Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-07-09
W AR S FOR TU MES
TRAGIC MOMENTS THAT SEEM
AMUSING AFTER FOR
TY YEARS.
The Men Who Were Worst Wounded
in Battle Are Often Found to Be
Much More Lively Now Than Those
Whose Wounds Were Not Noticed.

Did you ever have the jumping
toothache in the foot of your" asked
Pat Flanagan of the major. at was
like this" said Pat, Il carried at
Stone river the cleanest and bright
est rifle in the company And all the
boys know it. When the Rebs shot
that rifle out of my hands l couldn't
bulge on account of being stunned
and boiling over mad. Right at my
side was Mike Higgins, with as dirty
rifle as ever good soldier carried,
and he was firing as fast as he could
load and pull the trigger, and he was
yelling at me why in the devil didn't
shoot, when l decided to slap him
once for luck. Just then something
slapped me on the side of my right
foot and slapped both feet from under
me. Mike lifted me up and said what
ever. it was that slapped me never
touched me. Then he shouldered me
off toward the rear.
1T was case of must, Mike said
| had to use my legs or be captured.
At first my feet were like wooden
blocks, but the farther walked the
better felt, and, finding a bright
! clean rifle on the field, / became inter-
ested in the shooting and forgot all
about slapping Mike or being slapped
by something. Mike said he never
| touched me. That night / found two
bullets in my hat, three in my over
coat, two flesh wounds on one leg and
| three scratches on the other, and |
never thought of my foot. My right
foot was full of blood, but Mike said
it came from wound just above
my knee, and let it go at that.
But that blood came from my foot
and from that day to this / have had
the jumping toothache in that foot
whenever a storm is brewing. Rheu-
matism? No, sir; can stand in the
water, or in the snow all day and have
no pain. But three or four hours be-
fore heavy rain or snowstorm is due
there is jumping, humping tooth
ache pain in that foot and no questions
asked. That continues until the rain
or snow comes and then the foot is as
easy and comfortable as any foot in
the world. Mike told me later that
| the thing that struck me seemed to
fly up from the ground, but the air
was SO full of flying things that he
thought was lucky to escape with
bruise, when dozen of the boys were
| shot through and through. This was
the view took Of the matter then and
I never counted my lame foot as a
wounded foot and yet it gives me more
trouble than all my other wounds put
together"
sit was often the case" said the ma
jor, that the wound which seemed
: trifling at the time proved more seri-
Gus than the wound that received the
Z attention of surgeons. In one battle l
was shot through my sword arm and
about the same time was struck on
the shoulder by falling branch OF a
/ tree. The wound in the arm healed
rapidly, but the shoulder is lame to
this day. A man in our company had
/ two fingers shot off and receives pen
sion, but in mountain fight at a later
date he sprained his ankle. The
wounded hand gives him no pain nor
trouble whereas the ankle that was
only sprained and which received lit
A tie attention at the time has been for
forty years seat of discomfort and
pain.
4 Living Paradoxes.
/ cat the last reunion of our company
man shot through the body at Shi-
lob was one of the most active of those
present A man who escaped all the
flying bullets at Fort Donelson and
caught cold the second night was one
OF the most feeble. One Of the boys
who had toe shot off at Gotten Hill
was the best dancer. and the best
marcher of the old days was as stiff
as spawned horse. A man who had
been thrown twenty feet in the air by
mine explosion was as lively as a
cricket, and the fellow burned through
putting his lighted pipe in his pocket
to escape the notice of the officer of
the guard was cripple. Our colonel,
wounded three times in as many diff
ferent battles, was there in more ro-
bust health than he ever had in the
army, carrying his sixty-five years as
easily as he carried his % on the
march to the sea, while our captain,
who had been struck by spent ball in
front of Atlanta, counted himself an
invalid"
; THAT reminds me- said the SER
geant, ''of my own experience with a
spent ball. We We're going up Look
out mountain from the west. Things
were moving our way with whirl and
never felt better in my life; a mus
, ket ball struck me in the abdomen and
never felt worse l staggered, drop
} ped, and the boys, not expecting any.
one to be shot at that time, ran or
with the rejoicing line sweeping w
the mountain. / was disappointed
and miserable man, the pain of the
wound driving me nearly wild. yell
cd for help and put my hand inside my
blouse to discover what sort of a hole
!, had been bored into me. l found nc
wound, but my nervous fingers clutch
ed musket ball lying. inside the
blouse.
!, A Spent Ball.
!, II knew what that meant. l knew
! that had been struck by spent bal
and when our surgeon came up ant
! gave directions to have me carried
j back said nothing. simply looked
: as miserable as I felt. Before I ha,
3 been taken up however, the genera
i commanding our brigade rode slowl,
S to where the doctor sat ON his horse
The general slouched forward in hi
| saddle was silpDOrted by staff office