Pomeroy weekly telegraph. [volume] (Pomeroy, Meigs County, Ohio) 1860-1866, 1862-05-09
THE DYING SOLDIER.

A chaplain furnishes the following
affecting account of the last hours of a
dying soldier No one can read it with
out emotion:
The wards were full of wounded SOL
diers. o! that could bring to your
mind, readers, the full sadness of such
a 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 would inlist your sympathy, but
the sense of desolateness the poor sick
men must feel, as they think of their
homes and the dear ones they are never
more to behold in life.
There they lay, ranged side by side.
some of them Indifferent to all that is
taking place around them, others with
eyes brightly restless and watchful. now
gloomed with apprehension, now lighted
with hope One, athletic, handsome,
youthful, whose arm lies shattered by
his side-the good right arm that has
1t will never serve him more, for ampu-
tation has become the necessity, and
death may follow Here is another
whose face is bAndaged down to the
pale outline of his lips, and whose doom
is inevitable blindness, ii his life is
spared Here lies another whose quiv-
ering mouth and muscles tell the ag
ony he 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
cheeks and moistened eyes? 1t is their
experience. and some of them trembled
as each body is brought in for fear of
recognizing son or brother.
Quietly from bed to bed moves the
cha plain sickened to the heart, but
strengthened for his duty by the hand
that never fails. To some he gives a
few words of sympathy, reserving their
cases for another day, for they are only
slightly wounded; to others he speaks
gently Of their situation, striving to tell
them with words from which all hope is
departed of their swift-coming end
To all he speaks of Jesus, bids them in
the hour of their extremity to look unto
God, who is willing 70 accept them if
they will put their trust in Him.
Poor fellows, rude and rough though
they have seemed, the quivering lip,
shaking like that of a child in its heav-
lest child sorrow, the deep heaved sob,
that lifts the great ghost with almost
convulsive throes, tells that there is a
fountain in the heart that the swift
words of sympathy may stir.
The chaplain came at last to cot sci
somewhat by itself outside the wards
Here, reclining at full length, was a
young man whose face bore but slight
suffering. 1t was flushed with hue
like that of health; his eyes were un,
dlmmed, and only the position of his
hands, which were thrown over his heac
and locked in almost spasmodie tight
ness, told that he was in pain He was
unusually noble in contenance. His
brow was broad and fair, and the thick
locks that cluster back from his temples
curled like the ringlets of boy. HI
knew not why the chaplain expert
enced an unusal and sudden sympathy
for this young man, struck down in hi
beauty; still he felt there was no imme
diate danger in his case.
Chow is he wounded?" he asked o
the surgeon, as the two approached th'
bed softly.
"In the right side, below the ribs,
was the reply.
"Is he in dauger?''
80! no; that is, not at present. Th'
case may take a bad turn, it is true; bu
it looks very we'll now. Charles" h
added, addressing the sick man, famil
iarly, 'the chaplain is going the rounds
would you like to see him?'
20! certainly exclaimed the youn,
man. smiling. Il am very glad to Sc
him" And he held out his hand. Hi
voice was strong and ringing, as with th
highest health, and his clasp was Wig
orous.