Part 11

[E] It was in a corner of this yard, a few years later, after the close of the war, that poor Wirz, condemned and tried by a Military Court-Martial, was judicially murdered.

[F] Regarding the Oath, a writer in the _New York Freeman’s Journal_ vented his feelings thus:

THE OATH OF ALLEGIANCE

Parody on the Soliloquy of Hamlet.

To swear or not to swear, that is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in a man to suffer Imprisonment, exile and poverty, Or take the oath amidst a sea of troubles, And by submission, end them? To swear, to lie, Once more; and, by a lie, to say we end Starvation, nakedness and all the ails That Rebs are heir to--’tis a perjury Devoutly to be wished. To swear--to lie; To lie!--perchance a change; aye, there’s the rub, For in that change the angry Rebs may come, When from these lands the Feds are driven out, Must give us pause; there’s the respect That makes a man of honor hesitate. But who would bear at the dead hour of night To be ’roused from his sleep--dragged out of bed-- To be locked up in jail--to hold his tongue-- Before a mock tribunal to be tried, And then condemned for deeds he knew not of, When he himself these evils might avoid By perjury? Who would detectives bear-- To look about before he opes his mouth, But that the dread of bayonets and chains-- The provost-marshal, from whose iron grip No victim e’er escapes, puzzles the will, And makes us swallow every oath that comes, Than fly to evils that we dread still more? Thus, love of ease makes _patriots_ of us all! And thus our sympathies are sicklied o’er With confiscation, banishment and death! With this regard, we doff our principles, And swallow Abe, the Nigger and the Oath!

NED CRACKER.

[G] See page 115.

[H] The Confederate iron-clad _Virginia_ (_Merrimac_) was abandoned and blown up off Craney Island, Virginia, on the 11th of May, 1862, after the evacuation of Norfolk by the Confederate forces.

[I] In the official records, War of the Rebellion, reports of surgeons and medical directors to the Commissary-General of Prisoners verifies the statements made by the Confederate prisoners as to the wanton shooting of prisoners, the prevalence of scurvy and great number of deaths from same, and to the unnecessary sufferings of prisoners from causes which could be remedied.

[J] John H. Barnes joined Mosby, and while scouting with Lieutenant Williams and a few men was captured, taken to Washington and put in the Old Capitol Prison; was tried by court-martial and sentenced to be shot. This sentence was commuted to imprisonment in penitentiary for twenty years. He was afterward released, but was so broken down that he died soon after his release.

Frank Fox joined Mosby; was elected second lieutenant of Company C; was especially mentioned for conspicuous gallantry in Colonel Mosby’s report of fight with Cole’s Battalion, February 21, 1864; was mortally wounded September 3, 1864, in fight with Sixth New York Cavalry, taken prisoner, and died some days after at Sandy Hook, Md.

Albert Wrenn joined Mosby; was elected second lieutenant of Company B, October 1, 1863; wounded and horse killed at Berryville, August 13, 1864; died Washington, D. C., November 6, 1910, and buried at Chantilly, November 8, 1910.

Philip Lee also joined Mosby.

[K] See page 154.

[L] The “Mosby Man” here mentioned, was Joseph Nelson, afterward Lieutenant of Company A, 43d Battalion Virginia Cavalry, Mosby’s Rangers.

TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES:

Italicized text is surrounded by underscores: _italics_.

Obvious typographical errors have been corrected.

Inconsistencies in hyphenation have been standardized.