The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1868-05-14
A Story ofthe War.-Suffering ola Young
Quaker Among the Rebels.

! The Nashville Banner tells the story OF
| Vestal, of Maury county, Tennessee, q
native ofNorth Carolina, and Quaker,
who refusedon conscientious grounds to
pay the five hundred dollars exemption fee
demanded of the Friends by the rebel au-
thorltles, and was consequently conscript-
ed He was taken to Tullahoma, where
the obvious sincerity Of his anti-war prin-
ciples secured for him the friendship Of
Generals Maury and Polk, and he was re-
leased. lie was again conscripted and
sent to the Tennessee brigade in the army
Of Virginia. He told his colonel that he
could not fight, and would suffer martyr
dom rather than bear arms.
The officer, who at that time was COM
manding the brigade of Tennesseeans, by
reason of the capture of General Archer
at Gettyburg, was irrascible and arbitrary.
He became very much enraged at Yes
tails refusal, and ordered the command
ant Of the Fourteenth Tennessee to ap-
ply the bayonet, saying that he never yet
saw the man whom cold steel could not
move. The colonel of that regiment ac-
quiesced with reluctance, but he knew
that it was his duty to obey In few
days an inspection was ordered, when it
became necessary to clean up quarters,
arms, &c,, and a detail was ordered to
clean up regimental quarters. 1t hap
pened to be Nestal's turn, and the or
derly sergeant detailed him. He signif-
ed fatty his purpose not to CO. His cap
tain entreated him to comply. Numer-
Gus members of the regiment offered to
pay the five hundred dollars required by
law rather than see him suffer punish
meut. He firmly declined, assigning the
same reasons, and alleging that the money
would go into the Treasury and be used
to carry on the war.
Finally the guards were ordered to fix
bayonets and a shovel was handed them,
with instructions to make him work
When the guards first handed him the
shovel, he stated to them that if cleaning
up camp was a punishment for not doing
military duty, he would clean up the en-
tire camp but if it was military duty, he
would not. The guard entreated him,
argued the case with him, begged him to
render the application of the bayonet un-
necessary. He was inexorable, answer
ing with smile, "that the physical COM
fort was nothing compared with the here
after, and that he was willing to die for
the faith that was in him."
Three men with sharp Enfield bayonets
then thrust them into the feshy part of
his thighs and buttocks, inficting in all
thirty-6ve wounds, ranging in depth from
one-fourth to one inch. Frequently he
was knocked down with the butts of the
guns, but as long as he had strength, he
would turn one side and the other for the
guards until finally they refused to inhict
further punishment. AT this juncture,
the brave men who composed the old
Fourteenth regiment, became loud in
their condemnation of this proceeding
The excitement was intense, and had the
brigadier- general issued second order of
this character, he would have been unable
to have had it executed.
Vestal was confined several weeks to
his bed. After his recovery he was re-
leased from the guard house, upon his
promise not to escape. Most faithfully
did he comply, for not many months af-
terward the command moved to the nor
thern portion of Virginia, where every
opportunity was offered for escape, but he
was always in camp at right. Shortly af
ter his return from this expedition char
ges were preferred against him, and he
was tried, convicted of insubordination
by a court martial convened at Orange
Court House, and sentenced to imprison-
ment in Castle Thunder, at Richmond,
for the war, forfeiting all pay and allow
ances. At the evacuation of Richmond
he was still in prison, and secured his re-
lease only by the downfall of the Con-
federacy.