The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1885-10-09

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was raw, damp day, not ray of sun
light had yet penetrated the thick
clouds and unierfoot was thin coating
OF snow. Nature seemed in sympathy
with thc misery Of the occasion.
The spot selected for the dreadful
scene was rather more than mile up the
Heights, where a high ridge or ground
/ formed barrier for bullets that might
miss their mark. Arrived here, the
/ troops were formed in two large squares
of one rank each, one square within the
other with an open face 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 a lieutenant, 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 81
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
pcct. One, a man of more than forty
years, showed hardly trace of feeling
in his rugged face; but the other was Il
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 punish
ment Of his ofTense.
The proceedings Of the court 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 muskctry," and di-
recting it to be carried into effect at -
o'clock noon of this day. The whole
scene was passing immediately before my
eyes; for a staff uniform will pass its
wcarer almost anywhere in the army,
and had passed the guards and entered
the inner square.
A chaplain knclt by the condemned
men and prayed fervently, whispered
few words in the ear of each, wr1ng
the r hands, and retired. Two soldiers
stepped forward with handkerchiefs to
bind the eyes of the sufferers, and
heard the officer of the firing party give
the command in low tone
"Attention shoulder arms"
looked at my watch, it was a minute
/
so perfectly silent that futter and dis
turbance running through it at this
instant fixed cverybody's attention. My
heart gave a jump as | saw mounted
orderly urging his horse through the
crowd, and waving a 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 follow
ing:
WASHINGTON, DC, FEBRUARY %, 1865.
Gen. Job Stsuen son, Hdrper'S FcrrH
Deserters reprieved till further orders.
Stop the execution. y. LINCOLN.
The older of the two men had so
thoroughly resigned himself to his fate,
that he seemed unable now to realize
that he was saved and he looked around
him in a dazcd. bcwildercd way.
Not so the other; he seemed for the
first time to recover his consciousness.
He elapsed his hands together, and
burst into tears. As there was no
military execution after this at Harper's
Ferry, have no doubt that the sentence
of both was finally committed.
Powerfully as my feelings had been
stirred by this scene, | still suspected
that the dispatch had in fact arrived be-
fore the cortege left Harper's Ferry, and
that all that happened afterward was
planned and intended as terrible lesson
to these culprits.
That afternoon I visited General
Stevenson at mis- headquarters, and after
introducing myself, and referring to the
mornings scene on Bolivar Heights, |
venturcd frankly TO state my suspicious,
and ask if they were not we'll 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 reprieve,
general"
IL had some reason to expect it last
night; but as it did not come, and as
the line was reported down between EerC
and Baltimore this morning, had giver
it up. Still, in order to give the fellow:
every possible chance for their lives,
left mounted orderly at the telegraph
Office, with orders to ride at a gallop i
a message came for me from Washington
1t is we'll did the precaution saved
their lives"
How the dispatch came to Harper
Ferry must be told in the words of thu
man who got it through.
TIE TELEGRAPHER's STORY.
On the morning of the Gath of Febru
airy, 1865, was busy at my work in tho
Baltimore telegraph office. sending anC
receiving mess ,ges. At half-past tel
o'clock-for had occasion to mark tho
hour-the signal C-A-L, several time
= repeated, caused me to throw all elsc
aside, and attend to it.
That was the Geographic cipher of tn
war Departments; and telegraphers, II
those days, had instructions to put tina
{ service above all others. \ message
was quickly licked off from the Presi
dent to the commanding officer at Har
per's Ferry reprleving two deseTters whit
were to be shot Mt noon. The messag
was dated the day before, but had il
, some way been detained or delayed be
tween the department and the Washing
! ton office.