[The following takes place during the American Civil War.]
Men longed for home to the point that they actually wished to be struck by a Minié ball. A foot soldier wanted to be wounded “just severely enough to send me home for 60 or 90 days. I would kindly welcome such a bullet and consider the Yankee who fired it as a good fellow.” A story circulated of a soldier who stood behind a tree during a pitched battle and waved his arms up and down, hoping to catch a bullet. When an officer asked him what he was doing, he supposedly replied, “I’m feeling for a furlough.”
Source:
Jenkins, Sally, and John Stauffer. “The Hound.” The State of Jones: The Small Southern County That Seceded from the Confederacy. Anchor Books, 2010. 128. Print.
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