Comments on: Unknown, 1st Rhode Island Infantry, On the Battle http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/unknown-1st-rhode-island-infantry-on-the-battle/ A Journal of the Digitization of a Civil War Battle Tue, 14 May 2013 19:21:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Harry Smeltzer http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/unknown-1st-rhode-island-infantry-on-the-battle/#comment-19365 Tue, 25 Oct 2011 12:08:31 +0000 http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/?p=9302#comment-19365 Yes, W. T. Sherman at Blackburn’s Ford famously admonished his men about trying to dodge shells, just before he himself ducked at the sound of one. He then qualified his chastisement, saying it was OK to “dodge the big ones.”

]]> By: T.K. Tortch http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/unknown-1st-rhode-island-infantry-on-the-battle/#comment-19349 Mon, 24 Oct 2011 03:20:27 +0000 http://bullrunnings.wordpress.com/?p=9302#comment-19349 “I dodged several; for if not crowded, you can dodge a cannon ball.”

Terrifying prospect, especially if you’ve got nowhere to dodge or drop to – as in an infantry line. And I’ve often wondered about that – you see in old paintings or engravings scenes of battle depicting shells or cannonballs in flight between lines or crashing into a line, and I was never sure how fanciful that imagery was. Looks like if you couldn’t dodge a bullet you could dodge a cannonball – though I guess distance from the gun mattered a lot in your chances.

Gah. Imagine having to advance into a battery of guns. Maybe no more lethal than advancing into machine gun fire, but the prospect of seeing the muzzles pointed at you and the flash as it went off, and no time to turn.

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