Ninja-Yodeler t1_irynggm wrote on October 12, 2022 at 12:36 AM

I've always enjoyed the aplomb of supposedly striaght-faced having no more reaction to the cannon shot than looking down and saying "My god sir, I've lost my leg" to which Wellington replied "My god sir, so you have"

There's a similar story from someone's journal at the time of an officer having their arm amputated without any form of pain relief after the battle of waterloo, and the officers friend right outside the tent had no idea there was even an amputation going on (lack of usual screaming) until he heard his friend say "Bring that arm back, don't just throw it away over there, it has a ring from my wife upon the finger I would like"

1945BestYear OP t1_iryr9rx wrote on October 12, 2022 at 1:05 AM

Being very stressful and otherwise busy environments, I imagine that being on a battlefield, and especially having long experience on a battlefield, causes people to tend to diminish in their own minds events - such as serious yet non-fatal injury - that they would focus more on if they were afforded more tranquility.

I'm reading Redcoat by Richard Holmes, and it mentions an Irish soldier named John Dunn, who walked seven miles after a battle in the Peninsular War to see a captain in his company, George Napier, an Englishman who in contrast to many of his contemporaries had nothing but respect for the Irish soldier. Napier, recovering from a wound, noted that Private Dunn himself had a bandaged arm. Dunn (who had also lost a brother in the same battle), replied:

>Why sure it's nothing, only me arrum was cut off a few hours ago below the elbow joint, and I couldn't come till the anguish was over a bit. But now I'm here, and thank God your honour's arrum is not cut off, for it's mighty cruel work; by Jasus, I'd rather be shot twinty times.

Because of this visit by Dunn which made a lasting impact on him, Napier had told his sons;

> Whenever you see a poor lame soldier, recollect John Dunn, and never pass him coldly by.