137

"From the front, from the right, from the left, the bullets whistled & hissed"

Francis D. Morris.

A surgeon's letter describing his regiment's injuries at Peachtree Creek.

Vining's Bridge, GA, 7 August 1864
Autograph Letter Signed to A.H. Landis of Chattanooga, TN. 4 pages, 10 x 7¾ inches, on one folding sheet; mailing folds, minimal wear. With envelope lacking stamp and bearing Nashville postmark. 

Francis "Frank" Dunlevy Morris (1830-1864) of Hamilton, OH was the surgeon of the 35th Ohio Infantry. The letter was written to his assistant surgeon Abraham Hoch Landis (1821-1896), then recovering at home from a wound suffered near Kenesaw Mountain (he would later famously name his son after the mountain). Writing as one surgeon to another, the letter is rich in medical detail.

"We were ordered to occuppy some deserted rebel entrenchments in our front. . . . Companies A, B, & D were thrown out as skirmishers. They did not move far away from the entrenchments. They all testify that it was a hotter place than any they have been in since Chicamauga. They were exposed to a direct fire and also to a double enfilading fire. From the front, from the right, from the left, the bullets whistled & hissed. How any of them escaped is a marvel. Poor Capt. Daugherty was shot through the heart! Black of Comp. D was struck about the middle of the tibia of right fore leg, and the ball was divided in halves, and the sections passed around the bone at either side and lodged under the integument over the belly of the gastrocnemius. . . . The men were without any means of erecting defenses and had to take advantage of inequalities in the ground when they were in the open field, and where they were in the woods, a tree afford them a slight protection. Slight, because it was impossible to tell upon which side to take refuge."

Dr. Morris was soon sent home to Ohio due to illness, and died just a few weeks after writing this letter.

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