Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-01-07
A QUEER "REMINISCENCES.
The Experience of Capt. W. j. Stone In
Confederate Hospital.
Lexington Special cOmrter-Jonrnal.

! In looking over the COarier-.JOuyaHl OF
/ Yesterday read an interview with Cant
/ W, j. Stone by your Frankfort cOrrespon.
/ dent. In the interest of science. and for
/ the purpose of showing what kind of stuff
capt Stone is made of, want to relate
an incident in his experience, in which.
although he is the hero in the story. | am
q more competent witness than he. Capt.
stone lost leg in the war, and my
story relates to that fact. Capt. Stone re-
ceiyed the shot which resulted in the loss
/ OF his leg under Gen. John Morgan at
CYnthiana, ky. A Confederate hospital
was established there in a church. out of
which the benches and pulpit were. of
course, taken, and Capt. Stone was taken
into it with an awful minnie-ball hole in
his thigh. l was in that hospital for some
time as sort of sole corporation, CON-
b1ning in my own individuality the pro-
vinces of fchaplain, surgeon and gdrcOn de
tout .fdire. | had been regularly trained
in theology, but beside the regular col
legiate course of anatomy knew
nothing of surgery until L learned
it there, Strange to say, the
dressing and bandaging of a gunshot leg
got to be exceedingly interesting to me,
after few lessons under DR.. Kellar, the
Confederate surgeon in command. A fell
low, whose name l have forgotten, and
antics, had bullet hole right in the cen
tire Of the breast that came out right by
the side of mis- backbone. The prettiest
girls in the whole country would come to
wait on the wounded soldiers. This fell
low with the hole in his breast would
wear one of their bOnnets all the time
until he would see a Federal officer COM
ing, and then he would throw away his
bonnet, and run and jump in his
10
live an hour longer. This was
to keep them from sending him to Camp
Chase, and the "blue-cOat' Surgeon would
feel his pulse and look at his wound and
say 1t would not do to send him, as he
would die on the road. Capt. Stone,
among the others, displayed great torti-
tude, though suffering immensely, while
the man with the hole clear through him
did not suffer at all. Capt. Stone had to
lie Nat on his back, and could not even
raise his head sufficiently to see his feet
at least any more of them than his toes.
Still, he would laugh and talk with the
pretty girls, and seemed to enjoy life.
One bright, pretty morning he
was talking to one of these pretty
girls and went up to both of them
and said to her that she would
have to excuse the Captain little while,
that l was going to unbandage and dress
MS WOunu. ole went away, ana turned
the cover off the wounded limb. l had
gotten clean sheet under the Captain
the night before, and the bandage had not
dampened it, and everything was nice and
tidy, but from the Captains thigh down
to his heel on the outside of his leg there
grew row of mushrooms, the largest one
being at the thigh and regularly sloping
down to the smallest one at the heel
They were Of the little umbrella-shaped
edible kind, and few of the largest were
as large as are gathered to be eaten, and
if there had been enough of them they
might have been sold in market for food
They grew from under his leg so far
that l could not see where the little
roots started without hurting the leg,
and therefore did not see. They had to
grow either out of the cotton goods or out
OF his leg, and where the germ of those
things came from, after he had lain in
that position in bed possibly several weeks,
and had had that limb dressed at least
once day, is more than have ever been
able to tell. l exclaimed in surprise, but
he seemed to take no interest in it. l
wanted to raise his head so that he could
see them, but he did not care to look at
them, and surprised me by showing no in
terest in the phenomenon. | cleaned them
out and no more grew. From that day
until this l have wondered where the
germs of those things came from. Is
there such thing as spontaneous genera
ton? The leg was soon after amputated.
1t takes pretty plucky man to laugh and
talk with a pretty girl while the frog
stools are growing out of his leg.