Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 January 1911 — ARROUND THE CAMP FIRE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ARROUND THE CAMP FIRE

REPRIEVE ARRIVED TOO LATE

How Triple Execution Planned by Commanders of Army of Potomac Proved Painful Incident. ■ - n .'' Nearly 300 Union soldiers met Ignominious deaths during the war cf 1861-1865. Most of them were shot fnr desertion. Only one of this number, X am glad to say, was from New Jersey, my native state, and he a foreigner, whose home was in Newark. This fellow had deserted from the Thirteenth New Jersey regiment, shortly after the battle of Antietam, the first engagement In which that command participated, and joined the Confederate army. Later on, he forsook the confederates and re-entered our lines, hoping, thereby, as a confederate deserter, to be sent north in liberty. A* fate decreed, he was seen by some cf the Thirteenth, Imprisoned, tried, con- ' vlcted, and sentenced to be shot, as were also two New Yorkers who had been found guilty of the same crime, writes Gen. J. Madison Drake, in tfc® Saturday Globe. At eight o’clock in the morning theTwelfth corps formed, when the courtmartial proceedings and the orders for the execution were read to each regiment by the adjutants. While this part of the ceremony was being enacted, a small column of armed men was , ment by the adjutants. The suspense was awful as tho marchers and wagon drew near with painfully slow and measured tread, to the spot designated for the tragedy. The three prisoners, assisted by th© soldiers, tottered from the vehicle to the ground. The 12 armed soldiers, advancing a. few steps, faced the doomed men. The reading finished, white band- * ages were bound over the eyes of th» prisoners and with arms pinioned behind their backs, they each were made to kneel upon the rudely constructed coffins —placed beside their graves. In a moment the officer in command of the firing party commanded — “Ready,” “aim,” “fire!” mid a quick, sharp volley sounding through a cloud of black smoke, as the report reverberated over the field, like a single shot, the blindfolded, pinioned forms, tottering for a single instant, pitched heavily forward to mother earth. t To make my story complete it wilt be necessary to add the words of General Slocum In his address at. Gettysburg July 1, 1887, at the unveil-

lng of the monument to the Thirteenth New Jersey regiment on that field, to which he referred as follows to theexecutlon above described: “ • . • The corps commanders had a little conference and agreed they would take the matter of the wholesale desertions from the Army of the Potomac into their own hands, and put a stop to it. It so happened that I had at that time three of these men in my corps. They were tried and convicted upon incootestlble evidence and when we got to Leesburg, before the battle of Gettysburg, their graves were dug and the men placed at the head of the holes and shot. Before ten o’clock I received a message from Mr. Lincoln saying: ‘lf such a man,’ giving his name, ‘has hot been shot, you will suspend the sentence.’ I sat down and telegraphed the president: ‘The man has been executed, pursuant to his sentence.’ “Just before I departed with my corps from Washington for the western army I went to bid Mr. Lincoln good-by; it waa the last time I ever saw him. As 1 entered the room ho said to me, hardly waiting for me to greet him. ‘General Slocum, the last message that I received from you gave me more pain than anytßlng that has occurred since I took my seat as president.' t was astonished at Uts words and Bald with surprise, ‘Mr. Lincoln, I don't remember; wbat was It?’ Said he, You were up there at Leesburg, and 1 telegraphed you-to suspend the sentence of a man who was condemned to death and the wife and sister of that man sat hers at this table opposite me and I had to open your telegraphic answer and read* it to them. That** said he, ‘caused me morepain than almost anything that has Occurred since I became president of the United States.”*

“Ready, Aim, "