In 1863, the United States of America and the Confederate States of America were in the midst of what we now call the Civil War. On June 1, 1863, nineteen-year-old Willis Meadows of Lanott, Alabama, joined Company G of the 37th Alabama Regiment. Willis was a fierce hunter who realized early on that missing a shot at wild game meant that he and his family would not have any meat on the table. Within days of his enlistment, his superiors recognized his shooting skills and made him a sharpshooter. One month to the day after his enlistment, July 1, Willis was helping defend Vicksburg from the Union army. Through a small hole in a sheet of boiler plate, Willis took careful aim and fired a single shot at a time at Union soldiers so as not to give his position away. He waited several minutes before firing again so the enemy could not pinpoint his position. Every few minutes, Willis took down another soldier.
21-year-old Peter Knapp and three other members of the 5th Iowa volunteers were ordered to eliminate the sniper. They slowly scanned the area while they awaited another shot. Finally, Peter saw a flash come from the small hole in the boiler plate. Peter was a crack shot as well. As Willis peeked through the hole in search of another target, Peter fired. The one-ounce cone-shaped bullet went through the same hole Willis had been firing through and struck him, Willis, in his right eye. Peter saw Willis collapse and knew he was either dead or dying. Peter and the other three reported that they had eliminated the sharpshooter and were sent on another assignment.
A short while later, a Union soldier found Willis and realized that he was still alive. He and other Union soldiers took Willis to their surgeon who transferred the wounded sharpshooter to a federal hospital. Doctors operated on Willis and concluded that it would be too dangerous to try to remove the bullet. They stopped the bleeding and hoped for the best. Despite the doctors’ grim prognosis, Willis’s condition slowly improved. Except for the loss of his right eye, Willis regained his health. Willis was eventually paroled and returned to Alabama.
58 years later, Peter was reading the newspaper when he read Willis’s incredible story. He soon realized that Willis was the man he shot and whom he thought he had killed. Peter wrote to Willis and they began corresponding back and forth for the remainder of Willis’s life. The newspaper article which turned former enemies into friends was published on March 22, 1921. On the day before, Willis, then 78 years old, was in his kitchen when he began coughing. His coughing progressed into a coughing fit. Willis held his handkerchief over his mouth, but nothing he tried would ease his coughing. After several long minutes, Willis’s coughing ended abruptly when something struck his handkerchief. He lowered the handkerchief from his mouth and stared in amazement. 58 years after being shot through the eye and left for dead, Willis coughed up Peter’s bullet.
Sources:
1. The Wellston News (Wellston, Oklahoma), April 1, 1921, p.2.
2. Phillips County News (Malta, Montana), September 8, 1921, p.1.
3. “March 14, 1921 Coughing up Bullets,” Cape Cod Curmudgeon, March 24, 2018, Accessed August 30, 2026, https://todayinhistory.blog/