... 

 ...  In one of the fights before Atlanta, a rebel
soldier, of large size, evidently a young man, was mortally wounded
top of the head, so that the brains partially exuded. He lived three
days, lying on his back on the spot where he first dropt. He dug with
his heel in the ground during that time a hole big enough to put in a
couple of ordinary knapsacks. He just lay there in the open air, and
with little intermission kept his heel going night and day. Some of
our soldiers then moved him to a house, but he died in a few minutes.