The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-04-26
CHAPTER III.

4; ! = Z =
Hold the little one for VIII to take. He
had neueT seen the child before.
When Gen. Lee invaded Pennsylvania,
and the armies of the north gathered
hastily together under Gen. Meade to
repel the onward march of "the flag
with single STAR" the Second Massa-
chusetts was in its place prepared to
take part in what was to be one of the
most momentous and most bloody battles
of the civil war. And with his regiment
was Will Jackson, a private still, for
promotion had been offered to him in
vain. The last time when his lieutenant
colonel had urged him to accept, for
these two were fast friends as ever, he
had said with laugh, "Old man, after
this war is over there will be mighty
few privates, and I'm after all the dis
tinction [ can get" So the subject was
dropped-forever, as it turned out.
twas two days before the line of fire
which was to end the lives of SO many
brave men on each side began, as Reyn-
olds' corps struck Heth's men, that VIII
jackson, coming in from sentry duty,
found the mail had arrived and recog-
nized the handwriting of his sister. AS
he read the letter his face grew very
stern, and he more than once clenched
his fist unconsciously. It was long
letter, full of repetitions and CONTRA
dictions, but he made out that May had
discovered her husband was in the power
of lot Of men who were urging him to
do something, she knew not exactly
what, but which would utterly ruin him.
In one sentence she declared that Charlie
was innocent of wrong doing, and in the
next she implored her brother by all the
love he had always shown for her, by his
love for his mother, by his love for the
girl who was gone, by his love for the
baby his sister held in her arms, to save
that baby's father. She came to him,
she said, when she could go to no one
else-he alone could do anything.
AS Will jackson sat there far into the
night needless OF military calls fearful
struggle went on within him. He knew
as every man in the fast gathering hosts
knew that a great battle was pending
His sense of duty to his country, his
pride in his own good name, his soldiers
instinct alike made the idea of desertion
intolerable to him. And yeti was
Mays husband and Carries brotheri
AS he thought he took out the picture Of
his dead love and kissed It passionately.
If he waited for the battle he might be
killed, and then May was right, there
was no one else who could do this thing.
But the shame of it! the bitter, intol-
cradle shanle Men would say, and
say with apparent reason, that he had
deserted coward fashion! He, VIII
Jackson, through whose veins no drop
of towards blood ever ran! He would
be false to his country when it needed
him, false to that flag he loved and idol
lied as he loved and idolized the men,
DRY of his mother! He would be false to
the oath he swore before God and man
to fight for the Union until the end;
he, who had never consciously broken
his lightest word, would do this thing.
1t was too much to ask, too much to de-
mand of him, and burying his head in
his hands he prayed the cup might pass
from him.
Carries brother, Mays husband!
Mays husband, Carries brother!'
1t rang through his brain like a dull
refrain of torture. Could he refuse to
sacrifice himself? 1t was true he was
asked to lay himself on the altar, and
with his own hands he was asked to tear
out his pride, his loyalty, hishonor! But
could he refuse? Could he refuse? 1t
was Mays husband and Carries brother
who would go-who would drown before
his eyes in the foul waters of crime and
shame unless he jumped in to savel
Could he refuse? Could he refuse?
TO give his life for the man who had
brought this misery ON him would, he
thought, have been so easy. But to give
himself. his honor, his word, his loyalty;
it was very, very hard! 1t was character
istic of the man that he spoke MOI
thought no word of curse against his
brother-in-law. To him the supreme
decision he was called on to make was
all in all. On the one side were his pledge
to his mother (and in the still night he
seemed to hear her words again, his love
for the sister and his love for his dead
on the other were his honor, his loyalty
his pride, his plighted faith! No wonder
when he rose from his seat and walked
down the long line Of the bivouac he
should have staggered as one who has
taken strong drink. For when the
morning roll call rang out Private Will
lam jackson was absent A hurried
search and a yet more hurried court
martial followed, but Gettysburg was
but one day off and men had too much
to think Of to spend time in wonder
over the absence of one. His friends
mourned for a brief space, but many Of
them died in the angle or along the thir
lines of blue which charged and repealed