The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-07-13

| rising showed that a mortar shell from
| the siege batteries of the enemy had
| fallen and exploded That was al,
| and that was al anyone thought about
it. But it happened at that spot and at
| that moment drum head court-martial
was sitting. A poor devil had somehow
impressed his commanding officer with
! the belief that he was coward. Idonot
remember, if l ever heard. the particu-
| lars. At any rate, ne was being tried
| by drumhead court-martiall III this out
| of-the-way place on the charge of cow
/ ardice. OF course the the penalty, il
! convicted, was death. 4 few minutes
| had passed since the explosion OF tie
| artificial aerolite. It had been forgot
ten, if it had been made a matter of
| even passing remark The general was
debating to his adjutant general. Aids
and clerks were all busy, when sudden
" an apparition appeared before them
It was evidently a soldier, but bare
headed, his hair and face begrirned
with powder and so covered with thick
dust that, saturated with reel5ilg per-
spiration, it ran into mud and gave
him the appearance Of wild Indian.
The hue of his clothing had evidently
once been blue, but it was covered
with dirt and TO all appearances fresh
" torn into shreds. His audacity in
appearing in such a plight before the
general and his staff without even ask
ing permission was the first wonder,
but when he did SO with the exclama-
ton: II am no coward, generai?' sur
prise gave way TO the indulgent i'm
preston, another poor fellow gone
daft, perhaps affected by the heat"
well, who said you We're? What do
you want here? See to him, adjutant,"
quickly spoke the general and again
turned to his work.
What is the matter, sir? Don't you
know better than to intrude yourself
this way in the presence of the gen.
eral?" asked the aid. Speak up at
once, sir"
Il am no coward, / don't want to be
shot for coward" the poor fellow con-
tinued pleadjngly. What am l to do?''
he asked, wiping the trickling Crime
and mud from his face and forehead
with the remnants of the sleeve of his
old wooden shirt. Then, more compos-
eddy, he related how he was being tried
for cowardice by Il court-martial down
the gulch over there" how n tremen-
dous mortar shell had dropped, explod-
ing and interrupting the proceedings,
knocking him over, tearing his cloth
ing, mutilating his body to some extent,
and had left him half dead and half
buried; how he had come to, and, look
ing about, could see no one of the Off
GERS before whom he was at the
SO he had come to the general to ask
what he should do and to tell
him be was no coward. A hurried in
vestiGation proved the truth of the poor
fellows story. The shell had exploded
in close proximity to the court, but the
accused was the only one who had SUI
fered other Inconvenience than a des-
perate shock of the nerves. Every mem
Der of the court had excitedly taken
himself to a more secure place and be-
fore they had recovered their compla-
cency sufficiently to remember that they
had left the prisoner on the ground, the
latter had reported to the general by
whose order he was being tried. 1t was
a lucky fall for the soldier. The COM
mander thought he had shown more in
trepidity than the officers who were try
ing him. He ordered him to report to
the captain of his company for duty.
The hour that, had it not been for the
of the enemy, might have
marked his death as craven saw him
restored to the confidence of his COM
RACES. \ few days afterwards he gave
proof that this confidence had not been
He fell with his face to the
foe, in the assault that followed the
famous mine explosion, hcro-Omaha /
Bee.