The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1898-10-01
SICK ON THE DAY OF BATTLE.
Comrades Account of sidney Pratt's
Death aud burial.

Death aud burial.
Roy Roberts, of Co. A, Eth Minnesota.
tells of the sickness. death and inter-
ment of his tent mate. Sidney Pratt the
! son of Mayor Pratt. in letter to his
father. W. 2. Roberts, of this city. He
says
Sid" died yesterday, Aug IS, about II
a. III. For the last two days on the
boat he did not feel we'll. He then be-
gan to get weak and kept it up. The
march and work when we landed tired
him quite bit. and the n"Xt day he had
slight fever, but kept in the tent and
felt better. We kept him quiet until
"Wednesday. when the company went i'll
to the trenches. He was ambitious for
chance to see Il little of the excitement
and VIC couldn't persuade him to stay be-
hind. 1t was y very hard, hot. four milo
march through the mud. and all of us
were pretty tired at the end. We bunked
in an old house. which WAS dirty and
worse than our tent. by morning he
was worse, and we took his load and sent
him back to camp With hospital corps
man. He had no appetite any of the
time, and got weaker and weaker
Thursday afternoon he went to the doe
tor and was ordered to 80 to the brigade
hospital. He wouldn't say what was the
matter, but on the transfer blank the
doctor gave me when took him down to
the hospital learned that it was typhoid.
1t is a miles walk and Sid wouldn't have
any help, so that when we got there he
could hardly stand up. He seemed to-
feel better the next day and the next
Saturday morning ran in to see him ON
the way to the trenches (thc day of the
battlo) and he looked quite bright. !
had no chance to get out again until
Wednesday following and then
couldn't see him. The doctor said that
he had a high fever all the time, and
that it changed to malarial fever He
became unconscious about D. nj. We'd
nestlay and was in that condition until
he died.
He was the most popular fellow in the
company; everybody liked him. AS Il
consequence OF this, everybody wanted to
be on the burial squad, but ten of his
most intimate friends We're selected, to-
gethcr with Il few from other companies,
and went out to camp about 9 o'clock
Wednesday to bury him. Tho body was
in coffin. which was a plain hardwood
affair, lined with metal. Rev. John DIAL
lam, Of Excelsior, a private in CO. D. and
a fine fellow, read a passage from the
bible in the camp. and then we took the
body about a mile from the camp to Il
graveyard on the bank of the river.
There are about fifteen other graves
there of men from the whole army. AL
though we had decided not to look at
the body after we had finished the grave
we did look for the ring which had been
worn, but ii must have been taken off
in the hospital. as it wasn't there.
Nothing was left on the body except an
identification tag around his neck. MI
Dallam read another short passage of
scripture and made Il short prayer We
all repeated the Lords prayer together,
after which taps We're blown. They
would not let us fire Il salute. We plant
ed something that looked like Il rose
bush at the foot of the grave. We will
pack all his things and ship them home.
The doctor said that Sid just got weak
cr and weaker until the end came.