The Advocate-
General for the prosecution made the opening speech. He read the law in
a plain, straightforward manner, and said that for a soldier to go to
sleep at his post of duty, while so much depended upon him, was the most
culpable of all crimes, and the most inexcusable. I trembled in my boots,
for on several occasions I knew I had taken a short nap, even on the very
outpost. The Advocate-General went on further to say, that the picket
was the sentinel that held the lives of his countrymen and the liberty
of his country in his hands, and it mattered not what may have been his
record in the past. At one moment he had forfeited his life to his
country. For discipline's sake, if for nothing else, you gentlemen that
make up this court-martial find the prisoner guilty. It is necessary for
you to be firm, gentlemen, for upon your decision depends the safety of
our country. When he had finished, thinks I to myself, "Gone up the
spout, sure; we will have a first-class funeral here before night."
Well, as to the lawyer who defended him, I cannot now remember his
speeches; but he represented a fair-haired boy leaving his home and
family, telling his father and aged mother and darling little sister
farewell, and spoke of his proud step, though a mere boy, going to defend
his country and his loved ones; but at one weak moment, when nature,
tasked and taxed beyond the bounds of human endurance, could stand no
longer, and upon the still and silent picket post, when the whole army
was hushed in slumber, what wonder is it that he, too, may have fallen
asleep while at his post of duty.
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