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Jacob Miller, a Union soldier, served in Company K of the 9th Indiana Infantry during the Civil War. On Sept. 19, 1863, during the battle of Chickamauga, a musket ball pierced him between the eyes, he fell backward and was left for dead on the battlefield. He distinctly recalled his captain say, “It’s no use to remove poor Miller, for he is dead.” Inclusive his name was printed in the newspapers among the killed. But not. He survived the war.
"...At last, I became conscious and raised up in a sitting position. Then I began to feel my wound," Miller recalled. "I found my left eye out of its place and tried to place it back, but I had to move the crushed bone back as together as near together as I could first. Then I got the eye in its proper place. I then bandaged the eye the best I could with my bandana.”
Miller’s other eye was so swollen, he could see nothing. Though blinded, he crawled through the battlefield over the dead and made his way to a field hospital. Fearful of being taken prisoner by the Confederates, he set out on a 15-mile journey to Chattanooga. Miller could only see a few feet ahead of him by holding open the lids of the swollen eye. Miller passed out along the roadside and was picked up by a man on horseback who took him to Chattanooga where he finally got his wounds dressed.
In excruciating pain, Miller begged every doctor he saw to remove the bullet. Surgeons were sure Miller would die if the bullet were removed, so they left it in until he reached home. Once in Logansport the doctors successfully removed about one-third of the musket ball. “Seventeen years after I was wounded a buck shot dropped out of my wound and thirty-one years after two pieces of lead came out,” Miller said. After the war received a pension from the government and could not work because of his wound. He married and had a son.
Miller suffered constant pain and fits of madness, and he would often wander aimlessly. While he could not remember names, he vividly recalled the details of how he was injured and his subsequent escape. The wound never healed and Miller died Jan. 13, 1917, at the age of 88.
"...At last, I became conscious and raised up in a sitting position. Then I began to feel my wound," Miller recalled. "I found my left eye out of its place and tried to place it back, but I had to move the crushed bone back as together as near together as I could first. Then I got the eye in its proper place. I then bandaged the eye the best I could with my bandana.”
Miller’s other eye was so swollen, he could see nothing. Though blinded, he crawled through the battlefield over the dead and made his way to a field hospital. Fearful of being taken prisoner by the Confederates, he set out on a 15-mile journey to Chattanooga. Miller could only see a few feet ahead of him by holding open the lids of the swollen eye. Miller passed out along the roadside and was picked up by a man on horseback who took him to Chattanooga where he finally got his wounds dressed.
In excruciating pain, Miller begged every doctor he saw to remove the bullet. Surgeons were sure Miller would die if the bullet were removed, so they left it in until he reached home. Once in Logansport the doctors successfully removed about one-third of the musket ball. “Seventeen years after I was wounded a buck shot dropped out of my wound and thirty-one years after two pieces of lead came out,” Miller said. After the war received a pension from the government and could not work because of his wound. He married and had a son.
Miller suffered constant pain and fits of madness, and he would often wander aimlessly. While he could not remember names, he vividly recalled the details of how he was injured and his subsequent escape. The wound never healed and Miller died Jan. 13, 1917, at the age of 88.
From:
medium.com
indystar.com
