Part 40 (2/2)
We were proud lads that day, for it seemed as if every officer and soldier in the fort was eager to give us some word of praise, and those with whom we had served watched jealously when our equipment was being selected from the plunder of the British camp, lest we might not get the best of everything.
We had our hands full of business making ready for the march, when Reuben c.o.x came shyly up to where Sergeant Corney and I were looking after the stowage of goods in the wagons, and said to me in a half-whisper, as if fearing others might hear him:
”I don't reckon your company is any place for a man who has shown himself sich a sneak as I am, eh?”
”Would you like to go with us?” I asked, in surprise, and pitying from the bottom of my heart the man who was so deeply repentant.
”That I would, Captain Campbell. It may be in time I can live down my record, providin' there be any one who'll look to what I may do, instead of always thinkin' of what I have done.”
”But the men in the fort have been kind to you of late, c.o.x?” I said, questioningly.
”Ay, that they have, considerin' what I've done, an' how nearly I came to workin' the worst of harm to all hands here; but I can see by their eyes that they're always thinkin' I may play the same dirty game agin, though G.o.d knows I'd stand at the stake with never a whimper till the life was burned out of me rather than do one of them another wrong.”
Had I felt at liberty to decide the matter then and there, c.o.x would have been a member of the Minute Boys without further parley; but it was only right I should consult the others, therefore I told him to come again within an hour, when I would give him an answer.
He thanked me humbly, and was about to go away, when Sergeant Corney took him by the hand as he said:
”What's in the past can't be brought back for the fixin'; but we've got in our own keepin' the shapin' of the to-morrows. I'm thinkin' you won't go astray agin, Reuben c.o.x, an' whenever I see a chance to speak a good word for you it shall be said.”
The man's face lighted up wonderfully, and in my heart I thanked the old sergeant over and over for having been thus kind to one who, having committed the worst crime possible for a soldier, stood ready to give up his life cheerfully to the end that he might atone.
I called the lads together without loss of time, repeating to them what c.o.x had said, and again was I made glad when they agreed without hesitation to take him among us.
John Sammons was sent to bring up the new member of the company, and Sergeant Corney said, grimly, as he tried without avail to pucker his wrinkled face into a frown:
”At this rate you'll soon lose the right to call yourselves Minute _Boys_, because this 'ere company is fast becomin' a refuge for the aged and outcast.”
There was to be mourning as well as gladness among us on this the last day we were to spend in Fort Schuyler.
Toward noon a messenger from the general commanding came in, bringing with him the sad news that General Herkimer was dead of his wounds, or, perhaps I should say, because of his wounds.
As we were told, the general was safely taken to his home after the battle, being carried on a litter the entire distance. The weather was very warm, and soon the wound became gangrenous. Nine days after his arrival, a young French surgeon who had been with General Arnold's force visited the house, and claimed that the injured limb should be cut off without delay, as the only means of saving the sufferer's life.
The family doctor objected very strongly; but the general's family had faith in the Frenchman, although it is claimed he had evidently been drinking heavily, and the leg was cut off. The operation was performed so unskilfully that it was impossible to entirely check the flow of blood, and the Frenchman, indulging in more wine, became so badly intoxicated that, even had he known how, it would have been beyond his power to take the proper measures.
There was no other surgeon to be had, and toward the close of the day, when the brave old general came to understand that his end was very near, he asked for the Bible, from which he read aloud the thirty-eighth psalm, immediately afterward sinking back upon the pillow dead.
”Murdered if ever a man was!” Sergeant Corney cried, when the sad story had been brought to an end, and I was of the same opinion.
There are several forms of mutiny, and some of them are called by other names, but all as dangerous as they are wicked. Because many of those who badgered the brave old soldier to his death paid the full penalty of their crime in the ravine under the hatchet or knife of the savages, it may not be well to say harsh words concerning them; but so long as I live there will always be anger in my heart whenever I hear their names mentioned.
During that evening, after everything had been made ready for the march at an early hour next morning, we lads gave to Peter Sitz messages for the loved ones at Cherry Valley, promising that we would never bring disgrace upon the settlement, and so burdening his mind with this matter and the other that, if the poor man remembered but the half of all the words we entrusted him with, he must have had a most prodigious memory.
Right proud was I when I marched out of the fort next morning at the head of my company, followed by the two baggage-wagons; but yet there was a sorrow in my heart because it seemed, in a certain degree, at least, as if by becoming regularly enlisted men we gave up our claim to the name of Minute Boys of the Mohawk Valley.
Those under whom we served did not view the matter in the same light I did, however, for we kept the t.i.tle we liked best during all the time we served in the army.
It would please me to set down here an account of the adventures which were ours after becoming enlisted men, but it must not be done, else I might never bring the tale to a close, for we saw very much during the time our people were convincing the king, and surely did our duty at Bemis Heights, otherwise our company would never have been mentioned in the flattering terms it then was.
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