me
horribly wounded. One hobbled near me, a front leg gone at the knee.

Shells were flying overhead; cannonballs were ricocheting over the level
valley, throwing turf in the air, tossing the dead and wounded that lay
thick and helpless.

Some were crumpled like a rag, as if the pain of death had withered
them in their clothes; some swollen to the girth of horses; some bent
backward, with arms outreaching like one trying an odd trick, some
lay as if listening eagerly, an ear close to the ground; some like a
sleeper, their heads upon their arms; one shrieked loudly, gesturing
with bloody hands, 'Lord God Almighty, have mercy on me!

I had come suddenly to a new world, where the lives of men were cheaper
than blind puppies. I was a new sort of creature, and reckless of what
came, careless of all I saw and heard.

A staff officer stepped up to me as we joined the main body.

'You ve been shot, young man,' he said, pointing to my left hand.

Before he could turn I felt a rush of air and saw him fly into pieces,
some of which hit me as I fell backward. I did not know what had
happened; I know not now more than that I have written. I remember
feeling something under me, like a stick of wood, bearing hard upon my
ribs. I tried to roll off it, but somehow, it was tied to me and kept
hurting. I put my hand over my hip and felt it there behind me--my own
arm! The hand was like that of a dead man--cold and senseless. I pulled
it from under me and it lay helpless; it could not lift itself. I knew
now that I, too, had become one of the bloody horrors of the battle.

I struggled to my feet, weak and trembling, and sick with nausea. I must
have been lying there a long time. The firing was now at a distance: the
sun had gone half down the sky. They were picking up the wounded in the
near field. A man stood looking at me. 'Good God!' he shouted, and then
ran away like one afraid. There was a great mass of our men back of me
some twenty rods. I staggered toward them, my knees quivering.

'I can never get there,' I heard myself whisper.

I thought of my little flask of whiskey, and, pulling the cork with my
teeth, drank the half of it. That steadied me and I made better headway.
I could hear the soldiers talking as I neared them.

'Look a there!' I heard many saying. 'See 'em come! My God! Look at 'em
on the hill there!

The words went quicidy from mouth to mouth. In a moment I could hear the
murmur of thousands. I turned to s