Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/172

158 breathing the saddest sigh I ever heard, said just these words: "Well, I am alone in the world." The preacher-captain instantly sprang forward, and placing his hand on the poor boy's shoulder, said solemnly, but cheerfully, "No, my child, you are not alone, for the Bible says, 'When my father and mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up,' and Allan was both father and mother to you; besides, I'm going to take you up, too; you shall sleep under my blanket to-night." There was not a dry eye in the group; and when, months afterward, the whole battalion gathered on a quiet Sabbath evening on the banks of the Appomattox to witness a baptism, and C at the water's edge tenderly handed this child to the officiating minister and, receiving him again when the ceremony was over, threw a blanket about the little shivering form, carried him into the bushes, changed his clothing, and then reappeared, carrying the bundle of wet clothes, and he and the child walked away hand in hand to camp there were more tears, manly, noble, purifying tears; and I heard the sergeant say, 'Faith! the captain has fulfilled his pledge to that boy!'

A missionary to Featherston's Mississippi brigade writes of conducting religious services while the pickets were fighting heavily 600 yards in front, and with balls falling all around. There were several instances on the Petersburg lines where men were wounded in congregations which remained quiet while the preacher continued his sermon.

In that long line of nearly forty miles of intrenchments extending from north and west of Richmond to Hatcher's Run and Five Forks below Petersburg, the opportunities for preaching and other religious services were varied. Some parts of the line were subjected to almost constant fire from the enemy, and the men could never assemble outside of the "bomb-proofs;" but other parts were sufficiently distant from the enemy's lines to allow the men to assemble even outside of the trenches. A large number of comfortable chapels were erected; and where the men could not assemble in crowds they