the man was bleeding. Al this time there was Il
perfect Storm of =sh"t coming on the unfortunate
battery | had TO dart into it the best way |
could When | got thrre the wounded was
living whe he Was hi', with another beside him,
and all the rest were snug placed behind ira
verses and parupers | had Ia the unlorfunntc,
and il took nearly ii q.arrer of all hour to
dress the wound, 1t WAS such bad one, and | am
sure, If one shot came part me. twenty did.
This nice work lasted I'LL about halG-pnst g.
uhrn they had nearly stopped firing, Thought
] might 20 back In the fist parallel, aud " hen
got there found my rallrI I'D e"nr :; SO start
ed home precious glad TO get away, and very
hungry, as | had-nothing bUr some rum and bis,
cut Tor "a hours, cooking being out of The qurs-
ton in such lcrgcI tn" adVHncrd battery. Ii
would Gr quiz" Impossible in tel all Ia" narrow
escapes We had. A hell tell into the udd,. of
u.s. but fortunately I'D not burst; screwed out
the fuse and found II English on" probr-
hy sh-II of ours thai did not burst. and was
TUNED bv The enemy The noise all day was
terrific. The shells from our batteries aud the
shot from theirs, about 300 wards distant, never
cras.d. We IN capital position for hear
ing everything.
Their practice vas much better tlac GUS. l
u,rd To climb up III an rmnrasura To watch our
SHOT wL,ch always went over their battery. This
was q he ; ,lr as thy had WITHDRAWN thu ir riff I.
a.lrr IN, ' had fired gun before the shot came
Y"u saw tia. flash, Our shot went too high, be-
cau>, the ru.brasures WI" too high and our guns
Consequently could not br sufficiently d. PRESS d.
Aud you have the experience OF Il nor
C"n,hainnI' nj the trenches under fire. | suppose
You would like to kr.uw h"w | lett yesterday. OF
course no one can see men knocked down all
around him. aud getting wounds of which h" best
knows The !ul danger, aud take 1t qurr c""Ily at
first, tut vuu very soon get "ccuSt"m"d I" H. Al
ter a br the, tour OF u- llir"r>) c"ll' ced IN cor
ner :har was well cove rd,'amd made u'srV's
quite Jolly. L. seems tn he all hh'.I', and perhaps,
II Won could get 1t once or twice, You would
soon re, q"i'" accustomed 10 being k'II' d.
see lh, Tunes talks about ''chaffing." They
bryan To chaT the in the batteries The other day,
aud talked of the luxury ui getting legs and arms
inr nothing, after the manner Of Ben Allen and
Bob Sawyer; so | gave them Christopher Tad
pole, and offered to draw any nf ih'lr teeth c"nsld
eraby under cost price, but off a leg al great
sacrifice, IN c"nsidcratinn OF he late fire. Thus
shui rh.m up though they could not shut Out tie
Russian batteries.