New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1888-11-14
ITO BE SHOT AT NOON
A True Story of the War.

At1A<szaf1ilu hustled me OFT to prison at
Fort Henry? in Baltimore harbor.
"a where was confronted with the charge
OF being a spy. No matter that had
on when captured, my full uniform as
captain. No matter that at nv
courtmartial trial their own officer
who captured me testified that he did
not take me in as q spy, and that
= there was no work for a spy where he
captured me.
mo matter; was found guilty, and
the sentence was read to me: saTo be
nag d as a spy on the parade-ground
OF Fort Henry, between the hours OF
twelve A. NJ. and three O'Clock P. NJ,
November Sd, 1868"
In answer to my request that ifthey
must kill me, tor the sake OF honor to
give me the death of d. soldier. thew
graelously changed the papers to read
TO be shot to death with musket-
ny on the parade-ground, etc.
somehow | suppose | did not fully
comprehend or adequately appreciate
my situation, for did not feel then,
airy more than [ do now, that death
was to be my next deal. Nor had at
all contemplated that result all
Through the trial. Only the last day
pe1ore that sentence was read to me
mad been creating merriment by ask
Ing puzzllng or irrelevant questions
OF the Judge Advocate, telling Jokes
during the recesses of the court, in
divers manners creating fun to draw
mlrth for myself out of that barren
rock, military Justice" Only the
day before the President of the Court
@Srtial, the colonel, of the regiment,
- :eIve of whose officers composed my
aajudicators, asked to talk a little
with me in private, as between man
and man. J..
"Of course"
"Captain," said he, II greatly fear
you do not properly appreciate your
present situation"
"Well, Colonel, I know OF no man
more favorably situated to realize it.
Why do you say so?,'
in this trial."
"Well?"
,&Well, you'll be found guilty, most
assuredly, OF the charge"
you'll be sentenced to die.''
"Well?"
"And you'll be hanged or shot!
And here you have been spending the
leisure hours Of the court trying your
life, in frivolous testing and mirth AS
q felloWman, it grieves me to see you
so carlessly playing at SO terrible g.
brink as you stand on
"Colonel," was the reply, ~ thank
you for interest. If we are nation
al enemies, you speak as q man and
soldier. But let me say this" (now |
cannot explain what induced me to
make following foolish, speech but
in dubbed up and was spoken):
%"Colonel, you or [ may die before
as the result of your courts finding, l
shall be alive when you and your
twelve officers are dead aud forgotten"
He lett me IN disgust, and [ dom
blame him.
But such was my feeling. I did not
''feeI it in my bones," as the slang
goes, that death was so near.
The colonel, and the entire twelve
composing the court, died before Twas
exchanged-'shot to death in charge
at Cold Harbor. [ live to write the
occurrence twenty-five years alter the
conversation.
ut may Or may not be true that
" when the grim monster singles out his
victim he sends him in some way a
spiritual premonition that he is going
to let fly from deaths culver the fatal
dart. Be that as it may, had no
p1emonition of death. .
Not when they stood me up to hear
my sentence and to answer, nor after
wards in the cool contemplation my
isolation and silent dungeon afforded;
not when the officer OF the day, on
that eventful execution morning read
to me in my dungeon the days pro-
CRANE, and delineated my doom at
the hands of twelve detailed soldiers.
He found me whistling as / paced my
narrow cell that morning, and exclaim-
Sl in surprise:
S+"Good God, Captain! what kind OF
man are your
ooh, | don't know; skin and bone,
flesh and sineWs, bloc d and bile.
Why?"
"Why! Don't you know you are to
be shot to-day? Outside here are
twelve men detailed to send you into
eternity. You'll never see another
morning. And you are whistling!'
"Well, why not whistle as long as
possible, and cry when you cannot
laugh?'
Hence l may not be able to tell you
just how man feels who stares death
calmly in the face, for maybe I did
not comprehend my situation.
But was sentenced to death; that
II fully comprehended when they
.s,nslrched me, handcuffed, between two
4 lizards with arms at charge and bay
onets fixed, back to the prison; and in
stead of my former IL by IL cell, bar
red and bolted me in an underground,
dark, dank dungeon three feet by ten,
with tub occupying two feet OF that
sparse space, significantly suggestive
that was to stay right there until the
day and hour