FIRST ACTIONS OF WOUNDED SOLDIERS. 155 

 FIRST ACTIONS OF WOUNDED SOLDIERS. 



By GEOEGE L. KILMER. 



AFTER observing for thirty years the questions of the curi- 

 ous on the subject of battle-field experiences, I should say 

 that nine times out of ten the one first asked by a layman, old or 

 young, relates to the sensations of a soldier when wounded. 

 Even though the questioner has been maimed in a railway 

 smash-up, or torn or fractured or bruised in some peaceful and 

 therefore safe (?) occupation, the interest is the same, on the sup- 

 position, doubtless, that to be hurt by one of the engines of 

 destruction in war is productive of unique sensations. 



First of all, generalizations will not cover this intricate and 

 expansive subject. An infantry soldier at Gaines's Mill, who 

 was hit in the knee by a bullet and ultimately died of the wound, 

 said that he thought he had run against a standing thistle ; and 

 the fact that he marched on, until his comrades drew his attention 

 to blood flowing down his leg, indicates that he did not make too 

 light of the first sensation. An officer, whose ankle was shattered 

 by a bullet as he stood upon a pile of fence-rails to reconnoitre, 

 thought that a rail had turned under his weight and sprained the 

 joint. He felt only a slight burning sensation, although the 

 wound proved a mortal one in the end. On the other hand, a 

 strapping, coarse-grained fellow, whom I knew well, and often 

 remarked making light of the very idea of pain and suffering, 

 quickly collapsed under a wound that he survived. And well he 

 might. He was hit by a section of mortar-shell weighing three 

 or four pounds that cut edgewise through his thigh, bone and 

 all. He happened to be resting with his thighs across a small 

 log that served as a block to the jagged cleaver. I was look- 

 ing into his face, about to speak to him, at the very moment the 

 missile struck, and, despite his callous fiber and almost brutal 

 stoicism, he winced as though he felt exactly as a human being 

 might be supposed to feel under such a blow all " broken up " 

 by the calamity. 



"Wounds that almost kill on the spot seem to be the least felt 

 at the outset. Slight ones often produce enough disturbance to 

 suggest the work of a dozen death-hurts. A spent missile that 

 only raises a lump will make the victim feel as though an arsenal 

 full of balls had struck him ; and often soldiers with ghastly mor- 



ism, are Von Sybel, of Berlin, and Philip Schaff, of New York. And it should be added 

 that the latter went with commendatory letters from eminent prelates of the Catholic 

 Church in Europe and America. For the closing citation, see Canon Farrar, History of 

 Interpretation, p. 432. 



