"They was a corporal ..... I dont recall Grandaddy giving his name but
he
was kind of a colorful fellar. It was sometime in the Spring of '62, he
had
acquired a "bumble-bee" warshirt from family back home. He wore this
shirt
in the fight as it was supposed ot bring him luck and protect him from
bullets, I suspect it was some hoodoo out of the Teche . In addition he
wore
a "high welled" beaver hat. Grandaddy said he made quite a sight out
there
on the field.
Co B got into a rather hot little fight skirmishing one afternoon. This
fellow was an anchor on a skirmish line and was way out on the left.
During
the fight, a ball passed through his high welled hat near the band and
cracked his head. Naturally this knocked him ass over tea kettles,
when he
fell, his face ended up in the hat.
That ball had caused an ugly head wound cuttin a groove in his scalp
and
knockin him cold as a redfish. Well as you know head wounds like this
bleed
terribly. It wasnt long afore his hat filled with blood - the hole from
the
ball bein so far up.
The ned of it was that this Corporal drowned in his own blood. The
other
fellars was tied up in this fight and didnt have the presence of mind
to
check him till sometime later - by then it was to late and he had
drowned on
his own blood.
Grandaddy said that indeed the fellar wasnt killed by a bullet so to
speak.
So his lucky shirt had kinda worked. But it wasnt a good idea to
subscribe
to hoodoo and this is what he got in the end.