How it Feels to be Shot

Horowhenua Chronicle, 20 September 1911, Page 4

How it Feels to be Shot

e-—• -■ - General Nelson A. Miles, writing in the Cosmopolitan of his "Biggest Days of Battle," says that lie has often been asked how it feels to be wounded on the field of battle. His answer is to relate an experience of Chancellorsville. Before this, at Fair Oaks, and at Fredericksburg, lie had received slight flesh wounds, which disabled him but a short time. But at Cha.ncclloTsvillc lie was riding down the line, as he tells the story, when one of the enemy's bullets struck him in the belt-plate." "This caused a slight deviation as it entered the 'body. The result was an instant of deathly, sickening sensation ; my sword dropped from nu right hand; my scabbard and belt dropped to the left; I was completely paralysed below thewaist. My horse seemed to realise what had occurred; he stopped, turned, and walked slowly back, I holding on to pommel of the saddle with my hands. We soon reached a group of soldiers who took me off, and placing me in a blanket, carried me to the Ohain.eelorsville House. Here I remained until the house was struck by a bursting shell and set on fire. I was then taken out and carried five miles on a rested in the woods that night, and the next day was carried in an ambulance over a. rough corduroy road 12 miles to a field hospital. " Thence I was sent to Washington, where my brother met me and carried mo t£> my home in Massachusetts. 'Ivo weeks afterwards T was able to move slightly tine toes of my right foot, and the doctors concluded the bullet must be somewhere in the left side. A consultation was held, and after a thorough examination it was found that the ball ha'l crushed through the hip hone and lodged down in the strong muscles of the left leg. The bullet and broken bones were removed and after several weeks of convalescence I was able to return to the fie,ld. "I was always curious to know how close to me the man must have been who fired the shot as the force of his bullet was terrific. Many years afterwards, by acident, I discovered. and made the acquaintance of the Confederate soldier. In a letter to me he said: 'I used a sharpshooter's rifle at a range of about 180 yards. T aimed for vour heart, but think the motion of the horse carried the ball a little low. After what has occurred <hirinor these 36 -years. T am glad -T missed that shot."