168 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



been recorded by spectators, there is a general agreement that 

 symptoms do not at all correspond in kind or severity to the 

 injury.* Hence phenomena appearing at first thought remarkable 

 may be accepted as not uncommon, considering the unrecorded 

 instances. 



I class as remarkable the cases of Nolan, Hooker, Farnsworth, 

 the Georgia major, the beheaded sergeant, the wounded prisoner, 

 and the man skylarking in bayonet practice, and will add that of 

 General Albert Sidney Johnston, killed at Shiloh ; and it is proper 

 to state that this collection sprang originally from an effort to 

 bring together the same order of phenomena without reference to 

 antecedent causes. Further investigation proved that, of these 

 cases, Nolan, Hooker, Farnsworth, the Georgia major, and John- 

 ston certainly, and presumably the Massachusetts sergeant, had 

 the highest order of emotional stimulation at work before closing 

 into the heat of action. 



It was Nolan's first chance in real war. He had served on rou- 

 tine headquarters duty until that day, and being sent to the front 

 in a crisis, he galloped his horse down a rocky steep where no hoof 

 had ever before trodden. On delivering an order to the division 

 commander, words ensued as to its meaning, and Nolan's excite- 

 ment was increased. When at last the Light Brigade started and 

 went wrong, he kept the intended course alone, saying, with all 

 the powers of voice and gesture he could command : " This way, 

 this way ! For Heaven's sake, not that way ! " While so engaged 

 he was hit in the most vital spot in the body, yet warlike action 

 was persistent to an almost supranatural extent. 



Hooker had just received command of a corps; there was 

 rivalry between him and others ; he was honored with the lead in 

 the most important attack ; the enemy's resistance was unexpect- 

 edly stubborn, the carnage frightful above all experience on any 

 American battle-field, and on him rested the responsibility of 

 success that would glorify the whole army and the nation. 



Farnsworth, on being asked to lead a cavalry charge over a 

 field strewed with bowlders and swept with cannon, demurred, and 

 his chief said to him tauntingly, " If you will not lead your bri- 

 gade in, I will." " Where my brigade goes, I will lead," was the 

 answer, and he sounded the charge. He found a slaughter-pen as 

 he had expected, was hemmed in, and with fifty followers started 

 to cut his way through a double line of Confederate infantry. 



* The small missiles which inflict the majority of war wounds strike fewer nerves of 

 pain than do the instruments of injury in ordinary collisions, where large areas of skin 

 surface are bruised or lacerated ; their execution is also more rapid. The instantaneous 

 collapse following violent symptoms of warlike vigor is also a peculiarity of battle-field 

 life. Violent mental and muscular actions have swiftly depleted the reserve forces, and, 

 where collapse would be slow under normal strains, it is swift in abnormal cases. 



