The herald., 1895-05-26
THEIRS A LIVING DEATH
All These and Many More Heroes and Martyrs
Have Suffered for Their Country, and Are
Today Anything but Healthy Men
GRESHAM BEFORE ATLANTA


well known figure in Washington 10
Brevet Brigadier General George A. For
| syth. Few who look at his erect and stall
wart figure woulu. if they did not know
him and his record, believe that his body
was at one time riddled with bullets.
This was the case in a famous fight with
the Cheyenne Indians, at the Arckaree
Fork of the Republican river, on Sep.
tember 16, 1867: With only fifty men he
was surrounded by force of redskins es-
timated at seven Eupdred or more. Gen.
eral Forsyth and his men hastily took up
position on little sand island where,
with knives and hands as their only I'M
plements, they dug rifle pits for ,hem-
selves and held the enemy at bay for nine
days. before assistance arrived. The first
day was the most disastrous to both sides.
The Indians repeatedly charged OH the
little band, and were repeatedly driven
back by ,volley after volley from the rifle
pits i'll the island OF death.
On that day General Forsyth received
bullet IN the right thigh and another in
the left leg. while third clipped off a
small portion of his skull. By the eighth
day the shattered bone of his lett leg
stuck through the wound, AID maggots
had taken possession OF the exposed flesh.
Sixteen of his men were severely wounded
one was killed and three died in the
trenches. They had no provisions save
raw mule meat. the flesh OF the animals
killed by the Indians. which soon grew
too putrid to eat. The band was at the
last extremity when detachment of
troops from Fort Wallace relieved them
from their terrible position. The Indians
lost 75 killed and 200 wounded.
1t was the same year the Lieutenant
Colonel J.-mes Powell performed SINH
lar feat of .valor near Fort Phil Kearney.
u. T.. against the Sioux Indians under
Red Cloud. Colonel Powell was at that
fiyr,o rtr fror i
in Georgia during the war. With twenty
seen soldiers and four civilians he was
hemmed in by 5000 braves in corral
hastily constructed out of wagon beds
laid on the ground. end to end.
The first charge was from 500 savage
surrounding hills. The white mea were
armed with the newly invented breech
leaders: which were unknown to their
foes. They waited until the Indians had
come within thirty yards of their i'm
provised fort. Then there was a. sheet of
flame and roar, and like dry leaves be-
fore gust of wind the Indians were
swept aside to the right and left, leaving
the field covered with dead and dying.
And now the entire band on foot circled
the corral. Masses of Indians preceded
by sharpshooters renewed the attack.
Again and again they. were beaten back
by the intangible and invisible foe.
The fight continued from o'clock III
the morning until 3 p. m. Even before
assistance arrived from the fort, the In.
dians, baffied, awstruck and bleeding.
were. in full retreat They have since
learned the use of the breech loader. but
the survivors remember sill that awful
day. when the gods seemed to be fighting
on the side of the mere handful of white
men.
Today Colonel Powell lives in Peoria,
ILL.,, mere wreck of his former self.
Paralysis has followed as a result OF
wounds received, not in the Indian. but
in the civil war. He is wheeled around
Captain Charles King. the military
novelist, lives in Milwaukee. His left
arm was shattered in the Apache war in
Arizona in 1874, and he:is now on the re.
tired list. 1t is TO the leisure thus ac-
quired that the reading world is indebted
for the charming fictions which prove
sword.
These are few of the more notable
cases OF officers now living who bear the
honorable scars of conflict against the
foes Of the country. Many others have
lost leg. an arm. or one or both eyes.
General Dan E. Sickles comes in the first
category. General o. o.. Howard in the
second. General N. NJ. Curtis lost an eve
at Fort Fisher.
a The privates who have suffered are of
course innumerable. In the medical
museum at Washington is a series of
photographs taken from life, which form
gallery of strange and ghastly dlsfigura-
tions. Some of the most distressing of
these cases are where the face has been
so shockingly mutilated that the sufferer
remains. an object OF pity and even re.
pulsion. Some of these poor fellows find
it almost impossible to make living, ex-
cept in seclusion from society.
hprv H..
to solicitations to repair such facial dam
ages as far as possible. even when they
had small hope of success. But in some
cases, as in that of Sergeant George
Prince. for long time a messenger of
the treasury department in Washington.
j., was found that the Inconvenience
likely to be caused by an autoplastic
operation would scarcely com pensate for
the possible modification of external de-
formity. In this case the ball entered on
the right side and emerged about an inch
below the left eye. The right eye was
destroyed. and the bones of the face were
fractured so as to distgure it utterly
Some triumphant cases OF reparation
are recorded, however. DR.. Bucks opera
tion on Private Ebert Hewitt is consid.
cred one of the chief triumphs OF modern
plastic surgery. fragment of shell
had struck Hewitt's mouth, carrying
away the upper and lower front teeth.
A"Ooi oeiH6 eho uhucA up near tne right
angle of The mouth, splitting the nose
and the upper lip and laying open the
right cheek.
Here the lips were reconstructed, plate
ct vulcanite ingeniously adapted to both
jaws supplied the loss of the front teeth,
ana the face was built up new into tolera-
BILE symmetry.
A still more remarkable case. unfortu-
| nately not supported by Photographic
evidence. was that of Corporal Henry
Gibbs, of the Sixty-scventh Ohio Volun.
teers, who lost his entire lower law.
The report OF the attending surgeon states
that plastic operation was performed.
pins were put in. and in four weeks The
| patient had entirely recovered, without
any apparent external deformity.