Year: 1876

i
modern warfare have been impressed by
two very curious facts-facts. that very
slight wound is often sufficient to pro-
dnce death; and, second, that human
may receive most desperate and appa-
rently fatal injury from these dreadful
causes, and yet survive q long time, pos
sibly just as long as though no wound
had been received, and finally die from
other cause.


Spent balls have sometimes produced
death. At the battle of Winchester, in
September, 1854, the present writer was
knocked down by a musket-ball, which
did not even indent the skin. In some
ca YES Of this kind the shock to the per
vOus system has been sufficient TO kill
without drop of blood.


| At the assault of Port Hudson, june
IA, 1868, one of our soldiers in reserve
saw cannon-ball, apparently spent, roll.
ing over the ground near him. He care
lessly reached out his foot and tried to
| stop il. The result Was manglcd foot,
which had to he amputated.


In marked contrast with the above
were the following cases, all occurring
within my personal knowledge:


A Major of Connecticut volunteers,
before Port Royal, on the 9th of May,
1868, was struck in the breast by grape.
shot, which traversed the body and was
taken out from the back. Contrary 10
expectation, he did not die Immediately,
and was laid aside without attention
until he should die. But couple Of
days pass ID, and he still survived. He
was sent down the river TO New Orleans,
with some hundreds of Others, and lay
there in hospital for months. Still he did
not die-would not die, and becoming
well enough to travel, was sent home.
At that time it was not within the ex-
pectation of any person who knew any
thing about the case that he would ever
be able to perform the slightest military
duty again. And yet, on Oct. 10, 1854,
just sixteen months after the wound was
received, the major was in command Of
his regiment at the bloody battle Of Cedar
Creek, Va. He escaped the perils of
that day unharmed, and for aught l
know to the contrary is alive and well
now.


Not to speak too much in the first per-
son, at the assault of Port Hudson, June
IA, 1868, wasprostrated by buck-sho
just above the hip. After being taken
TO the rear The wound was probed by a
surgeon and the shot could not be found.
"This is serious" he said and his face
expressed his sincerity. was laid aside
to die, and others for whom something
could possibly he done were placed on
the table. Three days passed, and |
lived; ate vigorously, and felt well, ex-
cept for the condemnation of the sur
gcon, which seemed to settle it that
ought TO have died within twenty four
hours. My persistency, not alone In
living, but in feeling we'll, excited re-
newed attention, and the case was re-
exgamined. II was then discovered that
the buckshot had struck rib, followed
its general course around to the front,
and buried itself In the abdominal integ
uments so deeply that il could not be ex-
tracted. And there IL lies to-day. A
heavy feeling in that vicinity sometimes
reminds me of it, and occasionally pain
from the spot where the shot entered;
but my life has probably not been short
encd day the wound.


Before Port Hudson, June 10, 1868,
Corporal Medbury, of my company, on
duty with fatigue party constructing a
military road, was seriously wounded by
a mimic ball striking him just back Of
the right shoulder joint. The wound
was probed, the ball lay too deep to be
extracted, the patient was considered as
fatally hurt. He was sent down TO New
Orleans and taken to hospital. A week
later found him there, with his arm in
sling, walking about, feeling cheerful
and expecting to recover entirely in a
few days. In five days after that Med
bury was confined to his bed; in two
days more he was dead! A post mortcm
examination showed that the bullet had
passed through one lung and half through
the opposite one. The death was caused
by gangrene modification and was
necessarily fatal from the first. The
curious part of the matter was that u
man should carry a fatal bullet in his
BODY for two weeks before his death,
should apparently recover from the
wound, and should shortly afterward die
of it,


Al the st. James Hospital, New Or
leans, on the pallet next me, in June,
1863 lay captain of the Fourth Wis
consin volunteers, helpless and suffering
with one of the strangest wounds that
ever saw. He had received it on the
9th Of May, in command Of his company
of skirmishers, creeping over the ground
in advance of the line of assault, among
the tangled forests and ravines before the
enemy's works. While working forward
upon his hands and knees he was struck
by mimic ball just below the hip. The
ball took circular course round the leg,
never touching the bone, but running
round through the muscles at least twice
between the hip and knee, there, skip
ping the kneepan, IL circled around twice
in the same way between knee and ankle,
and was finally extracted near the root.
The wound was one Of the most debilita-
ting and confning, as well as painful, but
not necessarily dangerous; but its course
and nature was most unusual.


A surgeon of the Second New York
mounted rifles told me that while before
Petersburg, in 1864, cavalrymsn came
in on his horse one day from skirmish
with one leg entirely torn of below the
knee by she'll, and hanging from the
scared and ragged stump was the dang
ling end Of the great artery, efIectually
closed up by the heat of the shell. II
was impossible that the patient could
live with such a wound the great wonder
was that he could have travelled mile OF
two on horseback without bleeding Ia
death; and it was quite as strange that
he lived three days after being placed in