The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-04-07

blood that 1 was some time In doing the
Trick. In the meantime my sharpshoot-
| er friend, about thirty-five yards away
continued to- shoot at me, at the same
| time addressing me in very forcible but
uncomplimentary language. At the fifth
| shot, | think it was, he hit me again.
tearing off the end of one of my toes,
| tearing off the sole of my shoe and
| Wrenching my anlle dreadfully. /
thought the bullet had gone through my
ankle, the pain was SO intense. For some
reason, I don't know why, this shot made
me unreasopably angry, and, rolling
| over In the sand SO as to face my antag-
onist. / addressed a few brief remarks
TO MIN and Then. just as some one hand
| ca MIN freshly loaded musket fired,
! aiming at his breast. I knew all the time
that / should kill him If I shot at him.
but had not intended to do SO until he
shot me In the foe. My bullet went a
little highs striking the poor chap in the
throat and passing out at the back of his
! neck HeT staggered around after drop
ping his gun, and finally pitched over the
parapet and rolled down near me, where
! he lay dead. II could see his feet as they
projected over a pile OF sand, and from
( their position knew that he had fought
! his last tight. Near me lay the coxswain
of my boat Campbell by name, who had
canister ball through his lungs, and
was evidently bleeding to death. lie
| said: Mr.. Evans, let me crawl over and
| give that - another shot" He
| was dead almost before 1 could tell him
/ that the poor fellow did not require any
| further attention from us.
| One of the marines from the Powhatan,
splendid fellow named Wasmouth
came through the stockade, gathered me
| under one arm and after carrying me
| about fifty yards dropped me into pit
made by a large shell. Here 1 was
! entirely protected from the fire of the
! enemy and several times called to him
| to take cover. but he said each time:
| The bullet has not been made that Will
| kill me-" Iswas very dTowsy and almost
slept, when / heard the peculiar thud of
a bullet and looking up. found poor
/ Waslnouth with his hand to his neck,
| turning around and around, and the
| blood squirting out in a steady stream.
| The bullet had gone through his neck,
| cutting the juSular, and in a few minutes
| he dropped in the edgeaof the surf and
pled to deatl1s= He certainly was an
| honor to mis- uniform.
After Wasmouth was killed soon fell
| asleep, and when 1 awexe it was some
time before 1 could recall my surrounds
| ings. The tide had come in, and the hole
! in which 1 was lying was nearly full OF
water which had about covered me and
was trucking into my ears. L could see
| q monitor firing, and apparently very
| near, and the thought came to me that
| I could swim off to her if I only had
| lit of plank or driftwood but this [
could not get. 1T YVES plain enough that
I I should soon be drowned like a rat in a
| hole unless / managed to get out Some-
how Dead and wounded men were ly
| ing about in rghast1y piles, but no one
| to lend me helping hand. By this time
| could net use my legs in any way, and
| when I dug my hands into the sides of
| my prison and tried to pull myself out
! the sand gave way and left me still ly-
| ing in the water Finally 1 made
| strong effort and rolled myself sideways
| out of the hole. When [ got ont 1 saw
| marine q short distance away, nicely
| covered by Spile of sand, and firing
| very deliberately at the fort. l called
| to pull me in behind his pile of sand but
| he declined on the ground that the enc
my's fire was too sharp for him to ex-
| pose himself. I persuaded, him with my
| revolver to change his mind, and in two
! seconds he had, me in a place Of safety
! that is to say.a safe by a small margin
| for when he fired the enemy's bullets
| would snip the sand within few inches
| of our heads ~
If the marine had known that my re-
| volver was soaking wet and could not
! possibly beffired, I suppose I Should have
| been buried the next morning, as many
| other poor fellows were. AS soon as
| could reach some cartridges from a dead
sailor king near me l loaded my re-
! volver, thinking 1t might be useful be-
| fore the job was finished.
About $50 O'Clock that night Capt.
Breese, who commanded the brigade,
/ succeeded in getting a Hfeboat in through
| the heavy surf breaking on the beath,
| and at once wounded officers were
| tumbled into her, while the crew stood in
| the water holding her head on to the
seas. Shortly after daylight signal was
made to transfer all wounded men on
board to the Santiago de Cuba.
After a very comfortable trip, all
| things considered, we arrived at Nor
| folk at daylight in the morning and
| hauled alongside the wharf at the Naval
| hospital We were landed without delay
and found myself on conf0r table bed
| in large, c!ean-look1ng ward. I slipped
| my revolver under the pillow, and, pull
| ing the blankets up about my chin, went
| to sleep and did not awake until IU
O'Clock that night. The surgeon IN
charge and his principal assistant were
| standing by the bedside, and after
| careful examination of my wounds they
retired to the end OF the room for con-
| sultation when 1 distinctly heard the
senior one say. Take both legs off In
the morning did not get much sleep
that night, but l did do some very ser1-
| Gus thinking.
The next morning the assistant, who
was a personal friend of mine, came in,
| and after a few words of greeting began
! to tell me how seriously / was wounded,
| and how dangerous wounds about the
| knee were. 1t saw at once that he hated
| to tell me what he was going to do to
| me, so to relieve the situation I told
| him that [ had overheard the conversa-
| ton the night before; that | had thought
very seriously of the matter, and that
! preferred to die with my legs on; that
| was only eighteen years old, and the
| thought of living my life without my
| legs was more than l cared to face that
! as the legs belonged to me 1 thought 1
| had a right to say what was to become
| Of them, and that I asked the doctors
| to do what they could for me with my
| legs on, and if I died it was no matter.
| He heard me- very quietly and, thought,
| with sympathy, but when L had finished,
said: You know, Evans, orders have to
| be obeyed% Thinking that he had mis-
| understood me, I went over matters
| again. and wound up by asking that
| they put me out on the lawn on cot
| rather than cut. me to pieces; that I
! would find some one to take me to a
! hospital further North Again came the
| over l pulled the gun from under my
1 pillow; I told him that there were six
| loads in it, and that If he or any one
| else entered my door with anything that
| Il oked like a case of instrument I meant
| to begin Shooting and that he might rest
! perfectly sure that, I would kill six be-
| fore they cut my legs off, This brought
naatterS to a crisis at once and in few
minutes the surgeon in charge came in
result was that they left my legs ON, and
! n,ofd vary little attention tO mo n arv