A soldier in science : the autobiography of Bailey K. Ashford / [Bailey K. Ashford].

  • Bailey Ashford
Date:
1934
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: A soldier in science : the autobiography of Bailey K. Ashford / [Bailey K. Ashford]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    2 “Father, tell me a war story.” “Do you know how we made a regiment of Yankee in¬ fantry run at Antietam with only a couple of dozen pine logs? We knew we were to be attacked by a superior force, and we only had ammunition enough for a few rounds from our six field pieces. So we cut some pine logs and mounted them to look like cannon. When the Yanks made their first rush, we gave a yell and let drive from the flank with our six real ones. They took one look at the pine-log batteries that were ready to open up the next minute, concluded that they had been misinformed, and turned tail.” And then the hearty Virginia laugh. That was my dad’s only war story. “But mother says you were wounded in the throat, were captured, and escaped. All the other boys’ fathers tell lots of war stories. Why can’t you?” complained the small boy, deeply chagrined. My father, a handsome, bearded, dark-haired man with fine friendly gray eyes, replied with just the suspicion of a smile lurking in the corners of his mouth: “Bailey, when a gentleman is licked in a fair fight, he should have no more to say. Better to remember only that we fought for what we thought was right. The thing for you to be thinking of now is that we’re just one great people.” It may seem strange that I remember him, for he died in ’83 when I was not quite ten years old. But, although not talkative, he had a powerful and attractive personality. This brought him tremendous popularity and a large clien¬ tele. He was what doctors were in those days—both physi¬ cian and surgeon, but it was his great skill in surgery that filled his offices and prompted Tulane University to offer him the professorial chair in that specialty. He was al-
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