Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-10-11
UNDER SENTENCE.

JNUEh NEN ENlE.
Under fire-in the midst of battle. hot
with action, intoxicated with noise, the
wells of comrades the rattle of musketry,
the whiZ Of minies, whir of balls, and
clatter of shells, the cheers of yictors, the
rush for position and desperate holding,
the human passion of spiteful revenge
and the reused taste for blood and car
mage innate in the animal man-under
fire in the frenzy of fight is no test of
courage. Many man stands there be-
canse he is afraid to run.
/ remember in the battle of Port Re-
public-in the three days fighting around
Cross Keys, down in the valley of Nir-
ginia in G2, our regiment, w. l.. Jack
sons old Thirty first Virginia, was one Of
three ordered to storm and take bat
terry Of nine pieces, supported by five
regiments of infantry and some of the
coolest, most accurate sharpshooters we
had met BY some miscarriage the order
came only TO our regiment, now deci-
mated by fighting and forced marching
TO PA men.
But we crawled up through that cat
field ON our bellies, rising TO shoot, drop
ping again 10 load and advance. And
every time we rose some comrades dropped
10 rise no more We neared the crest
until we could almost look down the
black SulphurOus throats of those nine
twelve-pOunderS that were belching
crane and canister into our very mouths.
Five times had our colors fallen-one,
two three, four, five of our tallest brave
fellows, one after another, raised with
the regimental flag, and fell shot through
the forehead.
They had been picked off by the sharp
shooters one after another, those gallant
Western Virginia mountaineers-as fast
as color bearer fell, snatching up the
flag and rising with it.
The fifth had fallen. A sergeant
jumped from Company G TO raise the
standard.
Better let that - thing alone, Bill. 4"
growled Lieut.. Cooper. Use both hands
with your hayOnet next rise"
Bill Cooper was Pennsylvanian-as
brave a man as crawled back with our
little remnant of ia that day. After We
had reached safe quarters and We're lying
down to rest in the woods, he turned to
me TO ask:
What were you looking up and down
the line in there for Bill;''
Lieutenant, was the answer, 81 was
looking for a chance to run"
by -, so was Ir' gruffiy retorted
the quondam man of yalOr; but - if
every fellow in the regiment wasn't look
ing right at me-"
Aye, aye, it takes less courage to stand
than TO run away from a battle.
But | did get a touch that tested me
most sorely after that, when they sent
me through the lines" in the secret
service"
Never mind my business, or how I was
betrayed, and how | was gathered in.
Enough that they bagged me 1S0 miles
inside the enemy's lines and hustled me
off to prison in Baltimore harbor. where
/ was confronted with the charge of being
spy. No matter that l had on when
captured my full uniform as captain. No
matter that at my court martial trial their
own officer who captured me testified
that he did not take me as a spy and that
there was no work for spy where he
captured me.
No matter; was found guilty, and the
sentence was read TO me: ITO be hanged as
spy on the parade ground Of Fort Nc
Henry, between the hours Of - m. and
U ClOCk p ll.s NOV. D. lOoO
In answer to my request that if they
must kill me, for the sake of honor TO
give me the death of a soldier, they gra-
ciously changed the paper TO read, Ito
be shot to death with musketry on the
parade ground, etc"
Somehow, / suppose 1 did not fully
! comprehend or adequately appreciate my
situation. for / did not feel then any
hay I hot 20 hs
my next deal Nor had | at all contem-
plated that result all through the trial.
Only the last day before that sentence
was read to mel had been creating
merriment by asking puzzling or irrele-
want questions of the judge advocate,
| telling jokes during the recesses of the
| court, in divers manners creating fun To
/ draw mirth for myself out of that barren
rock, military Justice" Only the day
| before the president of the court martial,
the colonel of the regiment, twelve OF
whose officers composed my adjudicators,
asked to talk little with me in private,
as between man and man.
"Of course"
Captain" said he, Il greatly fear
you do not properly appreciate your pres
| ent situation"
We'll. colonel, know of no maj. more
| favorably situated to realize it. Why dc
! you say so,''
Because, sir, your life as at stake in
| this trial.
'.Well."
We'll, you IL be found guilty, most as,
suredly, of the charge"
"Wells''
you'll be sentenced TO die"
"Wells"
And you'll be hanged or shot! And
here you have been spending the leisure
hours of the court trying you for life in
| frivolous Jesting and mirth. As fellow
man it grieves me to see you so carelessly
| playing at SO terrible a brink as you
stand on"
Colonel" was the reply, II thank you
| for your interest. II we are national
enemies, you speak as man and Il sol
dier. But let me say this" now / cannot
/ explain what induced me to make the
| following foolish, braggart speech; but il
| buhbled up and was spoken: Colonel
| you or may die before night; we do not
know; but in so far as the result of youl
courts finding is concerned, ! will b,
| alive when you and your twelve officers
are dead and forgottenw
He left me in disgust, and / don't
blame him.
But such was my Feeling. did not
''feel it in my bones" as the slang goes
| that death was so near.
The colonel and the entire twelve com
| posing the court died before / was ex
! changcd-''shot TO death" in one charge
| at Coal Harbor. / live to write the oc
currence twenty five years after the con
vcrsatiOn.
! 1t may or may not be true that when
| the grim monster singles out his victim
/ the sends him some way a spiritual pre-,
/ mOnition that he is going TO let fly from
! Deaths quiver the fatal dart. Be that
/ as it may-I had no premonition Of
death.
Not when they stood me up to hear my
sentence and to answer, nor afterward in
! the cool contemplation my isolation and
silent dungeon afforded; not when the
officer Of the day, on that eventful exc
cutiOn morning, read TO me in my dun
geOn the days programme and define
I ated my doom at the hands of twelve
detailed soldiers. He found me whistling
as paced nv narrow cell that morning