San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-02-18
A shot and a Thrust.

When we came to throw out pickets
in front of our lines on the night after
dealing the federal army the hard blow
at second Manassas. We were right
among the dead and wounded. We
had won victory, and the bulk of the
federal army was making for the Po-
tomac, but there was a rear guard
which fought sullenly and with a
thirst for vengeance, and along the
front of my division the bluecoats
were alert and ready for any night at
tack. 1t was about 9 o'clock in the
evening when my company was pushed
out, and to get the place assigned us
we had to crawl on our hands and
knees for the last two hundred feet.
When finally got settled in place it
was at the base of shade or fruit
tree standing alone in an open field.
The federal picket, as | presently as
certained, was about fifty steps dis.
tant from me, and had the cover of
heap of rails. l did not locate him
until he fired upon me.
There were dead and wounded all
about the tree. had crept over two
dead bodies, and two wounded men
had begged me for water. and although
the evening was very dusky, / could
count at least ten bodies on my side
of the tree. had come out with
full canteen, knowing that the front
was covered with wounded. Close to
me, on my right, was a federal cor
poral belonging to a New York regI-
ment. He told me at the time the
number of his regiment, but l made
no note of it. He was shot in the right
leg, midway between the hip and the
knee. This happened two hours be-
fore dark, and considerably nearer our
lines, and he had managed to crawl
twenty rods to get the shelter of the
tree. 1t was only flesh wound, and
could he have been taken into the
lines that night he would have been
fit for duty in thirty days. Some men
would have almost walked off with
such hurt as that, but the poor fellow
seemed knocked all to pieces and had
quite lost his courage. | was holding
the canteen to his lips, having raised
his head and put a haversack under
it, when the federal picket fired the
shot. The bullet crashed into the
head of the wounded man, and with
a sort of culver he fell back dead.
The incident upset me considerably,
and, being under orders not to fire
shot unless the enemy were advancing,
l Rugged the ground at the foot of the
tree and remained quiet. Two more
shots were fired at me, but they were
aimed too high and went over. l had
been on duty about an hour, when the
pleadings of a wounded man about
fifty feet to my left for water deter
mined me to succor him. He knew
of my presence, and talked directly to
me, saying that he was shot in both
legs, and had been lying there seven
or eight hours. | left my gun on the
ground and started off on my hands
and knees. The corpse of federal
lay directly in my way, and was just
making half circle around it, when
the supposed dead man scrambled up,
seized his musket, which lay beside
him, and whirled on me with sort of
scream. You see, it all came SO sud-
denly that was confused, and when
he came at me was still on my hands
and knees and helpless. He held the
gun at "charge bayonet" and made
an awful lunge at me. The point of
the bayonet passed through the back
of my blouse, and the lunge pushed
me over, and the steel went into the
ground almost to the muzzle of the
gun. was thus pinned to the earth,
and the man let go of the musket and
fell across me, uttering a groan of
pain as he came down.
My position was such that l could
not free myself for two or three min
utes, and when / did the man was
dead for sure. He had probably been
unconscious for long time before the
frenzy of death caused him to attack
me in the singular manner he did. So
firmly was | pinned to the earth that ]
had to "skin" out OF my blouse to get
free, and it took stout twist at the
butt of the musket to pull the bayonet
out of the hard-bakcd soil