150th anniversary of my greatgreatgrandfather getting himself shot.

[dimbear]

Battle of Shiloh.
Never walked quite right after that, but still lived to be quite an old codger.

Kept a tobacco shop. Probably killed more people that way than he ever did during the war.

[raccoon]

1. How did you know that? from old letters? army records? nt

[dimbear]

3. He was a bit of a local celebrity in the tiny town where he died, and the paper carried

a summary of the events of his life. Somewhere I have a copy of his discharge papers. He must have had a pretty tough life, to be willing to take such terrible risks for a country he had just entered a few years before.
He did three enlistments in the civil war, and the time he got shot wasn't the last time he was in. You see how the dimbear tradition got started.

[raccoon]

4. Don't think I would've enlisted again....nt

[many a good man]

2. Mine was at Shiloh, too

Out of 101 in his company, he was one of only three to survive. Not a single one was shot, though - all died from disease hunkering down in the swamps for so long.

He also limped the rest of his life, from a bullet in the hip. I don't think he ever said where it happened. He was given a house and a govt stipend as a mule driver on the Ohio Canal even though it was never used after the CW.