| Transcribed by Norma Knotts Shaffer from microfilm
of the Calhoun Chronicle dated 11/22/1898.
This is a campaign year, but there is no politics in the following
letter,
which was published a few weeks ago in the Buckhannon Delta:
"In the early days of the war of the rebellion, William B.
Smallridge,
of French Creek, W. Va., enlisted as a private soldier in Co. E of the
3rd West Virginia Infantry.
About the first of September, 1861, the above company, with two or
three
more of the same redgement, were marching down from Glenville, Gilmer
County,
this state, to a point on the Calhoun county line, some ten miles
distant,
and when near their destinathion the following order of march was
observed;
something over a hundred men were marching compactly in front, and
about
as many marching in the same way some two or three hundred yards in
the
rear. About midway between these two moving bodies of troops
marched
the subject of this sketch, with George Philips and Chapman McCoy on
his
right, when they were fired into from ambush by a party of
bushwhackers.
A ball evidently from a muzzle loading rifle, corresponding in size
to a 32 calibre pistol bullet, entered Mr. Smallridge's chest at the
lower
point of the scapula on the left side, passing thence directly through
the left lung and into the left ventricle of the heart.
The bullet struck his heart about exactly the center, but the force
was so completely broken that after breaking through the outer wall
into
said ventricle it was unable to penetrate the opposite wall, so
dropped
to the bottom of said cavity and was carried there by the living
victim
for more than thirty-five years.
The shot failed to knock Smallridge down, but it did knock him
perfectly
blind for a time and he dropped his gun, and as soon as his comrades
returned
the enemy's fire they assisted him to a house near where the head of
the
column was. Here the regimental surgeon probed and otherwise
examined
his wound and pronounced it fatal. On being told that he must
die,
Mr. Smallridge actually laughed at him, and told them he would do no
such
thing.
After waiting some time for him to die, a thing he persistently
declined
to do, and seeing with what tenacity he clung to life, a detail was
made
and by it he was sent in a skiff back up the Little Kanawha to
Glenville.
Here George Philips was detailed to nurse him, a thing he faithfully
did
for three weeks and at the expiration of this time he was so much
improved
as to be able to be brought by private conveyance to Weston, and after
a short rest, on home.
Mr. Smallridge never re-entered the service, but has lived a
neighbor
to us and operated a farm by us from that time till the 2 ult., when
he
answered the last roll call.
About three months ago he sent for Dr. G.O. Brown, and confided to
him
that there had been a good deal of speculation as to the exact
location
of that bullet, and that the chances were an autopsy would be
necessary
to settle the matter.
So the doctor's promise was secured that the vexed question should
be
settled as soon as might be after his demise.
Then as the last taps were sounded on Saturday the 2nd of October,
1898,
Dr. Brown associated himself with Dr. O.B. Beer and the two repaired
to
Mr. Smallridges residence on the following day and faithfully redeemed
said promise.
The post mortem revealed the facts precisely as stated above, and
as
incontestible proof of same, Dr. Brown has that portion of the heart,
containing
the bullet, preserved in alcohol in his office, and the bullet has
never
been removed from the spot where it has lain all these years, and
where
it has become firmly imbedded. The annals of surgery are
challenged
for a parallel. - Henry Colerider | 
