200 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Zouave with one leg half over a fence, body crawling forward, 

 one hand clinched and raised to level of forehead, with palmar 

 surface outward, as if to ward off evil. Williamsburg was fought 

 during a rain, but the men wore overcoats, the ground was low 

 and heavily wooded, the troops new to war — like those at Bel- 

 mont — and the mental strain and excitement would be favorable 

 to bodily heat. That field also brought forth a bit of the kind 

 of historical description termed fanciful. It is from the pen of 

 Warren Lee Goss, who has published several narratives of the 

 civil war. He was a soldier in the Union ranks at Williams- 

 burg, and states that after the engagement he visited the scene of 

 a charge in front of the Confederate fort. " Advancing through 

 the tangled mass of logs and stumps, I saw one of our men aim- 

 ing over the branch of a fallen tree which lay among the tangled 

 abatis. I called to him, but he did not turn nor move. Advanc- 

 ing nearer, I put my hand on his shoulder, looked in his face, and 

 started back. He was dead — shot through the brain — and so sud- 

 denly had the end come that his rigid right hand grasped his 

 musket, and he still preserved the attitude of watchfulness, liter- 

 ally occupying his post after death." 



A case reported to Dr. Brinton from Goldsboro, 2\T. C, is one of 

 the most striking on record, and it is to be regretted that particu- 

 lars as to atmospheric and other conditions are wanting. Other- 

 wise the details are most complete. A party of Union cavalry 

 met some dismounted Confederates, and the latter, taking alarm, 

 sprang to their saddles. The Union men fired a volley, and all of 

 the Confederates rode off save one. He was in position preparing 

 to mount, his face turned toward the advancing enemy, who were 

 about to fire again when their leader restrained them, and told 

 them to capture him. Riding up, they found a corpse with one 

 foot in the stirrup, left hand grasping the bridle and mane of the 

 horse, right hand clasping carbine near muzzle, stock resting on 

 ground. Every muscle was rigid in death, and it was difficult to 

 detach the fingers from the carbine, bridle, and mane. The body 

 was laid down, and the same positions and inflexibility were re- 

 tained by all the members. There were two wounds, one at the 

 right of the spine, emerging near the heart, the other in the right 

 temple. 



Another case reported at second hand to Dr. Brinton, but 

 vouched for to him, was that of a cavalryman of the Fourth Wis- 

 consin, who in a skirmish in Louisiana was shot through the 

 heart. His comrades placed him alone in a buggy, which was 

 dragged for an hour by a rope attached to a saddle, the man dying 

 meanwhile, and his body sitting bolt upright and rigid. 



The cases examined by Dr. Brinton were sufficient to fully es- 

 tablish all that he claims — namely, the existence of a rigor pecul- 



