Sir, - Tom Humphries (Athens Notebook August 4th) referred to "General Sedgwick, the cocky Brit whose dying words were: `Don't worry men, they couldn't hit an elephant from this dist. . .' "
I believe Mr Humphries is referring to John Sedgwick (1813-64), US general, who during the Wilderness campaign made this inopportune remark while standing on a parapet facing the distant Confederate army (I enclose page 495 from The Little Brown Book of Anecdotes, 1985).
General Sedgwick is officially listed as having been killed in action in 1864 at the Wilderness in one of the Civil War's bloodiest battles. - Yours, etc.,
Francis J. Mooney Jr,
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