THE ECCENTRICITIES OF BULLETS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1043, 8 April 1882, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE ECCENTRICITIES OF BULLETS.

t ..At: the battle of Paoh Orchard, when , M'Qlellanwas making hie change of base, a Michigan infantryman foil to the ground as : if shot store dead, and was loft lyiug : in a j. : heap as the regiment changed position, The , ball which hit him first struck the barrel of ! his gun, glanced and'struck a button of! bis coat, tore tho watoh out of his vest pocket, [ and then.struck the man just over the Heart, , and was stopped there by a song-book in his shirt pocket. He was unconscious for three I quarters of an hour, an'-l it was' a full month , before the black and blue spot disappeared, ' At Pittsburg' Lauding, a momber of the ! Twcfth Michigan Regiment of fnfautry stooped to give a wounded man a drink from , his oantccn, Whiloin the act, a bullet, t aimed at his breast, struck the canteen, ! turned aside, passed through the body of a mau and buried itself in the leg of a horse. ' The canteen was split open, and dropped to '• the ground in halves. At the second battle , of Bull Run, as a New York infantryman , was passing his plug of tobacco to a comrade I a bullot struck the plug, glanced oil, and buried itself in a knapsack. The tobacco was rolled up like a ball of shavings, and , carried 400 ft. away. Directly in the lino of the bullet was the head of a lieutenant, and had not the bullot been defleoted, he would i cortaiuly have received it, As it was he had { both eyes filled with tobacco dust, and had to bo led to tho rear, At Brandy Station one of Custer's troopers had his left stirrup-strap cut away by a grape-shot, which passed between his leg and tho horse, blistering his skin as if a red-hot iron had been used. He dismounted to ascertain the extent of his injuries, and as he bentovcrabullotknockcd his bat olf and killed his horse. In the samo fight was a troopor who had suffered several days with a toothache. In a hand-to-baud fight he recoived a pistol ball in his right cheek. It knocked out his aching double tooth, and passed out of tho left hand corner of his month, taking along a part of an upper tooth, Tho joy of being lid of the toothache was so great that tho trooper could not bo made to go to the rear to have his wound dressed. An object, howover trifling, will turn the bullet from its true course, This was shown one day at the remount camp in Pleasant Valley. They Had a "bull pen" there, in which about 500 bounty jump ers and other hard cases were under guard. Once in a while one of these men would make.a break for liberty. Every sentinolin position would open fire, audit did not matter iu tho least if the man ran toward tho crowded camp.. On this occasion the prisoner made for the camp, and as many as six allots wore fired at him without effect. One of the bullets eutcred the tent of a captain in the Twelfth Pennsylvania Cavalry, He was lyiug down, and tho course of the bullet would have buried it in bis chest, Fortunately for him a candle by which he was reading lay on a stand between him and where the bullet; entered. This was struck and cut square in two, and the lighted end dropped to the floor without .being snuffed out. The ball was deflected, and buried in the pillow under the officer's head, passed out of that and through his tent into the one behind it, passed between two men and brought up against a camp kettle. There is in Detroit, Mich., a man who was wounded live times in less than ten minutes, at Pair Oaks. The first bullet entered his left arm: the second gavo him a scalp wound ; the third hit him in tho foot;. the fourth buried itself in hin shoulder j the fifth entered hia right leg, While he was being carried to the rear, the first two men who took him were killed. While his wounds were being dressed, an exploding shell almost buried him under an avalanche of dirt. Being removed further to tho rear, a runaway ambulance horse carried him half a milo-and bumped him out, and yet he is seomiugly halo and hearty, and walks without a liuip,— Phrenological fournal (New York),