[The following takes place during the opening states of the American Civil War, more specifically during the bombardment of Fort Sumter.]
On the parapet an accident had taken place. One of the guns had fired prematurely. Private Daniel Hough was in the process of ramming a cartridge bag into its muzzle, when the blast ripped off his right arm at the shoulder and flung him to the ground. A chunk of something hot whammed into a pile of nearby cartridges, which exploded, flinging about the detritus of the recent battle: broken brick and slate, lead and pieces of wood. Every member of the gun crew was wounded.
When poor Hough had enlisted in 1849, naming his occupation as “farmer,” he was twenty-three, but his hair had grown noticeably gray. In 1857, while stationed in Florida, he had shown signs of emotional problems. His commanding officer wrote the Adjutant General’s Office that Private Hough, “is so crazy as to be unmanageable and I would respectfully recommend that he be sent to the Insane Asylum.” He had always been a quiet person, and his condition was new. According to a medical examiner, Hough suffered some sort of emotional seizures during which he became uncontrollably “violent and unruly, assaulting anyone that might be in his way.”
In the summer of 1857 the army ordered Private Hough to Washington for treatment at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital for the Insane. In September the hospital staff concluded Hough was fit for service, and they returned him to his regiment. He may not have been completely cured – his records show that he was sentenced to Moultrie’s guardhouse in April 1860 – but for some reason the army had kept him on. Daniel Hough now became the first soldier officially “killed” in this war.
(Those South Carolinians who had died earlier – the soldiers killed in accidents or by disease – these did not count since war had not yet begun. Those workers and slaves who may have been killed in the bombardment were not soldiers.)
Before two hours passed Hough was buried in the sandy soil of the parade ground. A minister from Charleston, a grizzled ex-sailor named William B. Yates, performed the service, watched by members of the garrison and also by some of the Palmetto Guard, who had arrived to participate in the later ceremonies. Edmund Ruffin and some others placed a makeshift cross over the grave.
Source:
Detzer, David. “Ashes and Dust.” Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War. New York: Harcourt, 2002. 308-9. Print.
Further Reading:
can you get these on tape somewhere? I'd love to listen to these before bed and you keep coming up with these cool passages
(I know no one has cassette anymore I meant maybe digitally or something)