The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-04-22
FIGHTING POPS" LEGS
How He Saved Them After Being
 Wounded at Fort Fisher

How He Saved Them After Being
 Wounded at Fort Fisher.
 As we approached the remains of the
 etockade was aware that one particu-
 lar sharpshooter was shooting at me
 and when we were hundred yards
 away he hit me in the left leg about
 three inches below the knee The force
 of the blow was so great that I landed
 on my face in the sand. I got a silk
 handkerchief out of my pocket, and
 with the kind assistance of my class
 mate, Hoban Sands, soon stopped the
 blood, and again went to the front as
 fast as I could.
 About this time the men were stum-
 bling over wires which they cut with
 their knives-they proved to be wires to the torpedoes over which we had charged, but they failed to explode.
 My left leg seemed asleep, but I was able to use it. The stockade, or what
 remained of it, was very near, and determined to lead my company by the l flank through break in it, and then
 charge over the angle of the fort, which
 now looked very difficult to climb. I
 managed to get through the stockade
 with seven others, when my sharp
 shooter friend sent bullet through my
 right knee, and I realized that my
 chance of going, was settled I tried to stand up, but it was no use; my legs would not hold me, and, besides this, I was bleeding dreadfully, and l knew that was a matter which had to be looked to. v heard some one say, They are retreating." and, looking back,
 saw our men breaking from the rear of the columns and retreating. All the officers, in their anxiety to be the first
 into the fort, had advanced to the heads
 of the columns, leaving no one to steady
 the men in behind; and it was in this
 way we were defeated, by the men
 breaking from the rear. Two minutes
 more and we should have been on the parapet, and then-nobody can even
 guess what would have happened, but
 surely a dreadful loss of life As the
 men retreated down the beach they were gathered up and pat into the trenches to oppose Bragg, and there served until after the fort was cap tured. Of the eight of us who went in- side the stockade, all were shot down; one, the color bearer of my company, was salf way up the parapet when he received his death wound.
 When I received the wound in my | right knee I began at once to try to | stop the flow of blood. Used for the | purpose one of the half dozen silk handkerchefs with which I had provi- ded myself, but was so tired and weak from loss of blood that I was some time doing the trick. In the mean time my friend, about thirty-five yards away, continued to shoot at me, at the same time addressing me in very forcible but uncomphmentary language. At the fifth shot I think 1t was, he hit me again, taking off the end of one of my toes, tearing off the sole of my shoe and wrenching my ankle dreadfully. I 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 unrea sonably angry, and rolling over in the sand so as to face my antagonist, I addressed a few brief remarks to him; and then, just as some one handed him freshly loaded mus 1et, I fired, aiming at his breast. I 1new all the time that should kill him ! f I shot at him, but had not intended to To so until he shot me in the toe. My bullet went a little high striking the )oor chap in the throat and passing out I 1t the back of his neck He staggered f lround after dropping his gun and inally pitched over the parapet and oiled down near me, where he lay s lead. I could see his feet as they pro- S ected over a pile of sand, and from | heir position knew that he had fought f lis last fight. Near me was lying the il oxswain of my boat, Campbell by lt lame who had a canister ball through I is lungs, and was evidently bleeding n 0 death. He said: "Mr Evans, let me W rawl over and give that an- a ther shot" He was dead almost be- I ore I could tell him that the poor fel- a ow did not require any further atten- S ion from us. e One of the marines from the Powhat- c h. a splendid fellow named Was e 1outh, came through the stockade, k adhered me under one arm, and after a arrying me about fifty yards dropped 1e into pit made by a large shell. y Tere I was entirely protected from the h re of the enemy and several times e alled to him to take cover, but he said n aCn tune. 'Ine Dull5t mas not DeeH W lade that will kill me" I was very d rowsy, and almost asleep. when I IT card the peculiar thug of a bullet, and, k joking up, found poor Wasmouth with N is hand to his neck, turning around s, nd around and the blood squirting out ir a steady stream. The bullet had n one through his neck, cutting the jug ic lar, and in a few minutes he dropped h the edge of the surf and bled to fl cath He certainly was an honor to a is uniform.
 After Wasmouth was killed soon fell fc sleep, and when I swoke it was some T me before I could recall my surround ol gs. The tide had come in, and the N ole in which I was lying was nearly b. III of water, which had about covered g e and was trickling into my ears. l it ,uld see a monitor firing, and appa- m .ntly very near, and the thought came h me that could swim off to her if I al