_Camp near Orange Court House, Va.,
September 27, 1863._
We had nine more military executions in our division yesterday--one man
from Thomas’ Brigade, one from Scales’ and seven from Lane’s. Colonel
Hunt was a member of the court-martial which sentenced them, and he
tells me that one of the men from Lane’s Brigade was a brother of your
preacher, and that the two looked very much alike. He said he was a
very intelligent man, and gave as his reason for deserting that the
editorials in the Raleigh _Standard_ had convinced him that Jeff Davis
was a tyrant and that the Confederate cause was wrong. I am surprised
that the editor of that miserable little journal is allowed to go at
large. It is most unfortunate that this thing of shooting men for
desertion was not begun sooner. Many lives would have been saved by it,
because a great many men will now have to be shot before the trouble
can be stopped.
We have been having some cavalry fighting recently. On the 23d the
enemy were threatening to flank us, and our division was moved about
six miles up the Rapidan River, but we soon returned to a place near
our old camp. We have heard nothing of General Meade for the last few
days, but we all expect soon to have a battle.
I must close, as a doctor has just come for me to go with him to assist
in dissecting two of the men who were shot yesterday.