[p.292] Captain O'Neill and Adjutant Hand returned with one hundred and nine drafted men and substitutes. The quota allotted was one hundred and fifty-nine, and with that number they had started from Philadelphia. Fifty, however, had eluded their vigilant attention and disappeared on the route. This was not unusual. Scarcely any detachment of recruits of such a character ever reached the front without seriously suffering from desertion. Occasionally the guard, catching them in the act, upon their refusal to surrender shot them as they attempted escape to friendly timber, or jumped from ferry boats crossing rivers. This latter method of escape, in the darkness of night, was frequently resorted to. It was questionable whether the wholesale desertion of substitutes--the evil was confined almost exclusively to them--did not make the conscript system a failure.
[...][p.294] Five of the men who had eluded O'Neill's vigilance were subsequently apprehended in attempting to recross the Poto- [p.295] mac. They had enlisted under the names of Charles Walter, Gion Reanese, Emil Lai, Gion Folaney and George Kuhn. They were all foreigners, unacquainted with the English language except one. Two were Roman Catholics, another a Hebrew, and the others, if of any faith, were Protestants.
Assigned to the regiment, they had never joined it and were wholly unknown to it. Charged with a crime, conviction for which was likely to be followed by capital punishment, they were sent to the regiment only as a forum where judicial cognizance could be taken of their offence. In fact conviction, followed by any of the punishments usually inflicted for desertion, would have connected them with the regiment only as prisoners awaiting trial or as criminals awaiting approval and execution of their sentences. They had, therefore, been thrown into an organization where they were entire strangers and which had with them neither friendship, memories nor associations, and as they had come there as prisoners only for the stern administration of military justice, they could look for little sympathy.
Desertions, bounty-jumping and re-enlistment had followed each other with such alarming frequency that the death penalty became necessary as the surest method to prevent their recurrence. Except for desertion to the enemy, capital punishment was rarely, if ever, inflicted. The authorities, having determined, if possible, to eradicate the shameful practice of bounty-jumping, had instructed courts-martial in all well-established cases, upon conviction, to impose the severest penalty known to the law. This failing to entirely remove the evil, and "to be shot to death by musketry" being deemed too honorable a death for such abandoned characters, the mode of execution was subsequently changed to the rope and the gallows.
Tempted by the very extravagant sums paid for substitutes and the large bounties offered by district organizations to complete their alloted quotas and thus avoid a draft, large numbers from the worst classes of the community entered the service. A large proportion never reached the army.
[page 296]
The court which tried these five offenders was presided over by Colonel Joseph Hayes, 18th Massachusetts Volunteers, and convened, pursuant to General Order No. 35, of August 15, 1863, at head-quarters, 2d Brigade, 1st Division, 5th Corps. The numbers arraigned, the frequency of the crime, the expected severity of the sentence, attracted the attention of the whole Army of the Potomac. Besides, it was almost the first, if not the first, of this class of cases, and was given unusual publicity, officially and otherwise. The prisoners were all found guilty and sentenced to be shot. The order, fixing the time of the execution as Wednesday, the 26th of August, between the hours of 12 M. and 4 P.M.,* [note 1] reached the regiment on the 24th, and was at once published to the prisoners by Major Herring, in the presence of the chaplain, through the aid of an interpreter. The difficulty in securing the services of a priest and rabbi, who came specially from their Northern homes, induced a respite until Saturday, the 29th, between the same hours. On the day following the announcement of their sentence, they addressed a communication to General Meade, craving a merciful reconsideration of the punishment imposed. It was the composition and in the handwriting of one of them, and read as follows:
"BEVERLY FORD, VA., August 25, 1863.
"MAJOR-GENERAL MEADE:
"GENERAL:--We, the prisoners, implore your mercy in our behalf for the extension of our sentence, so that we may have time to make preparations to meet our God; for we, at the present time, are unprepared to die.
Our time is very short.
Two of us are Roman Catholics; we have no priest, and two are Protestants, and one is a Jew and has no rabbi to assist us in preparing to meet our God.
And we ask mercy in behalf of our wives and children, and we also desire you to change our sentence to hard labor instead of death, as we think we have been wronfully sentenced; as we, being foreigners, were led astray by other soldiers, who promised us there would be no harm done.
"Your obedient servants,
"CHARLES WALTER,
"GION REANESE,
"EMIL LAI,
"GION FOLANEY,
"GEORGE KUHN."
The death penalty having been announced, the guard was strengthened, and every movement of the condemned men closely and carefully watched. An exhaustive search was made for everything that might be employed to commit suicide. Captain Crocker was placed in charge of the guard, and Lieutenants Lewis, Bayne and Thomas were assigned to duty with him. Four men inside and four outside the place of confinement were continually on duty.
Lewis conducted the search. He took a pocket-book from the Hebrew, who pleaded earnestly for its return. Lewis, yielding to his entreaties, was about returning it without examination, when Major Herring, who had supervised the operation, promptly directed him not to do so until he had carefully examined its contents. Concealed in its folds was a lancet. The Jew had not observed the examination, and when the pocket-book was handed him his countenance lightened, and, nervously clutching it, he began to search it closely. Discovering that the lancet had been removed, his countenance fell again, and, handing back the book to Lewis, he mournfully remarked through the interpreter, who had repeated all that had been said, that he had no further use for it and any one was free to retain it.
From the time of the publication of the order until the day of the execution not a soldier was permitted to leave the regimental camp limits, nor were visitors allowed to enter them. All military exercises and camp duties were performed decorously and quietly. An order was issued forbidding noise and [page 298] levity, but it was needless; the awfulness and solemnity of the coming event pervaded every heart.
