Badly Shot But Not Hurt
Narrow Escape #13
Ironton Register 10 Feb. 1887
Submitted by Peggy Wells
“Well, Wash, you saw some of the war and must have a ‘Narrow Escape’ to restate for the Register,” said the reporter to H. W. DeWitt, formerly of Company H., 56th Ohio, but now a jolly miller at the Waterloo Mill for B. A. Boggess.
“Well,” said he, “I had several of what I thought were pretty close calls; some of them almost make the hair raise on my head yet, when I think of them. One that I consider a pretty close place occurred in 1863, May 3rd, at Champion Hill, Mississippi. ‘Double quick’ sounded along the line around twelve o’clock, when we usually take our dinner, but our meals were a little irregular. As a rule, we had two fights for one meal.
“Well, the boys were rather tired, but just after the command to double-quick up the hill was given, the rebel cannonade on our extreme right spurred some of us, and the officers’ oaths spurred some too, so we made good time up the hill. On the top, we came to a field of rye, heading out. Here, the usual order was given to dud ourselves.
I refused to do that, for on the first of May, we did that and lost our grub and everything else by it. I thought it was safest to keep our supplies close by us. We were formed into lines of battle and marched through this field into woods just beyond. Here we found the rebels in force – too much for us. We hurried back to the shelter. Reinforced and forward again.
“When we reached the brink of a ravine just in front of us, and a little to the right was the 11th Indiana in a tussle hand to hand over a rebel battery. I looked to the front and saw rebs formed. I think in seven columns, coming on a charge. The colonel ordered us to hold our fire, but it was not used; the boys couldn’t stand it, and they commenced to pop away at them. The poor boys of the 11th were nearly all killed, but they took the battery.
“The on ahead we marched – on down a bluff, at the foot of a road. On the lower side of this road was a lot of brush and logs. We thought this would be a great place to rest, but the rebels had thought of this too. They had appropriated the other side. Here was business again. It didn’t take long to convince us that the logs belonged to them.
The order was given, ‘every man for himself.’ John Shaw and I didn’t hear the order, so the other boys got the start on us. We started together. I was disadvantaged, having refused to unload when we went in. I had three days of grub, a coffee pot, a frying pan, and two blankets. However, I made a pretty good time.
“Shaw and I had both aimed to appropriate the same tree. Just as we reached it, I on one side and he on the other said, ‘Oh, I am shot, write home and tell my wife.’ And so he was. I had two holes in my pants, both just cutting the skin, and seven through my hat – three through the brim and four through the crown. Each one that went through the crown took a lock of hair but nothing more.
After the fight was over, we captured a lot of Johnnies. One of them told a tall fellow who had his blankets and frying pan with him that the pan made the nicest thing in the world to shoot at. I asked him where he was. He described the ground I had been over. I told him that it was me. The Texan laughed heartily and said, “Well, I made a specialty of shooting that pan.
“Out of our company, only seventeen were left alive, and 2/3 were out of the regiment, the 56th OVI Vets. The battle was known as Walnut Hill and Magnolia Hill and lasted two hours and 40 minutes.”
“But you saved your coffee and frying pan?”
“You bet I did, but they came near, making me lose my life.”
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