The land of a farmer on
service often remained untilled, and there are pathetic cases of
families in bitter need because the breadwinner was in the army.
In frontier settlements his absence sometimes meant the massacre
of his family by the savages. There is little wonder that
desertion was common, so common that after a reverse the men went
away by hundreds. As they usually carried with them their rifles
and other equipment, desertion involved a double loss. On one
occasion some soldiers undertook for themselves the punishment of
deserters. Men of the First Pennsylvania Regiment who had
recaptured three deserters, beheaded one of them and returned to
their camp with the head carried on a pole. More than once it
happened that condemned men were paraded before the troops for
execution with the graves dug and the coffins lying ready. The
death sentence would be read, and then, as the firing party took
aim, a reprieve would be announced. The reprieve in such
circumstances was omitted often enough to make the condemned
endure the real agony of death.
Religion offered its consolations in the army and Washington gave
much thought to the service of the chaplains. He told his army
that fine as it was to be a patriot it was finer still to be a
Christian.
Pages:
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167