Going Up The
Steps And On In The Room To A Cot, He Unfastened The Ball From His
Belt And Let It Thunder Down On The Floor, And Then Throwing Himself
Down On The Cot, Buried His Face In The Blankets, An Awful Picture Of
Woe And Despair.
On the walk by the door, and looking at him with
contempt, stood a splendid specimen of manhood - erect, broad-chested,
with clear, honest eyes and a weather-beaten face - a typical soldier
of the United States Army, and such as he, the prisoner inside might
have become in time.
Our house is separated from the guardhouse by a
little park only, and I could plainly see the whole thing - the strong
man and the weakling.
In the meantime, bugles had called the men back to quarters, and very
soon I learned all about the wretched affair. The misguided young man
had deserted once before, was found guilty by a general court-martial,
and sentenced to the penitentiary at Leavenworth for the regulation
time for such an offense, and to-morrow morning he was to have started
for the prison. Now he has to stand a second court-martial, and serve
a double sentence for desertion!
He was so silly about it too. The prisoners were at the large ice
house down by the river, getting ice out for the daily delivery. There
were sentinels over them, of course, but in some way that man managed
to sneak over the ice through the long building to an open door,
through which he dropped down to the ground, and then he ran. He was
missed almost instantly and the alarm given, but the companies were
sent to the lowland along the river, where there are bushes, for there
seemed to be no other place where he could possibly secrete himself.
The officer of the day is responsible, in a way, for the prisoners, so
of course Lieutenant Todd went to the ice house to find out the cause
of the trouble, and on his way back he accidentally passed an old
barrel-shaped water wagon. Not a sound was heard, but something told
him to look inside. He had to climb up on a wheel in order to get high
enough to look through the little square opening at the top, but he is
a tall man and could just see in, and peering down he saw the wretched
prisoner huddled at one end, looking more like an animal than a human
being. He ordered him to come out, and marched him to the guardhouse.
It was a strange coincidence, but the officer of the day happened to
have been promoted from the ranks, had served his three years as an
enlisted man, and then passed a stiff examination for a commission.
One could see by his walk that he had no sympathy for the mother's
baby. He knew from experience that a soldier's life is not hard unless
the soldier himself makes it so.
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