Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1885-12-04


greeted with the music of band, play
ing a slow march. Several soldiers were
walking briskly past, and l inquired of
them if there was to be a military fu-
neral.
"No, SIR" one of them replied; ''not
exactly. 1t is an execution. Two de-
serters from one of the artillery regi-
ments here are to be shot upon Bolivar
Heights. Here they comet"
The solemn strains of the music were
heard near at hand, and the cortege
moved into the street where we stood,
and wound slowly up the hill. First
came the band, then General Stevenson,
the military commander of the post,
and his staff; then the guard preceding
and following an ambulance, in which
were the condemned men. A whole
regiment followed, marching by pla-
toons, with reversed arms, making in
the whole spectacle than which moth
| ing CdI UC ulOiS sOiciiiu.
Close behind, as it seemed to me, came
the entire population OF Harper's Ferry
a motley crowd Of several thousand, en-
bracing soldiers off duty, camp-follow-
ers, negroes, and what not. 1t was a
raw, damp day, not a ray Of sunlight
had yet penetrated the thick clouds, and
under foot was a thin coating OF snow.
Nature seemed in sympathy with the
misery of the occasion.
The spot selected for the dreadful
scene was rather more than mile up
the Heights, where high ridge Of
ground formed barrier for bullets
that might miss their mark. Arriving
here, the troops were formed in two
large squares of one rank each, one
square within the other, with an open
face toward toward the ridge. Two
graves had been dug near this ridge,
and coffin was just in the rear of each
grave. Twenty PAGES in front was the
firing party of six files, under lieu
tenant, at ordered arms; the general
and his staff sat on their horses near the
center.
Outside the outer square, the great
crowd of spectators stood in perfect ST.
lence. The condemned men had been
brought from the ambulance, and each
one sat on his coffin, with his open
grave before him.
They were very different in their as
pect. One, mau Of more than forty
years, showed hardly trace of feeling
in his rugged face; but the other was
mere lad, of scarcely twenty, who gazed
about him with wild, restless look, as
if he could not yet understand that he
was about to endure the terrible pun
ishment of his offense.
The proceedings of the court t-martial
were read, reciting the charges against
these men, their trial, conviction and
sentence; and then the order of General
Sheridan, approving the sentence "to
be shot to death with musketry," and
directing it TO be carried into effect at II
O'Clock noon of this day. The whole
scene was passing Immediately before
my eyes; for staff uniform will pass
its wearer almost anywhere in the army,
and had passed the guards and enter
ed the inner square.
A chaplain knelt by the condemned
men and prayed fervently, whispered a
few words in the ear of each, wrung
their hands and retired. Two soldiers
stepped forward with handkerchiefs to
bind the eyes of the sufferers, and L
heard the officer of The firing-party give
the command In n low tone:
"Attention-shoulder arms"
looked at my watch, it was a minute
past II. The crowd outside had been
SO perfectly silent that nutter and dis
turbance running through it at this in
stant fixed everybody's attention. My
heart gave jump a. saw mounted
orderly urging his horse through the
crowd and waving yellow envelope
over his head.
The squares opened for him, and he
rode in and handed the envelope to the
general. Those who were permitted to
see that dispatch read the following:
WASHINGTON, D. c., Feb. %, 1865.
Gen. Jeb Stevenson, Harpr's Ferry.
Deserters reprieved till further orders.
Stop the execution. A. LINCOLN.
The older of the two men had so thor
oughly resigned himself to his fate,
that he seemed unable now TO realize
that he was saved, and he looked around
him in dazed, bewildered way.
Not so the other, he seemed for the
first time to recover his consciousness.
He clasped his hands together and burst
into tears. As there was no military
executions after this at Harper's Ferry,
I have no doubt that the sentence Of
both was finally commuted.
Powerfully as my feelings had been
stirred up by this scene, still suspect
ed that the dispatch had in fact arrived
before the cortege left Harper's Ferry,
and that all that happened afterward
was planned and intended as terrible
lesson to these eulprits.
That afternoon | visited General Ste
yenson a: his head quarters, aud after
introducing myself, and referring TO the
mornings scene OIL Bolivar Heights,
yentured frankly to state my suspicious
and ask il they were not well founded.
"Not at ALL" he instantly replied
"The men would have been dead had
that dispatch reached me two minutes
later"
"were you not expecting a reprieve