The record of Darbish’s birth is a fascinating one, possibly exaggerated, as it came from the man himself, in his autobiography, Look Upon Me, O Mother, and Grin Once Again: The Life of Darbish Paloof, Character-Artist and Comedian.  In it, he writes:

As my mother strained to resist the coming of her newborn infant child, Sergeant Grimes did scream for her to return her bayonet to her rifle.  The Confederates charged up the hill, and she hadn’t the desire to make an enemy of her own men.  Her hair tucked neatly under her cap, she managed to keep our mutual secret until the battle was won.  For a period of time, I was recorded as the Union Army’s first miracle birth, and world’s only birth to a man.