Another Sobering Moment

Following is another section taken from My Life In The Irish Brigade: The Civil War Memoirs Of Private William McCarter, 116th Pennsylvania Infantry by William McCarter. This is from the section about the Battle of Fredericksburg on December 13, 1862. Before the stone wall at Marye’s Heights on the edge of Fredericksburg the Union Army suffered over 12,500 casualties in December 13, 1862. General Burnside ignored the views of the generals under him that the attack was doomed from the outset, but Burnside sent them in insisting his plan would work.

Even as Union soldier lay wounded or cuddled against the ground, the Confederate troops kept shooting into them. It was not uncommon for a Union soldier using a dead soldier as a shield. Others sought little hovels or depressions to help shelter them. McCarter was wounded and unable to crawl off the field. He found a little ridge that could afford him some protection. To enhance his protection he used his rolled blanket.


As was the custom, these wool and gum blankets were rolled up lengthwise in rope form, probably six or eight ply thick, tied with a cord at the ends and slung over the left shoulder like a sash. In this manner, the troops went into action. Immediately after my comrade Foltz fell, bullets were flying so thick around me that the thought struck me to pull or work my blankets off my shoulder and to place them in front of my head. They would serve as at least a slight protection from the deadly missiles.

Fortunate, indeed, that I thought of this. Double fortunate that I succeeded in doing it. The prospect of death now seemed to increase. My clothing was being literally torn from my back by the constant and furious musketry fire of the enemy from three points. A ball struck me on the left wrist inflicting another painful but not serious wound. Another one which would undoubtedly have proved instantly fatal but for my blankets pierced through six plies of the blankets. It left me the possessor of a very sore head for six weeks after. With such force did this bullet come that for some time I really thought it had embedded itself in the skull. My blankets were the receptacles of 32 other bullets which dropped out when I opened them up the next morning in Fredericksburg.

McCarter was wounded three times that day, the one in the leg left him with a life long limp. I cannot imagine unrolling my blanket to find 32 bullets dropping out of it. No doubt one would feel most fortunate. It should be noted that the minnie ball was not a high power bullet and though it could still kill at 125 yards, its force was greatly diminished. McCarter was within killing range but at the end of it.