Anonymous

“ So many acts of heartlessness and cruelty during the great civil war have been recorded that it is a real pleasure to have an opportunity to record an act of manly kindness on the part of a gallant Confederate soldier to a Yankee boy. ”

“ While he was in Millen Prison, an exchange of sixty prisoners was to be made. The officer of the day told off sixty names at the door of the pen, but for some reason, probably because he was too ill, or perhaps dead, one man did not come forth. At that moment Louis, who had been sent out after fuel, under guard of course, came through the gates pushing a wheelbarrow loaded with wood.
“Here, Louis, here’s a chance for you. We want sixty men to go North and are short one. Jump into the ranks here!” ”

“ On another occasion a young soldier had fallen out of ranks when his regiment passed through Washington, and, getting drunk, failed to join his regiment when it left the city. To the friend who came to secure a pardon, Mr. Lincoln said: “Well, I think the boy can do us more good above ground than under ground,” and he wrote out the pardon.
In all such cases as the above, where the ordinary human weakness was the motive, Mr. Lincoln’s heart was tender as a woman’s, but to prove that he could entertain no sympathy for a cool, deliberate, mercenary crime, he was approached by the Hon. ”

“ Can mortal mind conceive of such an act? It cost him seven months of a living death, and all for a man with whom he was not even intimately acquainted.
And now for the other side of the picture. Ever since the close of the war, until a few months ago, when Hank died, these two men have lived right here in Wayne County, Hank with a home and family, Louis with neither; have met occasionally, but at no time did Hank ever refer to the act in Millen Prison that set him free and saved his life; never invited him to his home ”

“ President, that unless a proposition for emancipation is adopted by the government, we will all go to the devil. At this very moment we are not over one mile from hell.”
“Perhaps not,” said Mr. Lincoln, “as I believe that is just about the distance from here to the Capitol, where you gentlemen are in session.”
On one occasion, at a reception, when the crowd of citizens and soldiers were surging through the [12] salons of the White House, evidently controlled by the somewhat brusque Western element, a gentleman said to him:
“Mr. ”

“ In the latter part of the year 1864, Colonel Benson, the captain of the First District of Columbia cavalry, with Colonel James M. Gere, also captain at the time, Colonel Walpole, of Syracuse, and Lieutenant Cornell, of Vermont, were confined in the prison pen at Columbia, S. C., and during December they escaped and made their way to Crab Orchard, on Doe River Cove. There they found a company of 83 struggling [3] Federal soldiers. ”

“ Though in the heart of the enemy’s country, the members of this little band were suddenly stimulated to excessive bravery by thus meeting with their fellows, and conceived it would be a fine joke to make a little raid on Taylorsville, a village nearly 50 miles further north. ”