The Colonel still having his doubts, asked where the ball hit him. Gill, raising his finger and covering the track of the bullet, said: “It went skewaggling this a way.”
Sure enough, a minie-ball had torn a hole clear across his breast, making an ugly looking flesh wound. Gill remained behind the tree until told to go and see the surgeon.
It is a fact that many new words were coined during the Civil War, some of them coming into general use and finding place in the dictionaries.
So far I have not seen Gill’s new word in the dictionaries, but surely it was a most apt description of how he was wounded.
Another member of our company was taking his coffee from the fire in the early morning when a stray, spent bullet from the enemy struck him in the head and knocked him down. He was taken back a short distance and the surgeon extracted a bullet flattened out and lying just under the scalp. He recovered, but the boys called him “Old bullet-proof skull,” or “Old hard head,” after that.
CHAPTER III.
That night, as the boys lay in line of battle, they discussed the doings of the day.
“Say, Will, how did you feel to be in battle today?”
“Well, Jim, the greatest strain was waiting in line of battle, either for an advance or to receive the enemy’s charge when I could do nothing, and hearing the booming of cannon and rattle of musketry in other parts of the battle field, I felt as though my heart was in my mouth, and there came a desire to run for a place of safety; but after we got into action, amid the smoke, dirt, excitement and noise, I forgot where my heart was and had no desire to run; fear had been displaced by a savage instinct to inflict injury on the enemy.”
Many have tried to explain the feeling while on the battle field, and it is probable that a battle affects men in different ways. However, we think Will’s description of the feeling is about right.