The Last Shot

by Frederick Palmer

Excerpt from The Last Shot: This story of war grew out of my experience in many wars. I have been under fire without fighting; known the comradeship of arms without bearing arms, and the hardships and the humors of the march with only an observer's incentive. A singular career, begun by chance, was pursued to the ends of the earth in the study of the greatest drama which the earth stages. Whether watching a small force of white regulars disciplining a primitive people, or the complex tactics of huge army against huge army; whether watching war in the large or in the small, I have found the same basic human qualities in the white heat of con ict working out the same illusions, heroisms, tragedies, and comedies.
The fellowship of campaigning made the cause of the force that I accompanied mine for the time being. Thus, one who settles in the town of A absorbs its local feeling of rivalry against the town of B in ath lctic games or character of citizenship. To A, B is never quite sportsmanlike; B is provincial and bigoted and generally inferior. But settle in B and your prejudices reverse their favor from A to B.
Yet in the midst of battle, with the detachment of a non-combatant marvelling at the irony of two lines of men engaged in an effort at mutual extermination, I have caught myself thinking with the other side. I knew why my side was busy at killing. Why was the other? For the same reasons as ours.

476 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1914

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Frederick Palmer (1873 - 1958) was an American writer and war correspondent. He was born in Pleasantville, Pennsylvania and was the subject of the biography Fifty Years at the Front: The Life of War Correspondent Frederick Palmer. Works by Palmer include: Lucy of the Stars (1906), The Big Fellow (1910), The Vagabond (1910), Danbury Rodd, Aviator (1910), Over the Pass (1912), The Last Shot (1914), - a novel about a fictional major European war, from the point of view of a small set of soldiers and civilians. Written before the start of WW1. - My Year of the War (1916), - Palmer's account of his experiences as a journalist, starting the day WW1 was declared. - My Second Year of the War (1917), - Palmer's account of his second year as a WW1 Journalist - and With My Own Eyes (1933).