Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-02-27

regiment was encamped below Rich
mond. Frequent complaint was made
by men of the different companies Of
thefts committed on their effects. As
the men were we'll acquainted with
each other, and had fought and bled
together, it was hard to lay the finger
of suspicion on any one. A strict watch
was kept, and at last the thefts
were fixed upon two recruits who had
lately joined one of the Alexandria
companies. Now, l wish to say right
here that in three years OF service in
this regiment [ do not remembes' a
single instance, but the one above,
where a man was caught stealing from
his comrades. Even when almost
starving, the men would not surrep-
titiously take even q crust from the
haversack of a comrade. On the con-
trary, in my company, at least, it was
share all around in times of scarcity,
although it must be acknowledged that
when the cooks doled out the scanty
rations every man was ready to take
the best pieces. But to u tale. A
court-martial condemned the aforesaid
thieves to have their heads shaved, a
placard marked 'thief'' attached to
their backs, and to be drummed out of
camp before the assembled regiment to
the tune of the ''Rogue's March," 1t
happened that l was corporal of the
guard in charge of the prisoners on
the day the sentence was to be carried
into effect, and it was a very disagree
able duty to act as t%onsorial artist for
the occasion, to make the finishing
toilet OF the pilferers, as it were. 1
felt sorry for the men, bad as they had
shown themselves to be, for the dis
grace which they must undergo seemed
little preferable to death itself. Enter
ing the tent where the men were con-
fined l found them playing cards.
''You men must undergo your SEN
tence at three O'clock" said l, 'but
you must bear up. You have brought
it on yourselves"
ooh, never mind, corpy," said one
of them, and they were both laughing.
Were glad to get loose. Well be en-
joying life while you fellows are food
for the worms.n
Utter disgust seized upon me and l
felt no compunction Of conscience.
Calling in two of the guard to hold the
scoundrels i'll a convenient position, 1
seized the shears and took my first and
last lesson as a barber. l think the
job was well done, for l cut to the skin
in some places and left their heads
striped like a zebra's back. At 8 D. m.
the regiment was drawn up as if for
dress parade, and l marched the thieves
out with a file OF bayonets at the back
of each, and when ali was ready pa
raded them up and down before the line
with the flies and drums rafting away
merrily at the Rogue March, behind
them, amid roars OF laughter from the
men who had been dishonored by their
presence. Taking the pitiful fellows to
the boundary of the camp they each
received a kick in the real from the
guards and were sent on their way re-
joicing.
In a previous article I alluded to the
execution of a man named Radcliffe, q
conscript from Southwest Virginia,
who had been assigned to the First
Virginia Battalion of Infantry. He
was a mountaineer with a large
family of children, and was always
pining for home. He was utterly
worthless as a soldier. After desert
ing andbeing brought back two or three
times, he finally desperately wounded a
guard who e~ndeavored to balk still an
other attempt to desert. He was cap
tured, court-martialed and sentenced
to be shot, although the court for a
long time hesitateu to pass sentence, as
some of the members believed the man
to be half-witted. Had not Radcliffe
nearly killed the guard he would have
only been confined, as he did not at
tempt to desert to the enemy, but to go
home; but the assault determ ned the
minds of the court. On being brought
out for execution the poor devil bias
phemed and howled and struggled
with the guards in aheartrending man
mer, and it was not until he saw that
his prayers for mercy were useless that
ne braced up like a man, and quietly
kneeling upon his coffin and received in
his bosom the fatal bullets. l have ever
thought, and think still, that the exc
ton of this man was a stain on the
court that tried him, under the circum-
stances. He was a monomaniac on the
subject of home. His Captain deemed
him irresponsible, and the majority of
the officers OF the battalion We're Of the
same OPP Mon. | had been transferred
to this battalion at this time. and l
know that | was in favor of locking
Radcliffe up instead of shooting him.
Speaking of punishments, | don't
know that Twas more forclbly struck by
anything l witnessed during the strug-
gle than by the following nc.dent:
In the autumn OF 1864 Captain Charles
A. Davidson's company FIrst Virg MIA
Battalion), in which | was a Lieuten-
ant, was detached from the command
and ordered to assist in ~dlsmounting
the heavy artillery from the Hewlett
House battery on the James River, and
in removing to and ~remounting them
in the new batteries VIII oh had been
constructed a mile or two up stream,
directly opposite Dutch Gap. The COM
pany was assisted in this heavy labor
by the sailors OF the g1nboats lying be-
low and the a~ble-bodled convicts from
the Richmond Penitentiary; these later,
however, doing separate work from
the soldiers and sailors. One day
Davidson and [ were passing along the
ritle-pits were the convicts were dig
ging, when one of them raised his fin
ger to the Penitentiary guard and re-
quested permission to speak. 1t was
granted, and he spoke to Davidson by
name. The latter stopped. and. after