i 5 8 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



other than the shriek of a corpse. The dead horseman rode on 

 till he passed through the interval of the Twelfth Light Dra- 

 goons. Then at last he dropped out of the saddle/' 



The line between Nolan living and Nolan dead was very nar- 

 row, yet the uplifted arm * and the battle-shout ending in an un- 

 earthly yell would indicate that the soul of the warrior domi- 

 nated every element of activity so long as any activity remained. 

 Had Nolan been trotting along in the ranks of the six hundred 

 with no other thought than that of keeping in line and getting 

 ahead, he would doubtless have gone to the ground like a bolt 

 under that blow. 



An experience of the same nature, but at the other extreme, 

 was that of General Joseph Hooker at Antietam. On the morn- 

 ing of the 17th of September, being in the presence of the enemy 

 with his corps, he began a movement to seize high ground on his 

 front, and was compelled to pass lengthwise of the Confederate 

 line within range of hostile batteries. Soon a strong body of the 

 enemy showed itself in his pathway, and in the excitement of 

 making new dispositions, and routing and pursuing the Confed- 

 erates, the general, to use his own language, " was lifted to the 

 skies." " The whole morning has been one of unusual animation 

 with me," he wrote also. Yet at the end of the successful attack 

 he was removed from his saddle just as he was in the act of falling 

 from it, weakened by the loss of blood from a wound of which 

 he had not been conscious at all. A musket-ball had passed di- 

 rectly through the foot between the arch and the muscles of the 

 sole, the seat, as every one knows, of very sensitive nerves. Had 

 the general been in a state of moderate repose, as, for instance, 

 quietly watching the execution of some movement, the blow 

 would have unmanned him, for the moment at least. Intensely 

 preoccupied as he was and he had good reason to be, at that 

 stage of the battle he did not notice the blow or the sensations 

 that accompanied and followed it. He may have carried the 

 wound an hour or more before succumbing to the faintness. 



My attention was first drawn to this subject by a strange per- 

 sonal experience suspended animation in the body combined with 

 partial mental clearness. The facts were of a kind that could be 

 recorded with accuracy, and I am able to state them in detail. 

 We were in front of the enemy at Fredericksburg Heights, May 

 3, 1863, and were lying under the shelter of a low ridge, ex- 

 pecting to charge or to repel a charge. The term of service of 

 our regiment would expire the day following, and the troops 



* External pressure the weight of the sword and the pulling of the horse at the bit 

 would cause relaxation of grip in both sword and bridle hand, and collapse of the chest- 

 walls the strange expiratory cry. 



