The Last Three SoldiersShelton, W. H. (William Henry)
History
The Last Three Soldiers
Shelton, W. H. (William Henry)
North Carolina -- Fiction; Soldiers -- Fiction; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Fiction
Healthy living and abundance of food have rounded the lusty brown limbs
of the three soldiers and charged their veins with good red blood; but
alas! in the midst of the abundance of nature and the opulence of the
golden mill, by reason of their tattered and scant covering they are
pitiful objects to look upon as they sit together in the sunlight. The
smart uniforms with yellow facings are gone, and the long cavalry
boots, and the jaunty caps with cross-sabers above the flat vizors; and
so little remains of their former clothing that they might almost blush
in the presence of the bear.
Lieutenant Coleman has some rags of blue flannel hanging about his
broad shoulders, which flutter in the soft wind where they are not
gathered under the waistband of a pair of new and badly made canvas
trousers having the letters "U.S." half lost in the clumsy seam of the
right leg and a great "A" on the back, which sufficiently indicates
that they have been made from the stiff cloth of the tent called "A,"
and that, if required, they could easily stand alone. Such as they
are, these trousers, on account of their newness and great durability,
seem to be the pride of the colony. They are certainly much smarter
than Philip's, which are open with rents and patched with rags of
various shades of blue, and tied about his legs with strings, and
finally hung from his bare, tanned shoulders, under the telescope, by a
single strip of canvas.
All three of the men have hard, bare feet, and the tunic or gown of
faded blue cloth which hangs from Bromley's neck shows by its age that
the overcoat-capes which were sacrificed to make it were sacrificed
long ago. This what-you-may-call-it is girded in at the waist by a
coil of young grape-vine covered with tender green leaves, and fringed
at bottom with mingled tatters of blue cloth and old yellow lining.
And this completes the costume of the dignified corporal who enlisted
from Harvard in his junior year, except some ends of trousers which
hang about his knees like embroidered pantalets.
With all their poverty of apparel, the persons of the three soldiers,
and their clothing as far as practicable, are sweet and clean, which
shows that at least two of them have lost none of that pride which
prompted them to stay on the mountain, and which still keeps up their
courage in the autumn of the good year '69. And now let us see what it
is that ails Philip.
Many entries in the diary for the fifth summer on the mountain, which
is just over, indicate that the conduct of Philip was shrouded in an
atmosphere of mystery which his companions vainly tried to penetrate.
So early as March 12, 1869, we find it recorded:
"Philip spends all his unemployed time in observations with the
telescope."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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