Holmes County Republican. [volume] (Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio) 1856-1865, 1862-01-23
MisfiIanaons.
THE DYING SOLDIER.

The Watchman and Reflector, of Bos
ton, contains the following touching &C
count from chaplain, of the last hours o
dying soldier. No one can read it with
out emotion:
The wards were full of wounded sol
diers, Oh! that / could bring to you
mind, reader, the full sadness of such .
scene! 1t would do you no harm, though
thrill after thrill of horror might shake
your frame. 1t is not alone the gaping
wounds, the heavy groans that would en-.
list your sympathy, but the sense of desc
lateness the poorI sick men must feel, n
they think of their homes, and the dear
ones they are never destined to behold in
life. There they lie, ranged side by side,
some of them Indifferent to all that is ia.
king place around them, others with eyes
brightly restless and watchful, now gloom
ed with apprehension now ligbtened with
hope. Here is an athletic, handsome
youth, whose arm lies shattered at his side
the good right arm that has so often been
welded in useful deeds. 1t will Deye1
serve him more, for amputation has be.
come the necessity, and death may follow.
Here Is another whose face was bandaged
down to the pale outline of his lips, and
whose doom is inevitable blindness, il
his life is spared. Here lies another whose
ouivering mouth and muscles tell the ago.
ny be has the fortitude to conceal, but
which the surgeons say will prove too much
for him. What wonder that the nurses
move about him with blanched cheek and
moistened eyes? 1t is their first expert
ence and some of them tremble as each
body is brought in, for fear Of recognizing
a son or brother.
Quietly from bed to bed moves the
chaplain, sikened to the heart, but
strengthened for bis duty by the Hand
that never fails. To some he gives few
words of sympathy, reserving their cases
for another day, for they are only slightly
wuunded; to others be speaks gently OF
their situation, striving to tell them with
words from which all hope has departed, Of
their swift coming end. To all he speaks
of Jesus; bids them in the hour of their ex-
tremity to look up to God, who is willing
to accept them if they will but put their
trust in Him. Poor fellows, rude and
rough though they may have seemed, the
quiVering lip, shaking like that of child
in its heaviest child sorrow, the deep-heav-
ed sob, that lifts the great chest hith al
most convulsive throes, tell that there is a
fountain in the heart that the soft words
of sympathy may stir.
The chaplain came at last to q cot set
somewhat BY itself outside the wards
Here, reclining at full length, was young
man whose face bore but slight traces Of
suffering. 1t was flushed with . hue like
that Of health; the eyes were undimmed,
and only the position of bis hands, which
were thrown over his head and locked in
almost spasmodic tightness, told that he
was in pain. He was unusually noble in
countenance. His brow was brood and fair,
and the thick lncks that clustered back
from bis temples curled like the iinglets
of boy. Hs knew not why, but the
chaplain experienced an unusual and sud.
den saympstby for this young mau, struck
down in his beauty; still be felt there was
no immediate danger in bis case.
"How is he wounded 7" be asked of the