Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1861-08-09
TILE DEAD DRUMMER.

The correspondent Of the New York Com
mercial writes from the camp Of the 10th IN.
" Regiment. as follows
THE FIRST FUNERAL.
We had our first funeral on Saturday after
noon.
The day before one of our drummers Jos.
Winters. was drowned while bathing. lie
was pleasant, good boy, and his sudden
death made deep impression in the enoamp-
ment. His body was brought up from the
creek and laid beneath a new tent pitched to
receive it, under the trees on the North side
of the parade ground. The men stood in
silent rows in front Of the tent ill sun down,
while a guard detailed for the purpose paced
slowly back and forth. A letter was found
in Josoph's pocket from cousin Lusie, and
as bis comrades thought that he had no par
ents or brothers or sisters living his captain
wrote to her.
a little bnrcfooted fellow, about eight years
old, stood on the land when Josephs body
was recovered by the divers, and when the
surgeon, promptly on the spot, was yainly
ondeayoring to start tho water-clogged wheels
OF life, the little bareiooted fellow walked in
silence up the hillside with the men who car
ried the body, following close behind; and
there he stood before the tent curtains in seri-
Gus stiffness. At last he spoke, with respect
full and clear manly onunciation, to one of the
field officers:
Will you be so kind as to tell me, sir,
whether he was good boy ?
believe that he was, my little fellow,
but did not know him very we'll
Has he a father VI mother, sir
Why dc you ask, my boy
Because, hope that he did not have a
mother, sir, or father; they would feel so
badly to hear that he was drowned The Of
fcer cleared his throat, and the little fellow
went on. And it, sir. he has no mother or
father, and he was good boy, then am
glad
why glad, my boy !?
Because, sir think it was the best time
for him to be taken away
Because, sir, What the Lord does is al
'cays best The funeral sermon was preach
ed unsurpassed in truth, comprehension, sim
plicity and beauty, and If you could have
heard the utterance of the boy. its purity Of
wording, spoken in such gentle information.
and with such unmarried account, you would
have felt that Christ's model presented to his
disciples, of child brought TO him by bcliey-
ing parents, was the model for his ministers
to the present day.
At four o'clock, on Saturday afternoon,
the Pennsylvania band, Of twenty-four pieces,
in front of the dead boys tent, gently sound
ed forth one OF the sad melodies which make
military funerals peculiarly impressive; the
company formed in marching order the es-
cort stood with muskets reversed the re-
naming part of the regiment formed in the
center of the parade ground in face-to-i face
columns, and the procession moved to the
slow beat of the muffled drums.
The boy was placed in plain coffin. which
was wrapped in the Stars and Stripes, and
upon it was laid large wreath OF green leaves
and Wild flowers, and so VIC carried him to
an old burryng-ground not far distant where
the tombstones were all moss covered and in
cined, where the grass was tail and untrod-
den, and where the corn-shaped cedars stood
in irregular and friendly groups.
When his body was lowered, the chaplain
read selections from the Bible and offered
prayer, the escort fred the military salute,
the soldiers formed again in line and we left
the sleeper till the resurrection.