The St. Johns herald., 1898-09-17
HOW MEN DIE IN BATTLE.
ReRuIars Usually First Examine How
 Badly Wounded They Are.


 Badly Wounded They Are. eff you want to know now 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 to a reporter 1 of the St. Louis Republic.
 'I was in Totten's battery, and I saw them, wounded and dying, falling thick and fast around me. You may say that l saw not one man funk in the face of death on that terrible day of fight and bloodshed. While I was firing my gun from Bloody hill yOungster, not more than 20 years old, suddenly jerked his leg. He uttered a sharp, quick cry, then bent down and tore the trousers away from the place on his shin where minnie 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 hand went up to the fieshy part of his left arm. Hit againp he said, and sat down behind the battle ranks and examined his arm. The wound was only skin deep, and that seemed to please him hugely, for he tied his handkerchief around it, and again went forward into the ranks with his musket.
 You're fighting in bad luck to-day, Pete said a comrade. The youngster turned his face to answer back, and by the snapping of his eyes it could be seen that his mind framed Saucy, defiant reply. Just then his jaw dropped. A ball plowed its way through his mouth, leaving nothing but a bloody tOngueless cavity. With a hoarse gurgle the fel- low threw his gun on the ground and fled back to the lines. He was found in a hospital afterward, but never re- covered.
 "On the 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, and one of them said that as 1t was all over with them they wanted the surgeons to at tend first to those who could be saved. One of the men was smoking a short briarwood pipe.
 "'What are you doing, my friend?' l asked
 Taking my last smoke,' he answer ed, his glassy eyes looking steadily at me. Another was reading letter. He held it up to his face, but I could see that he was not making any headway. His eyes were growing dim, and his weak, trembling hands folded the mis- sive and thrust 1t into his breast pocket. He was perfectly resigned to his fate, and had not word to say. When re- turned in the evening, after a Hull, l found the three men dead. Their faces were white and set in the shadow of the tree under which they lay. By the pla- cidity of the features 1 knew that they had met death without flunking.
 That's all bosh about men raving about mother, home and heaven. All the men 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 lliiiS. uc ldCcS OI IHOSe were quently distorted, and gave every evi- dence of the mental and physical agony they unconsciousiy had endured.
 "One thing struck me as peculiar. Nearly all the regulars exhibitd an in stant 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 place where they could tie it up conveniently they did so, and then went back into the fighting lines. If it was mortal, their grave, pale faces betrayed their knowledge. The volun- teers were not so we'll posted, but they were brave as lions, and seldom gave up unless seriously hurt"