From an account by Army surgeon Richard Wiseman at the Siege of Taunton in 1645, during the English Civil War. Horrible & graphic, but please read to the end..
Quote:
One of Colonel Arundel's men, in storming the works, was shot in the face by case shot. He fell down and, in the retreat, was carried off among the dead; and laid in an empty house by the way till the next day; when, in the morning early, the colonel marching by that house heard a knocking within against the door.
Some of the officers, desiring to know what it was, looked in & saw this man standing by the door without eye, face, nose or mouth. The colonel sent to me....to dress the man. I went, but was somewhat troubled where to begin. The door consisted of two hatches: the uppeermost was open& the man stood leaning upon the other part of the door, which was shut. His face, with its eyes, nose. mouth & foremost part of the jaw with the chin, was shot away & the remaining parts of them driven in. One part of the jaw hung down by his throat & the other part pushed into it. I saw the brain working out underneath the lacerated scalp on both sides between his ears & brows.....
I could not see any advantage he could have by my dressing, but I helped him to clear his throat, ehere was remaining the root of his tongue. He seemed to approve of my endeavours & implored my help by the signs he made with his hands.
I asked him if he would drink. making a sign by the holding up of a finger. He presently did the like & immediately after held up both his hands, expressing his thirst. A soldier fetched some milk & brought a little wooden dish to pour some of it down his throat; but part of it running on both sides, he reached out his hands to take the dish. They gave it him full of milk. He held the root of his tongue down with one hand & with the other poured it down his throat (carrying his head backwards) & so got down more than a quart. After that I bound his wounds up
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Yes, its horrible & graphic, but its also heartbreaking & brings home the true horror & pain of war in a way that nothing in Tolkien does.
Does that make my point any clearer?