On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
to the right , when to my surprise I found myself suddenly up to the neck in water . Until then I was composed , but now all moral feeling left me , and driving through the water , with my sword still drawn , with great difficulty , although a good swi m * mer , I attempted to rush up the breach . In doing this I losf my sword . However , without rifle , sword , or any weapon of defence , I clambered up the breach , and came near to a cher
vaux defrise , * composed of swords revolving upon an axis ; but just before reaching it I was struck , on the breast ; whether by a grenade , a stone , or by the butt-end of a musket by some French soldier , who , seeing an unarmed man , did not think him worth the skivering ; I cannot say , but down I rolled and lay senseless , how long I know not , drenched with both water and blood . As my senses gradually returned , I perceived our
gallant fellows still rushing forward , each seeming to share a fatp more dreadful than my own . The fire continued horrible ; ijt appeared to me as if the mouth of hell had opened ; or as if some more than earthly volcano was pouring forth destruction on mankind . I now , strange as it may appear , began to feel if my legs and arms were entire , for at such moments a man , I believe , feels not his wounds . At this time , losing the
phrenzy of courage , which I had before possessed , 1 felt on a sudden all the weakness and cowardice , as it were , of any woman , and endeavoured to protect myself by squeezing * myself in among the dead bodies that surrounded me . As I lay in this condition , the fire still continued blazing over me . I now for the
first time for many years put up a prayer . The fire presently slackened from the breach , and I heard a cheering which I knew to proceed from within the town , and shortly afterwards a cry of " Elood and Ouns ! Where ' s the light division ? The own ' s our own ! Hurrah ! " I then attempted to rise , ut was so feeble that I could scarcely stir , indeed could not stand ! I now found that I had been wounded , I know not when , but
a ball had passed through the lower part of my right leg . Two others had passed through my cap , which I should have lost had it jipt been tied down under my throat with pieces of twine , as we had not then scales to our caps . At this moment , seeing two or three men moving towards me , and not knowing w&o
they might be , I laid down , but , as they approached nearer , I knew by their voices that they were some of our own inen . Again I sat up . One of them happened to be a man of my own company , named O'Brien ; the other , if I recollect right , longed to the 3 rd battalion " What ! is that you , Ned V exclaimed O'Brien , and , seeing the helplessness of my
situa-• A chevaux de / rise is an obstacle used in fortification , consisting of in hoiriiontalbeam of timber with pointed stakes radiating from its centre . It it ua * d to defend a pats , to form an impediment to jsayairy , or to stop , a breaqh . The Jfrtjyoh etf r ingenious , instead of wooden stakes , at Badajos , had recourse to radii of award *
Untitled Article
Fragments of a Soldier ' s ] tife < | 6 f 7
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 1, 1837, page 167, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1829/page/41/
-