332 SKETCHES IN PROSE. 



line with a detail to bury the dead. Just as I reached 

 the Sherfey House I saw two men, not Zouaves, carrying 

 Eobert out of it on a stretcher. He looked badly and was suf- 

 fering much from his wound. His clothing was torn, and he 

 seemed to have had no care taken of him since the battle, near 

 two days before. I asked him if he was wounded badly. He 

 said, ' Oh, yes; I am very badly wounded.' That was all he 

 said ; for they were carrying him oflP, and I was busy with my 

 awful duties; but the look he gave me I will never forget, it 

 was so sad. 



" Sergeant DeHaven, who was killed by my side with a ball 

 through his heart, and who was a neighbor of mine, lay dead 

 in the pathway. I sat down and cut his name on a shingle, 

 and put it at his grave, where he was buried with five Con- 

 federates, and sent word to his sorrowing wife. His body was 

 removed, and with six others of our company now lies in our 

 village cemetery. The rude headboard seems to have been 

 wrongly placed, for when the removal took place it was at the 

 head of a buried rebel. The dead sergeant was, however, 

 found at his side. From the conflict of battle they were sleep- 

 ing the peaceful sleep of death together. 



" Robert was a man who was much liked and respected ; 

 very kind and always willing to do a good act ; to sacrifice 

 himself for the good of others. I have always looked upon 

 him as an ideal American soldier, brave, intelligent and a 

 gentleman in word and deed ; ready to fight for his country 

 without hope of reward, save the consciousness of having 

 done his duty." 



Sergeant H. H. Snyder, now of New York, was with Robert 

 when he fell ; both being in the color guard. The line— if such 

 a confused mass could be called a line, when, without a head, 

 some in the house, some in the yard, some back of the barn — 

 the regiment was fighting, had fallen back to the road. The 

 guard was in advance of the colors, defending them to their 



