What Did he Mean

[WinterLeia]

As anybody who watched the film Gettysburg knows, General Hancock was famously wounded in the battle and refused to be taken from the field until the outcome was decided. The bullet evidently hit the pommel of his saddle and carried some of the debris into the wound with it, including a large nail. Although it would be several months of pain and a near death experience before a doctor finally figured out how to remove the bullet, Hancock fished the nail out himself while laying on the field wounded. One account I recently read said that he misidentified where the nail had come from, saying something to the effect that: "They must be desperate if they're shooting stuff like that at us." So, maybe I'm reading it wrong, but it sounds like he thought the Confederates were shooting nails at him instead of bullets. And I don't really understand why he would think that.

 

[OpnCoronet]

As anybody who watched the film Gettysburg knows, General Hancock was famously wounded in the battle and refused to be taken from the field until the outcome was decided. The bullet evidently hit the pommel of his saddle and carried some of the debris into the wound with it, including a large nail. Although it would be several months of pain and a near death experience before a doctor finally figured out how to remove the bullet, Hancock fished the nail out himself while laying on the field wounded. One account I recently read said that he misidentified where the nail had come from, saying something to the effect that: "They must be desperate if they're shooting stuff like that at us." So, maybe I'm reading it wrong, but it sounds like he thought the Confederates were shooting nails at him instead of bullets. And I don't really understand why he would think that.

If he said it, I would think he was being facetious, making light of the situation.

 

[Rebforever]

My Mom along with her brothers and sisters followed along behind freshly plowed ground picking up cut nails and other junk at battle of Piedmont.

She made the comment the nails were used in cannons.