farewell, and spoke of his proud step, though a mere boy, going to defend
his country and his loved ones; but at one weak moment, when nature,
tasked and taxed beyond the bounds of human endurance, could stand no
longer, and upon the still and silent picket post, when the whole army
was hushed in slumber, what wonder is it that he, too, may have fallen
asleep while at his post of duty.

Some of you gentlemen of this court-martial may have sons, may have
brothers; yes, even fathers, in the army. Where are they tonight?
You love your children, or your brother or father. This mere youth has
a father and mother and sister away back in Tennessee. They are willing
to give him to his country. But oh! gentlemen, let the word go back to
Tennessee that he died upon the battlefield, and not by the hands of his
own comrades for being asleep at his post of duty. I cannot now remember
the speeches, but one thing I do know, that he was acquitted, and I was
glad of it.


"THE DEATH WATCH"

One more scene I can remember. Kind friends--you that know nothing of a
soldier's life--I ask you in all candor not to doubt the following lines
in this sketch. You have no doubt read of the old Roman soldier found
amid the ruins of Pompeii, who had stood there for sixteen hundred years,
and when he was excavated was found at his post with his gun clasped in
his skeleton hands. You believe this because it is written in history.
I have heard politicians tell it. I have heard it told from the sacred
desk. It is true; no one doubts it.

Now, were I to tell something that happened in this nineteenth century