forbidden to cut in adjacent forests
branches for shelter, or fuel to cook their coarse food,--fed on a
pint of corn-and-cob-meal per day, with some slight addition of
molasses or rancid meat,--denied all mental resources, all letters
from home, all writing to friends,--these men were cut off from the
land of the living while yet they lived,--they were made to dwell in
darkness as those that have been long dead.

By such slow, lingering tortures,--such weary, wasting anguish and
sickness of body and soul,--it was the infernal policy of the Rebel
government either to wring from them an abjuration of their country,
or by slow and steady draining away of the vital forces to render them
forever unfit to serve in her armies.

Walter's constitution bore four months of this usage, when death came
to his release. A fellow sufferer, who was with him in his last hours,
brought the account to his parents.

Through all his terrible privations, even the lingering pains of slow
starvation, Walter preserved his steady simplicity, his faith in God,
and unswerving fidelity to the cause for which he was suffering.

When the Rebels had kept the prisoners fasting for days, and then
brought in delicacies to tempt their appetite, hoping thereby to
induce them to desert their flag, he only answered, "I would rather be
carried out in that dead-cart!"

When told by some that he must steal from his fellow sufferers, as
many did, in order to relieve the pangs of hunger, he answered, "No, I
was not brought up to that!" And so when his weakened system would no
longer receive the cobmeal which was his principal allowance, he set
his face calmly towards death. He grew gradually weaker and weaker and
fainter and fainter, and at last disease of the lungs set in, and it
became apparent that the end was at hand.

On Christmas Day, while thousands among us were bowing in our
garlanded churches or surrounding festive tables, this young martyr
lay on the cold, damp ground, watched over by his destitute friends,
who sought to soothe his last hours with such scanty comforts as their
utter poverty afforded,--raising his head on the block of wood which
was his only pillow, and moistening his brow and lips with water,
while his life ebbed slowly away, until about two o'clock, when he
suddenly roused himself, stretched out his hand, and, drawing to him
his dearest friend among those around him, said, in a strong, clear
voice:--

"I am going to die. Go te