Following the Flag, from August 1861 to November 1862, with the Army of the PotomacCoffin, Charles Carleton
History
Following the Flag, from August 1861 to November 1862, with the Army of the Potomac
Coffin, Charles Carleton
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Campaigns
"Satisfied be hanged! I saw old Jeff, Mallory, Longstreet, and Whiting,
and all of them, looking as mad as thunder. Just to think that Huger's
slowness has spoiled everything! There he has been on our right all day
and hasn't fired a shot, although he had positive orders to open the
fight at eight o'clock in the morning."[28]
[Footnote 28: Battle-Fields of the South.]
There are indescribable scenes of horror after a great battle,--the
removal of the wounded, bleeding, dying, giving utterances to groans
extorted by the intense pain,--the work at the hospitals, where the
disabled, one by one, are laid before the surgeons. Yet, amid their
terrible sufferings, the men are often cheerful, and hopeful for this
life and the life which is to come.
A chaplain says: "Amongst the badly wounded was Joseph Bynon of
Alleghany City, Pennsylvania, a young man of the most generous nature,
universally popular in his regiment, and the staff of a widowed mother.
He was lying on a blanket near the house, wounded in the bowels. I
asked him about his sufferings. He replied, that he did not suffer
much, that he was faint from the loss of blood as he supposed. I saw
from his pulse that he had but a few moments to live, and said to him,
"'Joseph, are you willing and ready to die? I am afraid you cannot
live.'
"'Well, doctor,' he whispered, 'I should like to live; I love my
mother; this will be a great sorrow to her. And I should like to do
something for my little nephew and niece. But there is another life,
and I know I shall find mother there. I feel I have been a great
sinner; in many things I have done wrong; but ever since my conversion
I experienced in Camp Johnson, I have tried to follow my Saviour, and
now I die trusting. My mind wanders; I find it difficult to think and
speak. In praying to God, I may not say the things that are right; do,
doctor, lift up my hands and clasp them together, and pray for me!'
"I lifted up the hands crimsoned with his own blood, and pressing them
in mine, commended him to the Merciful One, who for us all had suffered
the bitterness of death. He repeated word for word, prayed for his
mother, and then said, 'O Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the
world, take away my sin; into Thine hand I commend my spirit!'
"The storm of battle raged again. The enemy's shells burst around
the hospital, and the wounded were removed. He was lifted into an
ambulance, but died before it reached Savage Station. Thus giving his
life to his country, he passed on into the service of his God."[29]
[Footnote 29: Chaplain Marks.]
At daybreak on Sunday morning, an orderly belonging to the Rebel army
rode out of the woods into the Union lines.
"Where is General Anderson," he asked.
"Here he is. What do you want of him?" said a colonel.
"I have a despatch for him from General Pryor."
"I will take it. Soldiers, guard this man. You are my prisoner."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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