Strange Attitudes in Death.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 19, 20 December 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

Strange Attitudes in Death.

PnoF. 0. E. Buowx-Sequaud writes that at the battle of Williainsburg a United States Zomwo was shot directly through the forehead, as he was-3 climbing over a low fence, and his body was found m the last attitude m life — one leg half over the fenco, the body crouching backwards. One hand, partially clenched and raised to the level of the forehead, presented the palm forward as if to ward off an approaching evil. A brakeman of a freight car on the Nashville <fe Chattanooga Eailroad was instantaneously killed by a shot batween the eyes, fired by a guerilla. The murdered man was screwing down the brakes at ths moment of the shot. After death the body remained fixed, the arms rigidly extended on the wheel of the brake. The pipe which he had been smoking remained still clasped between his teeth. The conservation of the last attitude can take place m other circumstances than sudden death from wounds to the brain, the heart or the lungs, although an injury to a vital organ is the most frequent cause of that phenomenon. A detail of United States soldiers, foraging near Goldsboro N. 0., came suddenly upon a party of Southern cavalry dismounted. The latter immediately sprang to their saddles and, after a volley had been fired at them, they all but one rode away. That one was left standing with one foot m the stirrup ; one hand, the left, grasping the bridle rein and mane of his horse, the right hand clinching the barrel of his carbine near the muzzle, the butt of the carbine resting on the ground. The man's head was iumed over his right shoulder apparently watching the approach of ths attacking party. He was called upon to surrender, without responso and upon a near approach and examination he was found rigid m death, m the singular attitude above described. Great difficulty was experienced m forcing the mane of the horse from his left hand and the carbine from his right. On the battle-field of Beaumont, near Sedan, m 1870, the dead body of a soldier was found half sitting, half lying on the ground, delicately holding a thi goblat between his thumb and fore-finger and directing it towards an absent mouth. While m that position the poor aian had been killed by a cannon ball, which had. carried away the whole of hia head and face except the lower jaw. The body and arms had been suddenly seized at the Ume of death by a stiffness which produced the persistence of iho state m which they were when the head was cut off. Twonty-four hours had elapsed since the battle. — St. Louis Globe.