For Love of Country: A Story of Land and Sea in the Days of the RevolutionBrady, Cyrus Townsend
History
For Love of Country: A Story of Land and Sea in the Days of the Revolution
Brady, Cyrus Townsend
United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Fiction
The men of Mercer's command reported that they had seen the two
officers dismounted and fighting bravely, after having refused to
retreat. The two young officers were very melancholy as they rode
along the familiar road. Lewis belonged to a Virginia regiment, and
had known both Mercer and Talbot well, and in fact all the officers who
had been killed. The officers of that little army were like a band of
brothers, and after every battle there was a general mourning for the
loss of many friends. The casualties among the officers in the sharp
engagement had been unusually severe, and entirely disproportioned to
the total loss; the bulk of the loss had fallen upon Mercer's brigade.
They found the general in Clark's farmhouse, near the field of battle,
lingering in great pain, and slowly dying from a number of ferocious
bayonet wounds. He was attended by his aid, Major Armstrong, and the
celebrated Dr. Benjamin Rush came especially from Philadelphia to give
the dying hero the benefit of his skill and services. He had been
treated with the greatest respect by the enemy, for Cornwallis was
always quick to recognize and respect a gallant soldier. The kindly
Quakers had spared neither time nor trouble to lighten his dying hours,
and the women of the household nursed him with gentle and assiduous
care. He passed away ten days after the battle, leaving to his
descendants the untarnished name of a gallant soldier and gentleman,
who never faltered in the pursuit of his high ideals of duty. Brief as
had been his career as a general in the Revolution, his memory is still
cherished by a grateful posterity, as one of the first heroes of that
mighty struggle for liberty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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