The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1899-08-24
PRAYING SOLDIERS.
Specimens of supDlicntions Made In
Time Of BnffIe.

Iame OF Buttfcs
1t was the snecring comment of Brit
ish generals In the early days Of the
Revolutionary war that the American
soldiers prayed before battle. The in.
stances were numerous during the civil
war where both Confederates and Union
forces were halted before the strife for
an invocation. Thomas, like Jackson,
rode with his Bible.
Aside from my own slight experience
with the army which entered Cuba,
have been soliciting nurses and surgeons
for stories OF the praying soldier. In
the frontier land where i was reared,
the praying" man was more feared as
n fighter, when necessity demanded fight,
than was the so called bad" man. One
Of Sibley's captains In that famous 63
pursuit after the Sioux always sent his
men into battle with the injunction:
pray and fight"
This story came out during the Rough
Riders reunion at Las Vegas: One Of
the regiment, an Indian Territory man,
was slightly wounded at Las Guasimas.
On his way to the rear be was wounded
again and came to the sheltering bluff
OF creek feeling that death was near
at hand. Try as he would his strength
was not sufficient to carry him under
the lee of the bluff. To stay where he
was seemed at that moment an impos-
sibiity. In his struggles and endeayor
to get over the bank there came to him
a dim recollection of something that had
been taught him when he was boy
God bless me and help me to do
right. God make me a good boy. God
keep me-
A loosened bit of earth gave way, and
down the bank into safety he went.
He lay on his back there, his feet in the
water of the stream, his eyes fixed on
the face of his adjutant, who through
fright had deserted his post and hidden.
The trooper appreciated the situation,
for his prayer ended:
"And kill that blasted maverick now"
One of the Chicago Red Cross nurses
sent to Siboney had in charge a Nebras-
ka boy who was wounded under the coli
ors of the Fourth infantry. One after
noon, when he was convalescent he was
describing to her his sensations when
first under Ere. She asked him:
''Did you feel like praying"
His answer was:
81 prayed for FIVE minutes after the
firing commenced"
Much interested. the nurse asked him
the nature of his prayer. He replied,
with a laugh:
'All that l could say was, oh, Lord!
oh, LordP over and over again, but l
guess he understood it, for it was meant
for prayer"
/ was in the cemetery at Montauk, the
pitiful waste of sand where the soldier
dead were laid, searching for trace of
young Marshall, Chicago boy who was
missing, when the burying squad brought
up the body of an unknown soldier for
interment. No minister was present, no
one to hold any kind of service over this
body that was going to the grave without
the slightest mark of Identification. The
rough laborers charged with the duty Of
burial did not think this was quite right.
Hardened as they were to their duties,
they still wished for bit of prayer over
every body before the sand was shoyeled
in upon it. They appealed to a young
lieutenant who was crossing the ground.
To the surprise of us all he came, stood
by the rude box in which lay the dead
and, uncoyering his head, prayed. As
prayers go it was not much and could
not be under the circumstances, but the
act OF the unknown officer praying over
the unknown dead had so much of the
divine in it that not man present but
felt his eyes moisten and that Tightening
of the throat which comes when emotions
surge and rise.
Quite generally the character Of the
chaplains who entered Cuba with the
army was high. Here and there though,
one would crop out who did not UNDER
stand men. Such a chaplain usually
found himself ostracized after the men
discovered his angles. A chaplain of an
Illinois regiment came upon the men
while they were cutting down one of
the fine trees near the regimental camp
in Florida. He watched them at their
work for moment and then exclaimed:
What pity to cut that tree down. 1t
viii take hundred years to replace it,
while you can be replaced at any time"
This same chaplain, returning from
Santiago on transport with the regi-
ment, looked over rail into the hold
where the horses were crowded and ex-
claimed: -
Poor horsesl"
As the condition of the men was worse
Than that of the horses and he had moth
ing to say for the former the regiment
was furious and scorned him unmerciful-
y. He was a well meaning chaplain,
bat his prayers and Bible readings never
cached the men under him, because of
his unfortunate comments on the tree
and the horses.-H. J. Cleveland in Chi
cago Times Herald.