Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1895-01-12
THE BULLET PIERCED THE CAP.

THE BULLET PIERCED THE CAP
we didn't dare venture out of camp or
they would pick us off. They had
strong picket line ahead of us all the
time, and there was good deal of
firing. Here is note in the diary
kept at the time" And he pointed to
the lines in faded pencil:
"Rebcls about eighty or q hundred yards;
kept up constant firing. Bullet went through
my cap"
did you hear it?"
Well there were so many 1 couldn't
pick out any one; but this was the
bullet l did not hear. You may be
certain of that. When you can hear
bullet, of course it has passed you,
and it is harmless as far as you are
concerned. You won't hear the bullet
that hits you"
But this didn't hit you"
mo, it only went through my cap.
But it knocked me senscless-the con-
cussion, l suppose. 1t left a queer
feeling all day. l made note OF it
here in the diary, because it seemed to
me ct the time quite an important
thing. But came TO look at it differ
emily at the end"
"Were you ever really wounded?"
"Once or twice"
"How was it, doctor? How did it
fcel?"
"Oh, it hurt little. 1t hit me here,
just above the right hip and travelled
clear across my back, lodging in the
right side. 1t was cut out afterward
and l have it here. Sec where it is
fatteucd by striking against the bones
MS it broke them on it's way through"
when was that?"
''Oh, three months afterward, dur
ing the seven days fight. 1t was in
Juce. You know all about the penin-
sular campaign, when Mcclellan
moved his whole army up country in
the first great advance on Richmond.
Well, things didn't go very well with
us, you may remember. And they
didn't go we'll at all with me- When
was hit OF course it ended my fight
ing. The enemy came rushing across
the field where lay with the rest of
the wounded, and with the dead, for
the matter of that. And they were
fighting for all there was in them, and
when they saw Yankee that seemed
to be too much alive they ran him
through with the bayonet 1t may
have been cownrdly and all that, but
they were young to real battle then,
and besides they were terribly, fear
fully in earnest
''And so one of them rammed me
right through the breast with his bay
ouet. AS he hurried on he gave the
gun twisting motion-it seemed then
to be barbarism, but it may be it was
simply his haste-and the bnyonet was
detached from the gun and remained
sticking in me and threw me down
into the sand"
His visitor shuddercd.
''Aud you lived?"
''Yes, rather" replied the doctor,
laughing. Even that seems small
thing now. OF course, my hands
were all right, and after the confedcr-
ates had gone | managed to work out
that bayonet. But it pulled up some
sand with it, and that was stripped off
in the lungs and used to bother me a
good deal, but l guess it is all gone
now.
I'VE laid there ten days without the
slightest attention from anyone. OF
course, there was no such perfect hos
pital arrangement then as there was
later, and we simply had to look out
for ourselves. Some of the boys whose
legs were good managed to go to the
wnter and they brought drink to the
rest of us. And they went through
the haversacks of the dead and found
something for us to cat. But it was u
pretty hard ten days for man who
couldn't move, after all. 1t used to
rain every night, and we used to scrape
little shallow place in the sands by
our sides, and that would fiji with wa
ter and keep up most of the day. l
was afraid l would bleed to death; so
two of the fellows tore the lining out
of q blouse and plugged up my wound
with that and got along"
The doctor was turning over the
leaves of his old diary. lie had for
gotten that wound on the battlefield.
"llow did you get out of it?"
'Oh, the Johnnies took U.S. 1t wasn't
very difficult thing to do. And they
moved us to Richmond. We had things
pretty tough for time, and then they
put us In Libby-one hundred and
thirty of ua. was one of five to come
out alive put didn't walk q step.