“She guides =no= vessels through the night and tempest across the trackless sea.” But she does greater things. She possesses the heart and heroism to jeopardize her life in rescuing the shipwrecked. We have many a Grace Darling, we have many a Florence Nightingale, who have manifested greater bravery and brain than required to guide a vessel. But this latter charge will not hold today.
Finally, as a clincher, the Doctor stated that “the strength of Milton’s poetic vision is far beyond her delicate perception, she would have been affrighted at that fiery sea upon whose flaming billows—
‘Satan, with head above the waves And eyes that sparkling blazed.’”
We =again= find the Doctor an =incompetent= judge of woman. A wife who has to encounter a drunken husband time after time, and who lives in terror of her life, is used to blazing eyes and bleared eyes, and all kinds. She would prefer to meet Satan, any time, for there is no record of his being a “drunk.”
Woman asks for the ballot that she may vote this worst of hells out of her life. Yet we find men who respect her so much they would withhold this privilege of defense.
Such chivalry is sick and needs medicine.
I am requested to write out the details of the execution of a Confederate soldier at Morton, Mississippi, in July, 1863. I will endeavor to do so to the best of my recollection; and I think that what I shall write will be substantially correct, because the incident is frescoed upon my memory.
During the siege of Vicksburg, General Joseph E. Johnson was placed in command of the Army in Mississippi which was being organized outside to relieve General Pemberton. General W. H. T. Walker commanded a division in said Army. His command consisted of the brigares of Guist, Wilson, McNair, Ector and Gregg. I was on the staff of General Gregg. We were for some time at Yazoo City preparing to move on the rear of General Grant, who was then closely besieging Vicksburg. When we got ready and our large supply train prepared (which we expected to take into Vicksburg), we marched from Yazoo City towards the Big Black Creek and encamped some days at a little hamlet called Vernon, a few miles West of Canton. While in camp there, one day a regiment of cavalry passed along the road, by the side of which the 46th Georgia Regiment was encamped. This regiment was commanded by Colonel Peyton Colquitt, who was afterwards killed at Chickamauga. Some one recognized a man in the cavalry who formerly belonged to the 46th Georgia. The soldier had deserted from the latter regiment whilst it was on the Georgia coast, and joined this regiment of cavalry. He was arrested—charges preferred against him for desertion. He was tried by a court martial which was sitting at Vernon.