Holmes County farmer. [volume] (Millersburg, Ohio) 1857-1926, 1865-04-06
Executions for DesertiOn----A
BOY GuIprtt---Pitiab scene.

EtpN tbtDEIN--@btttbb btthts
In the army oc the Potomac there is q
stockado Of logs, twenty feet high, and
shorpcncd NJ the tops, and known ~ the
''bullpen, in which captured dcsertors are
confined bnforc execution. In it there are
about sixty wretcled men awaiting their
fate. Henry Clay Trumbull, Chaplain Of
the Connecticut 10th, thus writes Of these
, shocking scenes
Executions for desertion are common
nowadays in the armies Of the Potomac
and James. AS many az sixty Of the cap.
tured runaways have been confined at one
time in the Provost Marsha's prison camp
of a single division. The "bull.pcn," as
this enclosure is universally called, is a col.
lection OF tents surrounded by close stock
ade Of pine logs twenty feet high, guarded
on all Sides Just at the the right of its
entrance, outside Of its walls, is small log
cabin used as the condemn cell. The man
who enters that goes out only to execution.
Sad stories Of remorse and agony the walls
of that low, dark, gloomy cabin could tell.
I Soon as convenient after deserter is arres-
ted on his way to the enemy or the rear and
charges preferred against him, he is tried
before general court martial.
The saddest case is the latest. A boy not
yet sixteen, born and brought up in the up
per part of New York city, was met in the
street by hellish broker, and enticed away
to Connecticut to be sold as substitute. -
He was far from being bright boy, seem
ingly not full witted, but his childish ways
were touchingly attractive. He said-and
probably with truth--that until the broker
took him oil he never passed night away
from his parents. Like a tired, homesick
school boy determined to play truant, he
started to run home. Being arrested, he
again slipped off but was once more caught
as he exercised no shrewdness in his fight
Being tried and sentenced to death, he was
put into the condemned cell in the evening
to be shot the following morning His boy
ish grief when told he was to die was heart
rending.
With unaffected naturalness he sobbed
out his lament over his own hard lot and
for the dear ones at home. Me, so young
to go outside the breastworks, and-and
see the coffin and grave there, and then be
shot l don't want to be killed. Won't
the General pardon me p On being as
sured that his execution was a certainty, he
urged the Chaplain not to let his friends
know how he died, "for they'd feel so bad
about it, he said. 81 suppose it would
kill my father for some reason his father
seemed closer to his heart than his motherl,
g | suppose it would kill 'em ALL They'd
be thinking of it nights Don't tell 'em
about it. Once convinced that it was too
late to obtain a reprieve-no official short
OF the department commander having the
power to grant it, and there being no time
tie obtain it from him, and having cried his
cry out-he quieted like weary child, and
listened to all the Chaplain could say to aid
in preparing him for the eternal future. II
kneeling on the soaked, swampy ground,
under the dripping roof of that gloomy
cabin, in the dark and stormy night, he fold.
ed his lettered hands, and meeky said his
little evening prayer, and committed him
self in seeming confidence to his Heavenly
Father 5 care. He could not read, but he
had been taught in one Of the blessed mis-
sion schools Of New York, and seemed to
have a simple, childlike faith in God
Probably he had not been addicted to vi
cious habitS. He said, when asked about
the way he spent evening, that he always
worked in the factory daytimes, and when
evening came was tired and went to bed
early" His father and mother prayed with
him, and taught him to do right. ''Ifyour
life should be spared, asked the Chaplain,
would you love God and try to serve
him y "Why yes he answered, II al
ways did love him." as though, in his
childlike trust, he had no cause of enmity
with the Father to whom he had been drawn
in grateful confidence. After his first hard
cry, the thought of death did not seem to
occupy him.
He was too much of child to fully re-
alze it. just before he went out to be shot
he turned to the Chaplain and asked as in
boyish curiosity, IF die to-day will my
soul go right to heaven to-day?" Arriving
at the field of execution he was not at all
disturbed by the terrific preparations. He
walked up to the open grave and looked in
qulringly into it without a shudder, and
then he turned to gaze at the firing party
as though he saw only kind hearted com
rades there. He kneeled again to pray AS
calmly as if he were to lie down in his own
little crib at home. just as his arms were
being bound a bird flew by, and he twisted
his mead around to follow with gaze the bird
in its flight as though he he should like to
chase it; then he looked back again at the
bright muSkets with soft and steady eye as
before. "Let me kneel on the ground and
rest on the coffin, he said, as they fixed
him in position. "No, kneel on the cof.
fin, was the order So kneeling there he
settled himself down into weary crouching
posture as though he were to wait thus
long and tireSome time. lie had hardly ta-
ken this place before he fell back dead, with
every bullet of the firing platoon directly
through his chest-three through his heart.
He uttered never groan nor did frame
quiver.
Even such boys as that are here shot ifI
they desert; But are they guilty above those
who send them here