Definition of "hurtling"

He clasped his hands over the breast of the brave young Irish volunteer, who had come so willingly with him from the same State, who had stood so gallantly by his side in the deadly hurtlings of battle […]

1873, Richard Miller Devens, The Pictorial Book of Anecdotes of the Rebellion

Thenceforth no flying fires inflamed the gray, / No hurtlings shook the dewdrop from the thorn, / No moan perplexed the mute bird on the spray; […]

c. 1920, Thomas Hardy, And There Was a Great Calm