their flag, read thus: "Colonel, don't be discouraged. Our
boys all say they'll starve to death in prison sooner than take the oath
of allegiance to the Confederacy." And true to this resolve did indeed
starve or freeze to death Sergeant Welch, Sergeant Twichell, Privates
Vogel, Plaum, Barnes, Geise, Andrews, Bishop, Weldon, who had stood by
me in many a battle, and who died at last for the cause they loved.

It is comparatively easy to face death in battle. No great courage or
merit in that. The soldier is swept along with the mass. Often he cannot
shirk if he would. The chances usually are that he will come out alive.
He may be inspired with heroism,

And the stern joy which warriors feel
In foeman worthy of their steel.

There is a consciousness of irresistible strength as he beholds the
gleaming lines, the dense columns, the smoking batteries, the dancing
flags, the cavalry with flying feet.

'Twere worth ten years of peaceful life,
One glance at their array.

Or nobler, he feels that he represents a nation or a grand cause, and
that upon his arm depends victory. In his enthusiasm he even fancies
himself a vicegerent of the Almighty, commissioned to fight in His
cause, to work His will, to save His earth from becoming a hell. "From
the heights of yonder pyramids," said Napoleon to the French battling
against the Mamelukes, "forty centuries are looking down upon you." Our
soldier in battle imagined the world looking on, that for him there was
fame undying; should he fall wounded, his comrades would gently care for
him; if slain, his country's flag would be his shroud.

By no such considerations were our imprisoned comrades cheered. Not in
the glorious rush and shock of battle; not in hope of victory or
fadeless laurels; no angel charities, or parting kiss, or sympathetic
voice bidding the soul look heavenward while the eye was growing dim; no
dear star-spangled banner for a winding sheet. But wrapped in rags;
unseen, unnoticed, dying by inches, in the cold, in the darkness, often
in rain or sleet, houseless, homeless, friendless, on the hard floor or
the bare ground, starving, freezing, broken-hearted.

O the long and dreary winter!
O the cold and cruel winter!

It swept them away at Salisbury by tens, twenties, even fifties in a
single night.

These men preferred death to dishonor. When we are told that our people
are not patriotic, or sigh of America as Burke did of France a cent