Bite The Bullet

I’ve been made aware of a story that came out of the Civil War. We all have heard the story of “biting the bullet.” Do you know where that phrase came from? I always thought that it came for the Old West where someone was shot and they gave him a bullet to bite on while they removed the bullet.
In fact, during the Civil War the Union would provide their soldiers ammunition in little paper sacks. To open the sack you had to hold your mussel on one hand and the paper sack in the other and tear the sack open with your teeth. Pour in the powder, put in the bullet, put in paper for the wadding and then you could shoot. So to be a soldier you had to have two opposing teeth to bite the bullet.
Abraham Lincoln issued in March 3, 1863 the Enrollment Act of Conscription. An Ohio politician went to his desk one day and found a draft notice there. He didn’t want to go to war. He knew what the rules were and that weekend he went home and knocked out all of his front teeth so he could not bite the bullet. He probably was not amused to come back to work on Monday and find out that the letter was a fake orchestrated by his co-workers.
There is a moral to that story – to try to escape conflict is more costly that to engage in it. So many of us try to stay out of the conflict. But in reality we must be soldiers and engage the enemy. How are you doing at your post?

Sid