It may seem strange to some that men who could shoot at others in battle without compunction should feel so serious about the fate of five deserters. It is one thing when soldiers with heated blood and inflamed passions, face to face and hand to hand in fierce conflict, inflict horrid wounds or death upon others. It is a very different thing to look forward to a scene in which men are to be done quietly to death without any of the circumstances which rob war of half its terrors and hide its real character.
The day of the execution was bright, clear and cool. The site selected was the further end of a plain, in rear of the head-quarters of the 2d Brigade. The plain was sufficient in extent to accomodate the entire corps with each division deployed in line of masses, battalions doubled on the centre, on three sides of a hollow square. From the open front to the rear the ground gradually rose, bringing the final scene of the tragedy in full view of all the soldiery.
The morning was busy with preparation. Twenty men, under Sergeant H. T. Peck, were detailed to bear the coffins, and ten pioneers, with spades and hatchets, under Sergeant Moselander, were charged with filling the graves and closing the coffins. Captain Crocker, to whom was assigned Lieutenant Wilson, commanded the guard of thirty men.
Father S. L. Eagan, the Catholic priest, had arrived from Baltimore the afternoon before, and with Chaplain O'Neill had spent the night ministering religious consolation to those of the prisoners whose faith they represented. The Jewish rabbi, Dr. Zould, did not arrive until shortly before noon of the day of the execution.
The prisoners, clothed in blue trousers and white flannel shirts, accompanied by the clergymen, the escort guard and detail, were marched a little after twelve o'clock to a house in the vicinity of the 2d Brigade's head-quarters to report to Captain Orne, the division provost-marshal, and there await the formation of the corps.
[p.299]
The troops assembled slowly. The 1st and 2d Divisions were in position, occupying the second and fourth fronts of the square, when at three o'clock, without awaiting the arrival of the 3d, which subsequently hurried into its place, the solemn procession entered the enclosure on the right of the second front. On the right was the band, then followed Captain Orne, the provost-marshal, with fifty men of his guard, ten to each prisoner, as the executioners. Then there were two coffins, borne by four men each, and in their rear the condemned Hebrew with his rabbi. At a suggestion from Major Herring, the one representing the most ancient of religious creeds was assigned the right. Other coffins, each borne by four men and followed by the prisoners and the priest and chaplain, brought up the column of the condemned. The prisoners were all manacled. Four of them bore themselves manfully, moved steadily and stepped firmly. One, with weak and tottering gait, dragged himself along with difficulty, requiring support to maintain his footing. Captain Crocker, with his escort of thirty men, closed up the rear.
The procession moved slowly; the guards, with reversed arms, keeping step to the mournful notes of the dead march. The silence was broken only by the low, doleful music, the whispered words of consolation of the men of God and the deliberate martial tread of the soldiers.
The column, with the same slow, impressive pace, moved around the three fronts of the square and, halting at the first or open front, faced outward. The five coffins were placed opposite the foot of five new-made graves and a prisoner seated upon each. The provost-guard, subdivided into detachments of ten, with loaded pieces, faced their prisoners thirty paces from them.* [note 2]
The provost-marshal read the orders directing the execution. [page 300] The minister, the priest and the rabbi engaged in earnest, fervent prayer. Time grew apace, and the hour within which this work of death must be consummated was rapidly expiring. General Griffin, who, annoyed from the beginning with unnecessary delays, had anxiously noted the waning hours, observed that but fifteen minutes were left for the completion of what remained to be done. In loud tones, his shrill, penetrating voice breaking the silence, he called to Captain Orne: "Shoot these men, or after ten minutes it will be murder. Shoot them at once!"
To many and many of the thousands of those assembled there, there will but once more come so solemn a moment--the moment when death nears them.
With a few parting words of hope and consolation, the clergy stood aside. Lieutenant Wilson quickly bandaged the eyes of the prisoners, and they--though in the full vigor of life and health--were literally upon the very brink of the grave.
The terrible suspense was but for a moment. "Attention, guard!" shouted the clear, ringing voice of the provost-marshal. "Shoulder arms!" "Forward!" "Guide right!" "March!" Every tread of the guard fell upon the stilled hearts of the motionless army. Twenty-five paces were quickly covered. At six paces from the prisoners with appropriate pause and stern deliberation the command was given: "Halt!" "ready!" "aim!" "fire!" Simultaneously fifty muskets flashed. Military justice was satisfied and the law avenged.
Four bodies fell back heavily with a solid thud; the fifth remained erect. "Inspection arms!" hurriedly ordered Captain Orne, and every ramrod sprang in ringing tones upon the breech. No soldier had failed of his duty, every musket had been discharged. Pistol in hand the provost-marshal moved to the figure which still sat erect upon the coffin (for it was his disagreeable duty to despatch the culprit if the musketry failed); but Surgeon Thomas had pronounced life extinct, and the body was laid upon the ground with the others. [page 302]
The masses changed direction by the left flank, and amid the enlivening notes of "The Girl I Left Behind Me" broke into open column of companies, and marching by the bodies to see that the work of the executioner had been effectually done, the troops were soon back to their camps again.
. . . . . These men evidently belonged to that class who are trading upon the necessities of the country and have embraced enlistment with a view to desertion for the purpose of gain. It is hoped the prompt punishment awarded to their crimes will have the effect to deter others from attempting a like criminal and dishonorable course of conduct, as the commanding general will unhesitatingly punish all such cases with the severest penalties of the law. This order will be published to every company in this army at the first retreat parade after its receipt.
By order of GENERAL MEADE.The pieces are not loaded by those who bear them, and one in each of the ten is charged with a blank cartridge. None of the firing party is supposed to know who discharged the musket loaded without ball, and, as a consequence, none know who actually fired the fatal shots.