Southern shield., 1855-06-23
4 Surgeons Life in the
 Trenches.
CAMP BEFORE SEBAsTOPoL, }

went, and had enough of 1t. But l suppose you would Ike to hear the whole story, so I shall begin at theI beginning. There are two batteries there, Nos. ] ' and 8. No I battery is rnch theI most dangerous, so, after doing what was wanted there, I went to No. s. The ground of it is composition of grave and large stones, and, of course, the battery IS constructed of the same material.
 The consequence was that every shot fired by the enemy threw up a perfect shower of stones, some of them very large; and, as they fired at us all day every one was hit more or less, some very severely; fortunately, although this morning am black and blue, and my back aches from a large stone that fell upon 1t, was not hurt. They kept me running between the two batteries all day and most disagreeable work it was, as in one place there was no cover at all, and in getting into No. [ there was sort of channel, which we had to run through that was always get ting balls through it.
 The escapes we had were most won derful. One time 1t was almost mira culous. I was leaning on the carriage of gun that was loaded and run out, speaking to the artillery officer who was pointing 1t. He had his face on the gun, looking through the sights, a shot came from the Russians, hit our gun in the bore, and knocked off two feet of the muzzle, wounding by the splinters every man of the gums crew except two, and the artillery officer and myself, four out of nine-the men literally fell around me. Most of them were slightly wounded; how any escaped, particularly the officer who had his face on the gun, I cannot tell.
 "Of course we have to dress the men, or the worst cases, where they lie, and, the Russians having got yonr 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 every one ex- cept the non combatant, the doctor, who must go to his men, no matter | where. To give you an instance of this: A man got his hand blown off in No. '. They sent for me at once, as the man was bleeding, At this time there was perfect storm of shot coming on the unfortunate battery. l had to dart into 1t the best way 1 could. When l got there the wounded man was lying where he was hit, with another beside him, and all the rest were snugly placed behind trayerses and parapets. I had to go to the unfortunate, and 1t took me nearly a quarter of an hour to dress the wound, it was such a bad one, and I am sure, if one shot came past me, twenty did.
 "This nice work lasted till about haIf-past six, when, as they had nearly stopped firing, I thought I might go back to the first parallel, and when l got there, I found my relief had come; so I started home, precious glad to get away, and very hungry, as I had noth ing but some rum and biscuit for A hours, cooking being quite out of the question in such a target as the advan- ced battery. It would be quite impos sible to tell all the narrow escapes we had. A shell fell into the middle of us, but did not burst; we screwed out the fuse and found it was an English one, probably shell of ours that had not burst, and was returned by the enemy. The noise all the day was terrific. The shells from our batteries and the shot from theirs, about 300 yards distant, never ceased. We were in capital position for hearing any thing.
 "Their practice was much better than ours. I used to climb up in an embrasure and watch our shot, which always went over their battery. This was quite safe, as they had withdrawn their rihemen, and one could always jump into the battery after they fired a gun before the shot came. You saw the flash. Our shot went too high, because the embrasures were too high, and the guns consequently could not be sufficiently depressed.
 "And now you have the experience of 'non- -combatant' of the trenches under fire. 1 suppose you would like to know how I felt yesterday. Of course no one can see men knocked down all around him, and getting wounds of which he best knows the full danger, and take it quite coolly at first, but you very soon got accustom- ed to 1t. After bit, the four of us (oficers) collected in a corner that was we'll covered, and made ourselves quite jolly. It seems to be all habit, and perhaps, if you would get over t