out of battle once (an officer) at such a gait as
only fright could give, and when I asked him if he was wounded, he
replied, "Yes, my leg is broken in two places," when, as a matter of
fact, he had only a slight flesh wound. These incidents the reader
may think merely fiction, but they are real facts. A man in Company E,
Third South Carolina Regiment, having a minnie ball lodged between the
two bones of his arm, made such a racket when the surgeons undertook
to push it out, that they had to turn him loose; while a private in
Company G, of the same regiment, being shot in the chest, when the
surgeon was probing for the ball with his finger, looked on with
unconcern, only remarking, "Make the hole a little larger, doctor, and
put your whole hand in it." In a few days he was dead. I could give
the names of all these parties, but for obvious reasons omit them. I
merely single out these cases to show how differently men's nervous
systems are constructed. And I might add, too, an instance of a member
of my company at the third day of the battle of Gettysburg. Lying
under the heavy cannonading while Pickett was making his famous
charge, and most of the men asleep, this man had his foot in the fork
of a little bush, to better rest himself. In this position a shot
struck him above the ankle; he looked at the wound a moment, then
said: "Boys, I'll be ---- if that ain't a thirty days' furlough." Next
day his foot had to be amputated, and to this day he wears a cork.
Such is the difference in soldiers, and you cannot judge them by
outward appearance.

I here insert a few paragraphs from the pen of Adjutant Y.J. Pope, of
the Third, to show that there was mirth in the camps, notwithstanding
the cold and hardships:

* * * * *

PLAYING "ANTHONY OVER" AT HEADQUARTERS ON THE SEVENTH OF DECEMBER,
1862.

There was one thing that always attracted my attention during the war
and that was the warm fellowship which existed amongst the soldiers.
If a man got a trunk or box laden with good things from home, there
was no selfishness about it; the comrades were expected and did share
in the feast. While out on picket on the banks of the Rappahannock
River, when we were told that another regiment had come to relieve
ours, at the same time we were told that Colonel Rutherford had come
back to us; he had been absent since September, and we were all very
anxious to see him, for he was a charming fellow--whole-so