Crawled a Half Mile on my Belly: A New Yorker's Escape from Fort Wagner
W riting to his brother William H. Freeman in Freehold, New Jersey “with a broken smeller,” James Freeman of the 48 th New York described how he had been shot through the nose while storming Fort Wagner just a few days prior. “As we gained the ramparts, I got a ball square through my nose and one on the shoulder, the latter did not enter but raised a considerable lump and is somewhat sore,” he stated. “I am in no way seriously hurt and there is no necessity for my being in the hospital but it is orders and I had to come. I would leave the hospital today if I could get permission to get away from the awful smell which is just like that of a slaughterhouse. Many of the men are horribly mangled and in this hot climate, where there are so many patients, it is impossible to keep the hospital from smelling disagreeably. The cries and groans of the suffering are not very pleasing music to sleep by until you get used to it.” Freeman’s brief letter describing the fight at Fort Wagner first...