Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 25, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1885 — General Grant’s Accident at Shiloh. [ARTICLE]

General Grant’s Accident at Shiloh.

On Friday, the 4th, I was-very much injured by my horse falling with 'me and on me while I was trying to get to the front, where firing had been heard. The night was one of impenetrable darkness, with rain pouring down in torrents; nothing was visible to the eye except as revealed by the frequent flashes of lightning. Under these circumstances I had to trust to the horse, without guidance, to keep to keep the road. I had not gone far, however, when I met General W. H. L. Wallace and General (then Colonel) McPherson coming from the direction of the front They said all was quiet so far as the enemy was concerned. On the way back to the boat my horse’s feet slipped from under him, and he fell with my leg under his body. The extreme softness of the ground from the excessive rains of the few proceeding days no doubt saved me from a severe injury and protracted lameness. As it was, my ankle was very much injured; so much so, that my boot had to be cut off. During the # battle, and for two or three days after, I was unable to' walk except with crutches. During the night rain fell in torrents, and our troops were exposed to the snow without shelter. I made my headquarters under a tree a few hundred yards back from the river bank. My ankle was so much swollen from the fall df my horse the Friday night proceeding, and the bruise was so painful, that I could get no rest. The drenching rain would have precluded the possibility of sleep, without this additional cause. Some time after midnight, growing restive under the storm and the continuous pain, I moved back to the log-house on the bank. This had been taken as a hospital, and all night wounded men were being brongt in, their wounds dressed, a leg or an arm amputated, as the case might require, and everything being done to save life or alleviate suffering. The sight was more unendurable than encountering the rebel fire, am} I returned to my tree in the rain.—Gen. Grant, in the Century.