Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1865-07-28


weary record of the fight of time. So
We can form q more vivid picture Of the
suferings of our martyrs from one SIM
pie story than from any general descrip-
ton; and therefore We will speak right
On, and tell one story which might stand
as specimen Of what has been done
and suffered by thousands
In the town of Andover, Massachu-
settg, = bcy Of sixteen, named Walter
Raymond, enlisted among our yolun>
teers. He was under the prescribed
age, but bis eager zeal led him to follow
the footsteps ofLan elder brother who
had already enlisted; and the father of
the boy, though these two were all the
sons he had, instead of ayAiling himself
of his legal right to withdraw him, in
dorsed the act IN the following letter to
bis Captain: bsiw a bfc8 itro
y AsDovER, Mass, Aug. Is, 1862 e
" Capt HuBf: s-a ~ ,.- ~ .--~
"My eldest son has enlisted in your
company. send you his younger
brother. He is, and has always been, in
perfect health, of more than the ordin-
ary power of endurance, honest, truth-,
fu1 and courageous. doubt not you
will find him on trial all you can ask,
except his age, and that, I am sorry to
ssy;is only sixteen; yet if Our country
needs his service, take him. r,s ffss
Your obedient servant,
"SAMUEL RAYMOND"
The boy went forth to real service,
and to successive battles at Kingston,
at Whitehall aud at Goldsborough; and
in all did his duty bravely and faithfully.
He met the temptations and dangers Of
a soldiers life with the pare-hearted
6rmness Of Q Christian child, neither
afraid nor ashamed to remember his
baptismal VOWS, his Sunday School
teachings and his mothers wishes
He had passed his promise to his
mother against drinking. and smoking,
and held it with simple, child-like
steadiness. When in the midst of ma
larious swamps, physicians and officers
advised the use, of tobacco. The boy
writes to his mother,-"A A great many
have begun to smoke, but shall not do
it without your permission, though l
| think it does great deal of good.
In his leisure hours, he was found in
his tent reading; and before battle he
prer AIRED his soul with the beautiful
psalms and collects for the day, as ap-
pointed by his church, and writes With
simplicity to bis friends
al prayed God that He would watch
over me, and if fell, receive my soul
in Heaven; and also prayed that /
might not forget the cause | was fight.
ing for, aud turn my back in fear"
| After nine months service, be return
ed with a soldiers experience, though
with frame weakened by sickness in q
malarious region. But no sooner did
health and strength return than he
again enlisted, in the Massachusetts
cavalry service, and passed many
months of constant activity and adven-
ture, being in some severe skirmisbes
and battles with that portion of Sheri.
dan's troops who approached nearest to
Richmond, getting within mile and a
half Of the city At the close of this
raid, so hard had been the service, that
| only thirty horses were left out of sew
enty-four in his company, and Walter
and two others were the sole survivors
among eight who occupied the same
| tent 49, .-s.,.. .F-. ..4. F.i- H-
On the 18th of August, Waller was
taken prisoner in skirmish; and from
the time that this news reached his
parents, until the 18TH Of the following
March, they could ascertain nothing of
his fate. A general exchange Of Pris-
/ oners having been effected, they learned
that he bad died on Christmas Day in
Salisbury Prison, of hardship aud pri-
walton. slF
What these bardships were is, alssl
| easv 10 be known from those too well
authenticated accounts pu blisbed by our
Government of the treatment expert
| enced by our soldiers in the rebel
| prisons. cos,t r-s
Robbed of clothing, Of money, of the
4 soldiers beat friend - his sheltering
/ blanket, herded in shivering nakedness
] on the bare ground, deprived Of every
implement by which men of spirit and
| energy had soon hettered their lot, for
i hidden to cut in adjscent forests branch
esa for shelter, or fuel to cook their
coarse food, fed on pint of corn aud
4 cob meal per day. with some slight addi-
ton of molasses or rancid meat, denied
all mental resources-alf letters from
home, all writing TO friends-these m men
were cut off from the land Of the living
while yet they lived, they were made to
i dwell in darkness as those that have
been long dead gso
BY such slow, lingering tortures,-
such weary, wasting anguish and sick
ness Of body and soul lit was the IN
fernsi policy of the rebel Government
eitheir 10 wiring from them an abjura-
/ ton of their country, or by slow and
steady draining away of the vital forces
4 to render them forever unft to serve in
her armies. asE.4es 1 as
Walters constitution bore four months
i of this usage, when death came to bis
release A fehow-suferer,, who was
with him in bis last hours, brought the
account to his parents. l r.
Through all his terrible privations,
even the lingering pains of slow stsrvs-
i tion, Walter preserved his steady sim
plicity, his faith in God, and answering
fidelity to the cause for which he was
suffering. g.em5o Sc1sn-sf I'D
When the rebels had kept the prison
ers fasting for DAYS, and then brought
in deliescies to tempt their appetite
!. hoping thereby to induce them to desert
4 their flag, he only answered. would
4 rather be carried out in that dead.
cartl "a3e g a75e ae 7-as " SD b
n When told by some that be must steal
from his efellow-sufferers, as many did,
in order TO relieve the pangs of hunger
be answered." MOI l was not bFoughI
& upto thafR' And 80 when his weaken
ed system sWonld no longer receive thS
\ cobmeal which was his principal allow.
ance, he set his face calmly towards
death. IL 41s
! he grew gradually weaker aud weaker
and fainter and fainter, and at last dis
ease Of the langs set in, and It became
apparent that the end was at hand
II On Christmas Day, while thousands o
US were boSiugin eur garlanded church
es or surrounding festive tables, gthil