This canister ball from a six-pounder canister round wounded Henry Martyn Cheavens in the thigh during the Battle of Wilson’s Creek, August 10, 1861. Cheavens described his wound in his journal:
“I rose on my knees to load my gun, and a spent shot struck my canteen, bending it up. I had just finished loading when a No. 6 grape shot lodged in my right thigh 4 inches above the knee joint on the inside, nearly severing the muscle and nerves and breaking the bone 3 inches above the joint. It glanced downward and remained there for 5 weeks. I had no pain at the time. I heard its chug as it buried itself in the flesh, felt it strike the bone, but it deadened the flesh for several inches around. I turned to my next neighbor and said, I am wounded.”
Cheavens was taken home to Boone County and hidden in the attic of a Confederate supporter, Philip Self, while recovering from his wound.
After his recovery, he attempted to travel south to join General Sterling Price’s army, but was captured and held as a prisoner in Springfield and St. Louis, Missouri, and Alton, Illinois. After his exchange, he fought in battles in and around Vicksburg, Mississippi.
After the war Cheavens became a doctor and resided in Boone County, Missouri until his death in May 1920.
Image Courtesy Wilson’s Creek National Battlefield; WICR 11117
