From the text:
"He had never been wounded, never been very sick, never been kicked by any of the multitude of horses that always surrounded them (though he'd been stepped on twice), never broken a limb nor fallen from a wagon nor gotten hold of any whiskey he would call bad. All this singular good fortune he credited to the Saint Michael medal that dangled from his watch chain, a parting gift from Mr. Denby Garrison, rector of the Church of the Holy Cross."
The Black Flower: A Novel of the Civil War, pg. 5