Bible that stopped the ball: Amazing salvation during the US Civil War (Photo)
Merryll, was seriously injured, writes Smithsonian Magazine. In focus, technology appeared its Telegram channel. Subscribe not to miss the latest and most intrusive news from the world of science! The bullet touched his right eye, pierced the skull and stuck behind her ear. However, the second ball, directed in the chest, stopped the small Bible, which he kept in his pocket over his heart.
He was transported to a "lace house", a makeshift field hospital, where surgeons successfully pulled a ball, believing that his life was no longer threatening. They kept a musket ball in memory. Subsequently, Merryll was transferred to a hospital located in Washington, where Benjamin Perley Pur, a journalist, a diplomat and a person with significant connections in Washington learned about his history.
Like Merrill, Pur was a native of a Newberiport, and he felt a affinity with a young soldier and his family. He reported Merryl that their son was getting exclusive care in one of the best hospitals in the country, especially noting the selfless attention of the nurse, named Caroline Wippy. In the telegram and the next letter, Pura promised to oversee Merril's health, even suggested to accompany him in a future trip to the West Nuberi.
He added the decisive role of the Bible, which Merril gave the Reverend Foster, the same book that intercepted the second ball. Four days after the injury, Merrill remained conscious and optimistic about his recovery. In a letter to his parents, he acknowledged that because of his wound, he had a different appearance, but thanks to his improvement of the condition of "the good care of our Heavenly Father I was receiving, and hoped that we would be able to meet again.
" Merril undoubtedly understood the important role of the Bible that saved him from instantaneous death on the battlefield. He drew comfort from her presence, knowing that he was lucky to stay alive. His letter ended with the words of reassurance and asking not to tell younger family members about the loss of the right eye. Meanwhile, the news of the wonderful survival of Merrilla spread in Washington circles and reached President Abraham Lincoln.
Deeply moved by the fact that Merrill survived contrary to circumstances, Lincoln sent a soldier with a personal inscription: "Charles V. Merryll, 19th Massachusetsky, A. Lincoln, May 8, 1863. " Now this Bible is stored with the new Merrilli testament at the Phillips Library. Dan Lipkan, the director of the library, told "Merril was a native of the Essex County, [because] . . . It is quite appropriate that Merrilla's documents were in our library.
" On May 12, Pur visited Merrilla at the hospital, full of optimism about his recovery. And after the conversation, Pur went, promising to return later. However, the same day, at about 2:00 pm, there was a tragedy. Merril, lying in bed, suddenly shouted to another patient, calling Miss Wippi and showing that he was coughing. These were his last words. Surgeons immediately opened the wound on the head and feverishly searched for a torn artery. "His blood broke forward," Pur said.
"Internal hemorrhage began, and science could not stop it. " Twenty minutes later, Merrill died, "his soul [moved] to another and better world. " In West Tsuberi, the Merrylli family was looking forward to returning her son. William Merryll, Charles's father, went to Newberiport, waiting for his son's arrival. It was there that he received a telegram from Pura, which reported the news of the sudden death of Charles.
Despite the rescue, which Bible Merryla gave him on the battlefield, she could not turn away a ball that eventually took her life. Merrill is buried in the Walnut Hill Cemetery Cemetery in West Nuberi. As NewburyPort Herald noted in his coverage of the tragedy: "The mysterious ways of providence, and in one hour and in a way they didn't think about, he went to his eternal home and eternal friends in heaven. It was a bold, high -moral and intelligent young man, loved to everyone.