Daily American organ. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1856, 1855-06-04
A Surgeons Life in the Trenches.
CAup RpvoRr qra sropor Anr;I II

CAMP BEFORE SEBAsroPoL, April Is.
In my last letter told you that was going to the
trenches. Well, went, and had enough Of IL.
But suppose you would like TO hear the whole
story. so I shall begin at the beginning.
There are two batteries there, Nos. and g..
No. battery is much the most dangerous, so,
after doing what wanted there, went TO No. g..
The ground of " is composed of gravel and large
stones, and Of course, the battery Is constructed
Of the same material
The consequence was that every shot fred 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 large
stone that fell upon it, was not hurt. They kept
me running between the two batteries all day, and
most disagreeabe 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 70 run through
that was always getting balls through 1t.
The escapes we had were most wonderful One
time 1t was almost miraculous. was leaning on
the carriage Of gun that was loaded and run out,
speaking to the artillery officer who was pointing
it. He had his face on the gun, looking through
the sights, shot came from the Russians, hit our
gun in the bore, and knocked off two feet of the
inuxzle, wounding by the splinters every man Of
the guns crew except two and the artillery officer
and myself, four out of ninethe men literally fell
around me- Most Of them we're slightly wounded |;
how any escaped, particularly the officer who had
his face on the gun, cannot tell.
"0f course we have to dress the men, or the
worst cases. where they lie, and, the Russians hav-
ing got your range, most likely send another shot
nearly in the same place as the first This 10 30
well known that the rule is in such cases, to run
behind transverse or any shelter. So does every
one except the non-combatant, the doctor, who
IN hio mat vCha To Oiv
you an instance of this: A man got his hand blown
off in No. z. They sent for me at once, as the
man was bleeding. At this time there was per-
feet storm OF shot coming on the unfortunate bat
terry. had to dart into it the best way could.
When got there the wounded man was lying
where he was hit, with another beside him, and all
the rest were snugiy placed behind traverses and
parapets. had to 60 TO the unfortunate, and Il
took me nearly quarter of an hour to dress the
wound, II was snch bad one, and am sure, If
one shot came past me, twenty did.
/" This nice work lasted till about halEpast SIX,
when, as they had nearly stopped firing, l thought
might 60 back to the first parallel, and when
got there found my relief had come; so start
ed home, precious glad to getaway, and very hum
CRY, as had nothing but some rum and biscuit for
"a hours, cooking being quite out Of the question
In such target MS the advanced battery. 1t would
be quite impossible to tell all the narrow escapes
we nhu. N bneu ieu lntO tue mluule OF ub, OUT
did not burst; we screwed out the fuse and found
1t was an English one, probably shell of ours
that had not burst and was returned by the enemy.
The noise all the day terrific. The shells from
our batteries and the shot from theirs, about 800
yards distant, never ceased We were In CAPT
tai position for hearing anything.
" Their practice was much better than ours. /
used to climb up In an ombrasure and watch our
shot, which always went over their battery. This
was quite safe, as they had withdrawn their rifle
men, and one could always jump into the battery
after they fred gun before the shot came. You
saw the fash. Our shot went too high, because
the embrasures were too high, and the guns con-
sequeptly could not be sufficiently depressed.
"And now you have the experience Of q nom
combattant Of the trenches under fire. 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 IL quite coolly at
first, but you very get accustomed to it. After
Bit the four Of as (oficers) collected In q corner
that was well covered, and made ourselves quite
jolly. II seems TO be al habit and perhaps, if you
would get over il once or twice, you would soon
get accustomed TO being killed.
81 see the Times talks about 'chafing' They
began TO chaf me In the batteries the other day,
and talked Of the luxury of getting legs and arms
for nothing after the manner of Ben Allen and Bob
Sawyer; 20 gave them Christopher Tsdpole and
offered TO draw any Of their teeth considerably
der cost price, or cut of leg at great sacrifice
in consideration Of the late Ere. This shut them
up, though they could not shut up the Russian bat
teries"