Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 16.djvu/55

 Incidents of the Skirmish at Totopotomoy Creek. 49

ments of the man and the scattered contents of the camp-kettle lay mingled together on the ground before our eyes. It is said that from the fullness of the heart the mouth speaketh, but on this occa- sion speech came from the emptiness of one poor soldier's stomach, when looking upon the ghastly wreck before us, he exclaimed : "Lor 1, boys, just look, Joe Flint is all mixed up with our breakfast, and it aint fit for nothing!" Such want of sentiment, or feeling if you like, sounds strange and heartless to us now, but in those times of courage and every-day suffering, the hungry soldier's remark, finding an echo in the empty stomachs of his fellows, did not seem so much out of place.

Another incident I recollect as very characteristic of those times. There was in Company F a man by the name of Ford, who was so disfigured by a hump that his position in the company line always interfered with its proper dressing, and I generally left him in quar- ters when I wished the company to appear at its best.

Before this shelling of our position commenced, John Ford had been placed on the advanced picket line and his position happened to be in a sandy bottom near the creek, where he had sheltered him- self behind an uprooted tree. He could be plainly seen by many of the men, crouching low in the sand. In the midst of the cannon- ading a large mortar shell without exploding, fell in the sand a few feet from him, the fuse still smoking and spitting and an explosion momentarily imminent. John took in the situation at a glance, and doubtless arguing that if he jumped up to run, the shell might ex- plode before he got out of reach and tear him to pieces, and that the safest thing for him to do was to get down into the ground, commenced at once to work down into the sand with hands, legs and head. My attention was attracted by the men hollering " scratch John! scratch! she's agoing off!" and looking in the direction where I had last seen him, I witnessed an amusing spectacle. Never was a man more dead in earnest. The sand all around him was in commotion, and in the few seconds that the fizzing fuse gave him, he burrowed like a great gopher till nothing but the top of his hump could be seen as the loose sand settled around it. I held my breath expecting the next second to see the poor fellow blown to atoms. Then the explosion came with a tremendous jar that shook the ground and sent a hundred pieces of iron singing through the air. We all kept our eyes fixed upon the spot as the smoke and dust slowly lifted, when the first sight that came to view was the head of Ford, happily, still on his shoulders, and as he realized that he was