The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-07-05
HOW MEN DIN IN BATTLE.
Few Soldiers FUNK In the Face of Death,
IL the Experience of Judge Murphy.


IL the Experience of Judge Murphy.
IF you want to know how men die
In battle. ask some of those who have
been at Wilson's creek, on one side or
the other" said Judge David Murphy
of the criminal court of st. Louis.
II was in Totten's battery and / saw
them. wounded and dying. falling thick
and fast around me. You may say for
me that I saw not one man funk in
fight and bloodshed. While l was firing
my gun from Bloody hill a youngster,
not more han 20 ear old, suddenly
jerked his leg. He uttered a sharp, quick
cry, then bent down and tore this trous-
ers away from the place on his shin
where a minnie ball had struck him. He
looked up with a smile, patted the
wound with his hand. pulled the torn
trousers down and went on shooting.
Five minutes later he yelled again, and
his and went up to the fleshy part of
his left arm. Hit again. he said, sat
down behind the battle ranks and ex-
amined his arm. The wound was only
skin deep. and that seemed to please
him hugely, for he tied his handker-
chief around it, and again went for
ward into the ranks with his musket.
You're fighting in bad luck to-day,
Pete said a comrade. The y~oungster
turned his face to answer back, and by
the swapping of his eyes It could be seen
that his min framed a saucy, defiant
reply. just hen his jaw dropped. A
ball plowed its way through his mouth,
leaving nothing but a bloody, tongue
less cavity. With a hoarse gurgle the
fellow threw his gun on the ground
and fled back of the lines. He was
found in a hospital afterwards, but new
err recovered.
ION that same day / encountered
three men under a tree. Their faces
were ashy gray, showing that they
were mortally wounded. I asked them
why they were not attended to, n
one of them said that as it was all
over with them. they wanted the sur
geons to attend first to those who could
be saved. One of the men was smok-
ing a short briarwood pipe.
What are you doing, my friend i
asked.
Taking my last smoke he an
swered, his CLASSY eyes looking stead
tasty at me. Another was reading
a letter. He held ii up to his face. but
/ could see that he was not making
any Roadway. His eyes were grow
ing dim. and his weak, trembling hands
folded the missive and hrust it into
his breast pocket. He was perfectly
resigned to his fate. and had not a word
to say. When / returned in the even
ing, after a lull, I found the three men
dead. Their faces were white and set
In the shadow of the tree under which
they lay. BY the placidity of the fea-
lures I knew that they had met death
without 1unking.
That's all bosh about men raVing
about home, mother n heaven. All the
men l have seen die. or near death,
were quiet and perfectly rational. They
made no fuss. Those that did were
usually delirious, entirely out of their
minds. The faces of these were fire.
quently distorted. and gave every evil
dence of the mental and physical agony
they had endured.
"One thing struck me as peculiar.
Nearly all the regulars exhibited an in
slant desire to examine their wounds
when they were hit. and the expression
of their faces indicated in a moment
whether they were slightly or mortally
wounded. They seemed to know with
unfailing certainty. If the wound was
slight and in a place where they could
tie 1t up conveniently. they did so. and
then went back into their fighting lines.
If IL was mortal, their grave, pale faces
betrayed their knowledge. The volun-
teers were not so well posted. but they
were brave like lions, and seldom gave
up unless seriously hurt. / have known
many a man to keep on fighting with
a half dozen flesh rounds. There were
some, of course, who were glad to get
back of the battle line on account of
a slight wound, put that kind of a SOL
der wac very scarce.
I'm that same battle a man with a
rifle was hit in the arm. 1t was a
slight wound, but he fell to the ground
and his face became like that of a dead
man. Suddenly he revived, jumped to
his feet and danced round wildly in
a circle. 1t was not the bullet. but
the conclusion, that had crazed him.
He was a fine target for the enemy,
Who aimed directly at the swirling hu-
man body. A shot struck him direct
ly over the heart, and a moment later
he was dead"