Connecticut western news., 1897-05-27


 dispatches. His cap bore the characters, "142nd-Vols !"
 There was rift in the cloud at once
 Fortunately two of our guard were strong willed and humane and ready to favor us with kindly offices. They fed us and took our last messages for friends and directions for our Identification, and from them I learned that the One Hundred and Forty second regiment was all In the camp five miles distant. asked to be conducted there, but the acquaintance which claim ed was so slight that the commander de- murred and declared it was simply anoth- CT trick to gain time. Our kind advocates then took 1t up and offered to investigate the case, and soon Joseph Pennington was brought to our prison glen. Pennington, too, shook his head When he last saw me, the pallor caused by pain and the blight of wound and fever were upon me. My re- counting that affair with the huckste in Baltimore shook him little, but one of the guard who was jealous for our destruc- tion broke the force of its influence most skillfully. He said: "Oh, this fellow may be only Baltimore secesh who was hang ing around that time. Come to think, have seen him sneaking around the depots and wharfs in Baltimore and Alexandria, spying out the movements of our troops" Settled prejudices are hard to uproot. Pen nington quit the scene, and we were told to get ready. Some prayed, some cried. l paced the ground like caged tiger. There was not a guilty one in the party-that is, guilty of the crime charged or anything like it, although there were some night riders In the orowd-some of Mos by 's ran gers. I could see "innocent" written upon every palljd countenance, and emotions h,,, ,s,f n, for my fellows, as thought of this useless and cruel execution, moved me beyond con- trol. l burst into tornado of vehement appeals aimed at any who would listen. Some ears were open. l pleaded against the shedding of innocent blood, pictured the calamity to be visited on so many homes, foretold the narrowing thoughts to arise some day in the minds of our beloved friends when they should learn tho story of our vain and shameful deaths and at last came to the point of fastening upon the would be perpetrators a lifelong re- morse.
 My eloquence-for who could not be fired with logic at such a crisisS-commanded at tention and several of the guard withdrew rom the sound of it. The leader stood nenr gloomy and cold All this time my Bible in its close wrapper had remained in
 
 heart, and as a last argument I turned to 1t to try if I could not move those obdurate hearts by reading from Gods own word. As I turned the covers nervously the blue inclosure fell out, and O pregnant thought -'that stamp and Pennington"-rush to my mind. "Here is proofr' cried. ''Let me sec Joseph Pennington againP' The hour was up, but q respite was allow ed and Pennington came sullenly back. My game was desperate. l showed him that fragment stamp and told the whole story without break. He scanned me, still skeptical, but had put in a wedge Doubt had arisen. After a hasty consul- tation the execution was deferred until daylight, and Iuy own was then to be sub ject to approval of council from the main camp. Of course I was hero amo ong the doomed men. About midnight word came that Lee had surrendered his army. The startling tidings instantly disarned the passionate prejudices of the fratricidal strife The stern judgments and fatal yer diets of martial courts were of forever, and every man of us went free, filled with a gratitude words failed to express.
 The little faded fragment of a stamp is now mounted on blue silk, framed, and hangs over my cabinet. I prize it as the choicest of my collection of relics of the war.