Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1864-02-26
NO. 48.

Lieutenant B. seemed to have not
moments rest from his excruciating agony
He begged piteously that some surgeon woult
come, and do something, anything that nigh
ease him of his dreadful pain. The clammy
Jews were upon him, and he was now plainly
sinking. '' I shall die" he caid, "and oh, that
l might die TO escape this misery" A rebel
in whose heart rsmsined the dint of pity
stopped over him, and expressed sorrow, that
by giving himself 10 a bad cause, be had
brought upon himself so great misfortunes.-
! But in words mildly reproachful, and with a
| heroism stronger than death, he spurned such
sympathy. The westering Sun neared the
verge of the horizon. The clouds that hung
about its disc we're magnifcently tinged with
golden light. Up through their brilliant vol
umes seemed to reach gorgeous vista, to
whose end the human eye could not pierce, but
which seemed to die away in serene splendor.
1t was not hard to fancy, that it was the shin
i ing road along which the souls Of heroes were
| ascending from the bitter cross of the battle
| field, to the crown Of glory and infinite peace.
The soft light fell upon the feverish brow of
Lieutenant B. 1t was as if the pitying
angels hand were supplying the gentle bap-
tism of an absent mothers, +" Oh that I could
look upon that once more he said, and the
rebel boslered him with a knapsack, so that
be might gaze upon the sweet pageant of ma
ture whose evanishiDg beauty too truly symbo-
lized his sweetly ebbing life. He caught one
glimpse, AID only glimpse, for the posture
was too painful, aud be sank back again upon
the ground. Bending over him again the
pitying rebel asked. ' is there anything that
can do for you? will do anything in my
power" The dying man signing negstive,
he pressed the farther inquiry, is there any
message, or any article that you wish me to
deliver to your friends. If there is, will
eheerfully attend to it at my first opportunity"
!" Yes" said he, here is my watch send it
to --." The rebel took the name, address,
and repeated his promise to faithfully perform
this dying injunction. The sun dropped be-
bind the Western hills, and Lieutenant B..
departed with the day. He lay beside me
calm and still. he was dead.
Night drew like pail over the dreadful
scene her curtain through which the stars
looked down like eyes Of angels, full of tears.
Quiet pervaded the sanguinary field disturbed
only by the beamipg supplications of unat
tended and friendless sufferers. The shadowy
form Of the pinnderers, glided about like phan-
toms among the wrecks OF the battle
A sepulchral gloom curtained the damp
uneasy eOuches of the wounded, and shrouded
the ghastly, uplurned faces of the dead.
But the puselesS form at my side, recalled
my mind from other features of the impress
i've scene. 1 thought Of the far off New En-
gland home, of which l had heard those mute
lips speak SO tenderly. L thought of the
hearts there who would look and Sigh in vain,
for the return of that palIid face with its
wonted beaming at the home threshold. My /
fancy portrayed their grief at bis loss, and
heard them envy me my poor privilege. 1
grieved to think how inadequately / had sup
piled their places in his dying moments. Yet
his fate needed not 10 be mourned by them or
me. Rather might we envy it. He was
g Freedoms now and Fame's," nor needed he
aught of earth's stupid pageantry to make
him glorious as he lay, silent and painless, up
on his soldiers bier, with the night-dews and
for his only weepers. .,
A. T. SECHAND.