Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1876-02-18

prison, Win tne same. 4 grew IalnL ana
leaned on the shoulder of my neighbor.
With dead weight of despair at my
heart, fastened my eyes on the face of
the commandant. and awaited the sound
Of my name.
"B. F.-that's sure" he went on. "Is
the next p, wonder2 No-it's anoth-
er F-and the name is Flynn-Captaip
B. F. Flynn"
Well-that was such a revulsion as
very few men can experience in this life.
The throbbing of my heart as the blood
went back to it sounded in my ears like
the stroke of hammer ON an anvil. |
felt something as the cataleptic must feel
when his coffin lid is torn off at the
grave by some one who has detected ma
ture's awful secret. The two doomed
captains bade us farewell manfully. q
believe they were more manful about it
than the rest of u.s. and were taken
away by the guard, while we were re-
turned to our quarters.
The names of Flynn and Sawyer ought
to have prominent place among those
of the heroes of the great rebellion, if
mental torture is to be counted in the
making of such. They were not execut-
ed, but they lived for weeks in the daily
expectation of the order to go out to
their death, and they bore the torment
as bravely as it is in man to bear it.
On leaving the prison they were taken
before Gen. Winder, the commandant of
the city, who heaped unmeasured abuse
and insult upon them (strange to say,)
and ordered them to be confined in irons.
This treatment they endured until the
selection of Gen. Fitz Lee and another
confederate prisoner of high rank, by
our war department, for retaliation, ad-
monished the authorities at Richmond
that this was game that two can play
at" The irons of our two captains were
removed and the execution was deferred.
Time passed on, and save their separate
confinement, they were not molested un-
til one day they were sent back to Lib
bey. This was the end of the matter
but it is easy to understand that the ae-
tual pang of death could not have ad-
ded very largely to their suferings.
CLOSE TO DEATH.
As pendant to the above, | may tell
in few words an incident of which |
was witness at Harper's Ferry, in Feb
ruary, 1865, with some curious facts re-
lating to it, which | afterwards learned.
There was to be a military execution
away up above the heads Of everybody,
in Harper's Ferry, on Bolivar Heights,
and with about a thousand others / went
to see it. 1t occurs to me now that |
shall never again go to see man killed.
Duty did not require my presence there,
but no matter, / was no better and no
worse than the rest of the thousand.
Two soldiers had been convicted of
desertion, and their death sentence
approved by General Sheridan. l
skip the details. About II o'clock at
noon they found themselves on their
knees in front of two coffins inside of
three sides of hollow square of soldiers,
with firing party two rods in front.
Their eyes were being bandaged three
minutes more, think, would have fin
ished their business with this world, when
an orderly came galloping up that steep,
muddy hill with a telegam. Gen. Stev-
enson, who commanded them, opened it.
1t was signed "a. Lincoln" and direct
ed an indefinite suspension of the SEN
tence. A suspicion crossed my mind
that we had all been participating in
a gotten-up dramatic entertainment, to
produce good effect ON the soldiers
present, particularly the two most in
terested. In other words, | suspected
that this telegram had been received by
Gen. Stevenson before the funeral cor
tege left Harper's Ferry l was on the
staff in those days, and privileged to ask
questions, so | waited on the general at
his headquarters two hours after and in
quired about it. He assured me that nv
suspicious were unfounded. He knew
of course, that it was the Presidents
charitable habit to spoil every military |
execution that he could hear of.
But the line from here to Baltimore
is down, and / had no reason to expect
a dispatch. How it got here 1 don't
know. Certainly they would have been
dead in a few minutes more"
The statement of the operator at Bal.
timore, afterward published, gave inten-
sity to the dramatic situation out ON
Bleak Bolivar Heights on that dismal
February morning. The Presidents
dispatch was received about ten o'clock. |
that morning. with the cypher of the war
department to hurry it to Harper's Ferry.
For hours the line had been down be-