Need an injury to fit my scenario

benbenberi

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Help! I need to hurt my character.

The scenario: The setting is roughly 17th century. Deadly weapons on hand: pistols, muskets, swords, horses. My character (I'll call him Bob) is one of the generals besieging a town. His side has just been overrun by a relieving force; his role at the moment is to command an orderly withdrawal. In the course of this battle Bob is injured & taken prisoner. The next day he is manacled & escorted on horseback through a forest, where he escapes (still on horseback). The captor needs Bob on the horse because he knows Bob's men will want to rescue him & sends his carriage under guard on the main road as a decoy to lure the rescue party off the scent. The captor also secretly wants Bob to escape, so he sets up an opportunity that Bob immediately takes.

So... I need to figure out the initial injury, received in the course of a somewhat chaotic cavalry action, which incapacitates him to the extent that he can be taken off the field by the enemy but still makes it reasonable for his captor to put him on horseback for an expected long ride the next day, & for him to be able to break away & stay on the horse long enough to make a good escape through rough wooded terrain. After these strenuous events he'll get a couple of days off to rest & recuperate, then he has to get back on that horse & find his army again...

My first thought was that old chestnut, hit him on the head and knock him out for a while. But I know the classic "hard head" trope is deprecated these days, & actual brain injury is definitely not in the cards for Bob at this point in the story. He also needs his limbs mostly intact, because he has to ride & he has to have manacles on his wrists. (That's non-negotiable plot stuff.) I am currently considering something like a glancing blow that's momentarily dazing & bleeds heavily. But I'm not sure that's the best thing. Anybody have a better way to batter Bob?
 
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neandermagnon

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How easy is it to ride a horse with a leg injury? One that would make him drop to the ground, unable to walk, but still be able to ride a horse as he doesn't need to put his weight on the horse. He may need help getting onto the horse, he could in theory get off by sliding off and landing on his good leg. I'd assume that moderately serious cut on the leg (e.g. with a sword - deep, but not severing any artery) would look bad enough and make him fall to the ground and be carried off, injured. The bleeding would stop after a while. While sore, he'd likely be able to walk (even if with a limp) and ride a horse. The biggest risk to life from that would be that it gets infected leading to sepsis, but that's not inevitable especially if he's young and generally fit and well. He may be able to sterilise the wound with alcohol (whisky or anything stronger) or honey (unprocessed honey has antibacterial properties and also draws fluids out of the wound which lessens the chance of infection).

A broken limb would make walking out of the question and you'd have to check with someone who rides horses how plausible it would be for him to ride a horse - life or death situations means that adrenaline/endorphins enable people to carry on in spite of injury. I'd find it plausible albeit with help getting on the horse due to his weight not being on his leg, but I've maybe ridden a pony twice in my entire life (with help/supervision lol) so you probably want to get an experienced rider's opinion on that. Not sure how he'd break an ankle or leg - maybe someone drags/pushes/pulls him off a horse and he lands awkwardly.
 
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Siri Kirpal

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Sat Nam! (Literally "Truth Name"--a Sikh greeting)

What you want is a wound that bleeds but doesn't reach a major organ or break a bone.

Blessings,

Siri Kirpal
 

cmhbob

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You typically need both legs to steer/guide a horse. Something that makes it hard to move a leg will make it harder to control the horse; he'd have to compensate with more work on the reins. You'd have to check with someone knowledgeable about historical riding techniques, but I'd think he could still ride with a bruised shoulder or sprained wrist.
 

Marissa D

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Being knocked from his horse and suffering a dislocated shoulder and/or bruised ribs? The shoulder can be popped back into place pretty easily, but he'll be sore and not really in fighting shape for a few days though not incapacitated.
 

frimble3

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Does he actually need to be injured, or is it merely a device to get him caught? He's overseeing the withdrawal, I gather from your OP that none of his junior officers, or troops, are near enough to save him - so, he's hanging back, keeping an eye on the last of the soldiers, when a small party of the enemy, having spotted that he's vulnerable, look to grab him. One of them either shoots his horse or startles it, causing the horse to rear, throwing the general, who's a good rider, but distracted.
He falls heavily, onto his back, knocking the wind out of him. In the minute it takes him to get his breath back and think "Have I been shot?" (because he's in a battle, after all) the enemy pounces on him, and boom! Bob's your prisoner. They were right nearby, hoping for a chance like this, and seized the moment.
Bob is unscathed, but feeling like an idiot, and possibly with bruises, etc. but nothing too incapacitating, just enough to leave him stiff and sore for a couple of days.
 

MaeZe

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Being knocked from his horse and suffering a dislocated shoulder and/or bruised ribs? The shoulder can be popped back into place pretty easily, but he'll be sore and not really in fighting shape for a few days though not incapacitated.

Dislocated shoulder is good, but the stretched tendons will be sore and the shoulder easily re-dislocated without time to heal (weeks). Still it could work.

There's nothing wrong with a head injury done right. If you are only unconscious for a minute or less that would be time enough to be captured. He could suffer that and be fine shortly after, maybe a tad groggy to make the injury more realistic. Getting knocked off a horse, hitting one's head on a rock would work fine.


The way head injuries are done wrong are many, but there are actual ways to do a head injury right.
 

Catherine

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Fractured ribs (non-displaced) could work for your scenario.
 

talktidy

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Rib injuries came up on another thread and the consensus was that characters sustaining such injuries would be severely physically limited and suffering absolute agony, even if the ribs were bruised rather than broken.

Not sure how your guy would get atop a horse (the offices of a none too gentle third party?), but if he did get up there, I'm thinking he would maybe pass out with the pain. That, however, might serve your purpose.
 

PyriteFool

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I fell off a horse when I was a kid and was minorly concussed. Basically one minute I was riding then falling, then next thing I know I'm lying on the ground with a splitting headache. It stayed like that for a few days, but I was fine otherwise. Parents didn't even let me miss school :p I was certainly out of it long enough to be surrounded by enemy soldiers.
 

MaeZe

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Twice I was knocked out for seconds. Once a large brick fell on my head off a brick wall. Everything went black but only for seconds. The second time I was a teenager playing on a playground merry-go-round. The guys pushed it really fast. My hands simply could not hold on against the centrifugal force and I flew off. Again everything went black for a few seconds.

I don't recall any problem after.

As a nurse I had a patient in the hospital once, a teen who was hit on the head with a bat and knocked out. He was really groggy all night but OK by the morning. You can write anything in between to fit your story and it will be medically correct.
 

Bren McDonnall

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Keep in mind that most (European) armies of the time considered it dishonorable to shoot at officers. The Brits were terribly disappointed in the American colonists who insisted on picking them from their horses at range.

With that in mind, the falling off the horse suggestions make the most sense. Here's another in that vein. Have them shoot (or stab) the horse out from under him. One of the common problems of the day was having the dying beast fall on top of the rider. having a horse fall on, say, your leg as you're trying to disengage the stirrup would put you in a right pickle, waiting for the pursuing troops to lift the animal off of you and take you prisoner.

Depending on the ground, the fall might or might not break the leg beneath the horse. An unbroken but badly bruised leg or twisted ankle would be very painful and certainly inhibit movement, but would not be as debilitating as an outright break. The character would be able to hobble away. The ankle wound would also allow the character to ride, where the bruised shin or leg might not.