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I was looking for something else yesterday and came across this article from the April 16, 1863 Gallipolis Journal – Gallipolis, Ohio. It kind of speaks for itself.
“How a Man Feels in Battle. – There can be nothing more puzzling than the analysis of one’s feelings on a battle-field. You cannot describe them satisfactorily to yourself and others. – To march steadily up to the mouths of a hundred cannon, while they pour out fire and smoke and shot and shell in a storm that mows the men like grass is horrible beyond description – appaling. It is absurd to say a man can do it without fear. During Hancock’s charge at Fredericksburg, for a long distance the slope was swept by such a hurricane of death that we thought every step would be our last, and I am willing to say, for one, that I was pretty badly scared. Whatever may be said about ‘getting used to it,’ old soldiers secretly dred a battle equally with new ones. But the most difficult thing to stand up under is the suspense while waiting, as we waited at Fredericksburg, drawn up in line of battle on the edge of the field, watching the column of smoke, where horses and men and colors go down in confusion, where all sounds are lost in the screaming of shells, the cracking of musketry, the thunder of artillery, and knowing that our turn comes next, expecting each moment the word ‘Forward.’ It brings a strange kind of relief when ‘forward’ comes. You move mechanically with the rest. Once fairly in for it, your sensibilities are strangely blunted – you care comparatively nothing about the sights that shocked you at first – men torn to pieces by cannon shot become a matter of course. At such a time there come a latent sustenance from within us, or above us, which no man anticipates who has not been in such a place before, and which most men pass through life without knowing anything about.”
Submitted by:
Linda Trent
lindatrent@zoomnet.net
“How a Man Feels in Battle. – There can be nothing more puzzling than the analysis of one’s feelings on a battle-field. You cannot describe them satisfactorily to yourself and others. – To march steadily up to the mouths of a hundred cannon, while they pour out fire and smoke and shot and shell in a storm that mows the men like grass is horrible beyond description – appaling. It is absurd to say a man can do it without fear. During Hancock’s charge at Fredericksburg, for a long distance the slope was swept by such a hurricane of death that we thought every step would be our last, and I am willing to say, for one, that I was pretty badly scared. Whatever may be said about ‘getting used to it,’ old soldiers secretly dred a battle equally with new ones. But the most difficult thing to stand up under is the suspense while waiting, as we waited at Fredericksburg, drawn up in line of battle on the edge of the field, watching the column of smoke, where horses and men and colors go down in confusion, where all sounds are lost in the screaming of shells, the cracking of musketry, the thunder of artillery, and knowing that our turn comes next, expecting each moment the word ‘Forward.’ It brings a strange kind of relief when ‘forward’ comes. You move mechanically with the rest. Once fairly in for it, your sensibilities are strangely blunted – you care comparatively nothing about the sights that shocked you at first – men torn to pieces by cannon shot become a matter of course. At such a time there come a latent sustenance from within us, or above us, which no man anticipates who has not been in such a place before, and which most men pass through life without knowing anything about.”
Submitted by:
Linda Trent
lindatrent@zoomnet.net
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