His song, _Mother would Comfort Me_, was suggested, as indeed were most of his songs, by a war incident. A soldier in one of the New York regiments had been wounded and was taken prisoner at Gettysburg. He was placed in a Southern hospital, and when the doctor told him that nothing more could be done for him, his dying words were: "Mother would comfort me if she were here." When Sawyer learned of the incident, he wrote the song, the first verse of which runs as follows:-- "Wounded and sorrowful, far from my home, Sick among strangers, uncared for, unknown; Even the birds that used sweetly to sing Are silent, and swiftly have taken the wing. No one but mother can cheer me to-day, No one for me could so fervently pray; None to console me, no kind friend is near-- Mother would comfort me if she were here." This song captured the country at once, and spread its author's fame everywhere. On another occasion a telegram came to a Brooklyn wife concerning her husband who was killed on the battlefield. The last words of the despatch read: "He was not afraid to die." Sawyer caught up that note in the telegram, and wrote his splendid song beginning,-- "Like a true and faithful soldier He obeyed our country's call; Vowing to protect its banner Or in battle proudly fall: Noble, cheerful, brave and fearless, When most needed, ever nigh, Always living as a Christian, 'He was not afraid to die.'" Another of his greatest creations found its inspiration in a similar way. During one of the battles, among the many noble men that fell was a young man who had been the only support of an aged and invalid mother for years. Overhearing the doctor tell those who were near him that he could not live, he placed his hands across his forehead, and with a trembling voice said, while burning tears ran down his cheeks: "Who will care for mother, now?" Sawyer took up these words which voiced the generous heart of the dying youth, and made them the title and theme of one of his noblest songs. The first verse is full of pathos,-- [Illustration: _U. S. BATTLE-SHIP "MAINE"_] "Why am I so weak and weary, See how faint my heated breath, All around to me seems darkness, Tell me, comrades, is this death? Ah! how well I know your answer; To my fate I meekly bow, If you'll only tell me truly Who will care for mother now?" At that time, when every community throughout the North as well as the South had more than one mother whose sole dependence for the future days of weakness and old age was the strong arm of some soldier boy at the front, this song struck a chord that was very tender, and it was sung and whistled and played in street and theater and drawing-room throughout the entire country.