Some of the Indiana
regiments are utterly beyond discipline. The men are good, stout, hearty,
intelligent fellows, and will make excellent soldiers; but they have now no
regard for their officers, and, as a rule, do as they please. They came
straggling back yesterday from the top of Cheat unofficered, and in the most
unsoldierly manner. As one of these stray Indianians was coming into camp, he
saw a snake in the river and cocked his gun. He was near the quarters of the
Sixth Ohio, and many men were on the opposite side of the stream, among them a
lieutenant, who called to the Indianian and begged him for God's sake not to
fire; but the latter, unmindful of what was said, blazed away. The ball,
striking the water, glanced and hit the lieutenant in the breast, killing him
almost instantly.
SOURCE: John
Beatty, The Citizen-soldier: Or, Memoirs of a Volunteer, p. 75
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