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.