The weekly intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1891-1901, 1891-07-18
A EPISODE,

A YICKSBURG EPISODE.
"Old soldiers of the Sixth Missouri are
always interested in anything Ed. Payne
hls to say of soldering. His account last
week in the lNTELLIGENCER, oil the "bloW
up" at Nicksburg, excited much comment
here, INT "Reminiscences was the order of
the day. George Terrell, who was blown
from like fate by the caress of a cannon
ball the day before, while playing chess
with Dave Case. Poor Case was killed
and Payne lost three fingers. The game
was discontinued"
The above is from the Bolton Leader
of last week.
Mr.. Terrell, Il cherished comrade of
the writer, is somewhat off as to date,
but not as to main facts.
twas notthe day before the explosion
ut Fort Hill that the game of chess
alluded To was played, but eleven days
before. Our competitor was not Dave
Case, but a stalwart young soldier of
company +, named Olson Pitts. Poor
>dS'S NtN'i, III vi iht NltlllllS
of the merciless shell that dropped in,
broke up the game and killed three
men.
1t was on Monday morning, June
18th. On the day before, Pitts had
challenged the writer to play Il partic
of chess, and arrangements were made
to play during the following forenoon.
At the opening of the game Il battery
of artillery near Gen. Grants head
quarters was playing on III position,
delivering III oblique fire. All the
damage that had been done was the
destruction of Il pot of roasted potato
coffee the writer was boiling for his
breakfast, and it was with no small
degree of contempt that we all regarded
the ''whistiers" that ever and anon
went whirling over our heads, or burst
to fragments in the woodlands at our
backs.
However, there was a man on the
lookout, and whenever he would see 4
plume of smoke arising from the en-
brazures where the battery vas planted,
and then arising above that a small
dark sphere,as it came straight towards
our faces, he would give the alarm,
''lIere she contest"
If the missile were low, one of the
kind the boys called ''ditch cleaners >
there would be vigorous ducking OF
heads. If it was flying high some wag
would whistle for it to come down, or
cry
''Here, colty; here's your mammy!''
The game of chess opened very well,
and quite a large crowd collected
around the players to note ITS progress.
just as the writer was capturing one
of his a~dversary's knights with the
queens bishop, the man on watch
cried out:
Here she comes!'
''Whirr! buzz! bang"
1t was a shell from II 9pdr James
rifle, and struck in the bank at our
back and exploded as it struck. In an
instant the chess board was swept clear
of men. The writer felt Il singing
sensation in his right hand. Pitts,
with n shrek, fell from his seat to the
bottom of the trench, and writhed and
groaned in the agony of death. A
fragment of the shell had torn through
his body under his right collar bone,
exposing Il manglcd, sickening mass of
lacerated lung, ligament, muscle and
bone. The heart still beat, and one
could see its desperate pulsations. Res
piration had not ceased, and m could
see the labored mutations of the lungs.
Nerves shredded and torn, arteries dis
charging their precious fluid which
formed in immense clots as it con
tacted the air.
Reclining near by was another mem
Der of company +, who received in the
tleshy part of one of his hips the leaden
lining of the shell. This lining was
nine inches long, two inches wide and
half an inch thick. The edges were
rough and jagged. 1t was buried SO
deep in his flesh that it could not be
pulled out. Death soon came to the
relief of this second victim, as it had
already come to Pitts.
Dave Case was watching the game.
A small fragment of shell was driven
in the joint of one of his knees. 1t did
not look like a mortal wound. There
was no tearing of flesh; no disruption
of blood vessels; just q little wound in
the knee, but the joint was shattered,
without surface indications. Poor Case
believed from the first that he would
die. All efforts to enthuse his droop-
ing spirits were %unavailing. Erysipelas
set in, and in ten days he too had
joined the innumerable caravan, and
trenches where so many noble fellows
found sepulture.