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A Wisconsin Officer Suffers Heat Stroke And Surviv

War-date Union soldier's letter written in pencil by Quarter Master Sgt. John P. DeMerit, 29th Wisconsin, 6p. quarto, ink, near Fort Morgan, Alabama, March 18, 1865, and reads in part: "...We had marched I guess about two miles when I experienced a very strange giddy feeling in the head. My sight was confused & blurred. No noticeable pain accompanied these strange & indescribable feelings. I tried to shake off this strangeness by stirring about but to no purpose. Next I thought to get on to my horse I was leading, to see if that should not help me. This determination is the last I remember of the strange feeling. The next time consciousness returned must have been at the least calculation an hour & a half after & to fill up the gap of the day I should think it nearer four hours. When I came to myself I was laying in an ambulance. I felt sick at my stomach & vomited three times profusely....Medical attendance was obtained and before long I came out of the spasms but consciousness did not return for at least an hour & a half. The Surgeon I guess called it an epileptic fit and said if I had not had had a strong constitution would have died...The attack seemed almost as sudden & unexpected as a cholera stroke or the treacherous bullet of the Guerrilla. By suppertime I was free from pain..." With postwar note from 1894 indicating that he read a portion of the letter before an 1889 GAR reunion. Fine.

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