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By Rev. Dr. T. D. Witherspoon, late Chaplain of the Forty-Second Mississippi Regiment.
Paper no. 1.
On the evening of the 4th of July, 1863, when it became apparent that the army of
General Lee was in quiet and undisturbed retreat from its position before
Gettysburg, I found myself in the midst of three or four hundred men of the brigade in which I served, who were too severely wounded to be transported to the rear.
Two alternatives presented themselves, to leave these men in the hour of their distress, or to remain within the enemy's line.
The decision was soon made; and the consent of superior officers having been obtained, I stood by the roadway waving adieu as the little remnant of the gallant brigade tramped silently and sorrowfully by; and then turned to the tenderest and saddest ministry of my life, as under open flies, on the bare ground, or a mere pile of straw, these gallant men lay heroically suffering or unconsciously moaning their lives away.
For a few never-to-be-forgotten days this ministry was permitted me, and then our field-hospital was broken up, the few surviving wounded were removed to the field-hospitals of the
Federal army, and the
Confederate surgeons and chaplains transported to Northern prisons.
On the very day before the order came to break up our field-hospital, tidings had come to us that the
Colonel of the regiment in which I served,
Colonel Hugh R. Miller, was lying mortally wounded at a private residence in
Gettysburg, and had expressed a desire to see me. I reached his bedside just in time to receive his dying expression of his faith in
Christ and his readiness to depart.
Through the generosity of the kind family (a Maryland family) at whose home
Colonel Miller had been so assiduously and tenderly cared for, the services of an embalmer were secured, and the body skilfully embalmed and inclosed in a metallic case.
The Commandant of the Post at
Gettysburg, whose name I do not recall, but who was a true gentleman as well as true soldier, on application being made to him to send the remains through the lines by flag of truce, did all he could to further this end. For he not only sent the remains to
Baltimore in charge of one of the members of his staff, but he allowed
Edwin Miller, the youthful son of the
Colonel, and myself, his chaplain, to accompany the remains as escort with a letter to
General Schenck, the Commandant at
