How It Feels To Be Shot.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVLI, Issue 10, 6 September 1911, Page 37

How It Feels To Be Shot.

General Nelson A. Miles, writing in the ‘•Cosmopolitan” of his ‘‘Biggest Days of Bai fie." says that In* has often been asked how it feels to be wounded on tin* field of battle. His answer is to relate an experience at Chancellorsville. Before this, at Fair Oaks, and at Fredericksburg. he had received slight flesh wounds, which disabled him but a short time. But at ( hanecllorsx ilh* Ik* was riding down Ihe line, as h(* tells ihe story, when "one. of the enemy's bullets struck, with great force, my metallic belt-plate.” ’’lbis caused a slight deviation as it entered the body. 'l'he result was an instant of deathly, sickening sensation; my sword dropped from my right hand; my scabbard and belt dropped to the left; [ was completely paralysed below the waist. My horse seemed to realise what had occurred ; he stopped, turned, and walked slowly back. 1 holding on to the 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 Chancellorsville House. Here I remained until the house was struck by a bursting shell and set oji fire. L was then taken out and carried five miles on a stretcher, 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 me to my home in Massachusetts. Two weeks afterward T was able to move slightly the toes of my right foot, and the doctors concluded the bullet must be somewhere in Ihe left side. A consultation was held, and after a thorough examination it was found that the ball had crushed through the hipbone and lodged down in the strong muscles of the left leg. The bullet and broken bones were removed, and after several weeks of convalescence T was? able io return to the field. “f Avas always curious to know how (dose to me the man must have been w ho fired t in* shot, as I In* force of his bullet was terrific. Many years afterwards, by accident, 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

150yds. I aimed for your heart, but think the motion of the horse carried the ball a little low. After what has occurred during these .30 years. I am glad I missed that shot.’”