The Manliness of Taking Cover

From Gunpowder - Alchemy, Bombs & Pyrotechnics: The History of the Explosive that Changed the World by Jack Kelly

---

The author discusses the famous artillery duel on the third day of Gettysburg:

A natural instinct in the face of such a gunpowder storm was to dig. Yet the notion that such behavior was unworthy of a brave man still survived. At Gettysburg, Erasmus Williams of the 14th Virginia, forced to remain in place under the Yankee response to Lee's cannonade, began to dig a shallow pit using knife and bayonet. His lieutenant reprimanded him, "Why Williams, you are a coward." "You may call me what you please," Williams replied, "but when the time comes I will show up all right." The lieutenant proclaimed his own willingness to stand up and take whatever came. Early in the barrage he was smashed by a cannonball. His blood, Williams reported, "sprinkled all over me."

---