Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 74, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 April 1917 — NOT AFRAID TO DIE. [ARTICLE]

NOT AFRAID TO DIE.

It is related that a private in the army of the Potomac was sentenced to be Shot for sleeping at his post of duty. In some way word of the approaching execution came to the attention of President Lincoln, and after writing out a reprieve he called his carriage and started out to see that the reprieve did not fail to reach the poor condeftined soldier. It was a broiling hot day and the ride to camp was a long one of ten miles, but the great-hearted Lincoln was bent on saving the poor soldier he went forward. Perhaps the president later forgot the incident amid the weightier cares of state, but not so the soldier. When the Third Vermont charged upon the rifle pits before Yorktown the following year the enemy poured a volley among them. The first man to fall was William Scott of Company K, with six bullets through his body. His comrades caught him as he fell and as bis life blow! ebbed away, 'he raised Jo heaven amid the din of battle, the cries of the dying and the shouts of the enemy, a prayer for the president, and a a he died he remarked to his comrades that Lincoln had showed he was no coward and was not afraid to die. At the burial later the chaplain narrated the circumstances to the boys who stood about with uncovered heads. He had prayed for the president and paid him a most fervid.and glowing tribute with his dying breath.