Dr. Asa Horr performed an important surgical operation upon
Mr. John Bell, Thursday evening, extracting a Minie ball which he received the
10th day of last August at the bloody battle of Wilson’s Creek. The surgeon at that time did not succeed in
finding the ball when he probed the wound, consequently imagined it was not in
there. The wounded, however, refused to
heal, and at last a hard lump was discovered deep in his groin. This proved to be the bullet, which the
surgeon has just so successfully removed.
John was left in the hospital at Springfield after the
battle, but he followed our retreating forces two miles, under the impression
he would have to take an oath not to bear arms against the Confederates, if he
fell into their hands. He preferred to
die rather than to take such an oath. – {Dubuque Times.
– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye,
Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, February 8, 1862, p. 2
