During a Major Civil War Battle, Both Armies Briefly Stopped Fighting to Watch a Fist Fight Between Two Opposing Soldiers Who Had Both Taken Cover in the Same Place

FISTFIGHT IN SAUNDERS FIELD

In the confused swirl of combat at Saunders Field, the fighting sometimes took on a peculiarly personal tone. John Worsham of the Twenty-first Virginia Infantry described one such encounter in his book, One of Jackson’s Foot Cavalry.

“Running midway across the little field was a gully that had been washed by the rains. In their retreat many of the enemy went into this gully for protection from our fire. When we advanced to it, we ordered them out and to the rear. All came out except one, who had hidden under an overhanging bank and was overlooked. When we fell back across the field, the Yankees who followed us to the edge of the woods shot at us as we crossed. One of our men, thinking the fire too warm, dropped into the gully for protection. Now there was a Yankee and a Confederate in the gully—and each was ignorant of the presence of the other!

After awhile they commenced to move about in the gully, there being no danger so long as they did not show themselves. Soon they came in view of each other, and they commenced to banter. Then they decided that they would go into the road and have a regular fist and skull fight, the best man to have the other as his prisoner. While both sides were firing, the two men came into the road about midway between the lines of battle, and in full view of both sides around the field. They surely created a commotion, because both sides ceased firing! When the two men took off their coats and commenced to fight with their fists, a yell went up along each line, and men rushed to the edge of the opening for a better view! The ‘Johnny’ soon had the ‘Yank’ down; the Yank surrendered, and both quietly rolled into the gully. Here they remained until nightfall, when the ‘Johnny’ brought the Yankee into our line. In the meantime, the disappearance of the two men into the gully was the signal for the resumption of firing. Such is war!”