the war.

"'As that's no more men for the place, I steps for'ard myse'f. I'm not
thar a minute when I sinks down to the ground. I don't feel nothin'
an' can't make it out.

"'While I'm revolvin' this yere phenomenon of me wiltin' that a-way an'
tryin to form some opinions about it, thar's a explosion like forty
battles all in one. For a moment, I reckons that somehow we-all has
opened up a volcano inadvertent, an' that from now on Loosiana can
boast a Hecla of her own. But it ain't no volcano. It's my ammunition
waggons which, with two thousund rounds is standin' about one hundred
yards to my r'ar. The Yanks done blows up the whole outfit with one of
their shells.

"'It's strictly the thing, however, which lets my battery out. The
thick smoke of the two thousand cartridges drifts down an' blankets
what's left of us like a fog. The Yanks quits us; they allows most
likely they've lifted me an' my six brass guns plumb off the earth.
Thar's some roodiments of trooth in the theery for that matter.

"'These last interestin' details sort o' all happens at once. I've
jest dropped at the time when my ammunition waggons enters into the
sperit of the o'casion like I describes. As I lays thar one of my men
comes gropin' along down to me in the smoke.

"'"Be you hurt, Major?" he says.

"'"I don't know," I replies: "my idee is that you better investigate
an' see."

"'He t'ars open my coat; thar's no blood on my shirt. He lifts one arm
an' then the other; they're sound as gold pieces. Then I lifts up my
left laig; I've got on high hoss-man boots.

"'"Pull off this moccasin," I says.

"'He pulls her off an' thar's nothin' the matter thar. I breaks out
into a profoose sweat; gents, I'm scared speechless. I begins to fear
I ain't plugged at all; that I've fainted away on a field of battle an'
doo to become the scandal of two armies. I never feels so weak an'
sick!

"'I've got one chance left an' trembles as I plays it; I lifts up my
right boot. I win; about a quart of blood runs out. Talk of
reprievin' folks who's sentenced to death! Gents, their emotions is
only imitations of what I feels when I finds that the Yanks done got me
an' nary doubt. It's all right--a rifle bullet through my ankle!

"'That night I'm mowed away, with twenty other wounded folks, in a
little cabin off to one side, an' thar's a couple of doctors sizin' up
my laig.

"'"Joe," says one, that a-way, "we've got to cut it off."

"'B