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  THE

  CAPTURED SCOUT

  OF THE

  ARMY OF THE JAMES.


  A Sketch of the Life of

  SERGEANT HENRY H. MANNING,

  OF THE TWENTY-FOURTH MASS. REGIMENT.


  BY

  CHAPLAIN H. CLAY TRUMBULL.

  BOSTON:
  NICHOLS AND NOYES.
  1869.




  Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1868, by
  NICHOLS AND NOYES,
  In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
  Massachusetts.

  CAMBRIDGE:
  PRESS OF JOHN WILSON AND SON.




  TO THE SURVIVING MEMBERS

  OF THE

  Twenty-Fourth Regiment Massachusetts Vols.,

  THIS SKETCH OF THEIR COMRADE IS AFFECTIONATELY

  _DEDICATED_,

  BY ONE WHO HOLDS IN EVER FRESH AND DELIGHTFUL

  REMEMBRANCE HIS THREE YEARS' EXPERIENCE

  AS THEIR BRIGADE COMPANION,

  AND

  _HIS MINISTRY AS THEIR OCCASIONAL CHAPLAIN_.




NOTE.


This little sketch is the best, because the only, tribute to the memory
of its subject that the writer, amid the pressure of varied duties, can
find time to render.

Prepared, in great part, for use in a memorial discourse, it has not
been rewritten, although extended by additions which perhaps mar the
harmony of its first design.

The fact that it was shaped to be spoken rather than to be
read,--designed for the ear rather than for the eye,--will account, to
those accustomed to public address, for some of its unsuitableness of
style for the form in which it now appears.

                                                            H. C. T.




CONTENTS.


The Dead of the Army of the James                          9

Cost of the Slaveholders' War                             10

A Massachusetts Boy.--Foreshadowings of a noble Life      13

The Soldier of Christ and Country                         14

A good Regiment.--A good Record                           16

Fighting and Praying                                      17

James Island.--Hospital Supply of Rebel Shells            19

Charleston Siege-work.--Sharpshooting                     20

The Veterans.--Love for the old Flag                      22

Campaigns it in Virginia.--Volunteers as a Scout          24

The Capture.--The Dungeon.--The Gallows                   27

Gloom of the Stockade and Jail.--Consecration Vow         29

Escape and Recapture.--Torn by Blood-hounds               31

Andersonville Horrors                                     34

In the Rebel Ranks.--Loyal still                          35

A Prisoner among Friends.--Good News for Home             37

Again with his Regiment.--Merited Promotion               38

Home at last                                              39

Telling his Story.--Fulfilling his Vow                    40

Student-life at Andover.--Loving Service for Jesus        41

Toil for Bread.--Unfailing Trust                          43

Failing Health.--A Grateful Heart                         47

In Hospital.--Gentle Ministry there                       48

Hope against Hope.--The Privilege of Christian Work       53

Only Waiting.--Rest at last                               55

Claims of the Dead on the Living                          58




THE CAPTURED SCOUT
OF THE
ARMY OF THE JAMES.


THE DEAD OF THE ARMY OF THE JAMES.

On the evening of Wednesday, Sept. 2, 1868, some two hundred ex-officers
of the "Army of the James" were assembled in the dining-hall of the St.
James Hotel, Boston, in delightful re-union, as comrades of camp and
campaigning. The writer of this little sketch was called on to say words
in tribute to "The memory of the honored dead" of that army, and in
consequence the tenderest recollections were revived of those who fell
in the long years of war with rebellion.

Hardly had the writer reached his home from that re-union, before word
came to him of the death of another soldier of the Army of the James;
one whose varied and thrilling experiences, peculiar services to the
Union cause, and noble Christian character entitled him to special
mention, as a noteworthy and satisfactory illustration of the bravery
and worth of the enlisted men of that army. While on his death-bed, this
young soldier had sent particular request to one who, as an army
chaplain in his brigade, had known something of his personal character
and history, to preach a commemorative discourse on the occasion of his
decease. Thus called on again to pay just tribute to the memory of the
dead of the Army of the James, the writer prepared this sketch as part
of a sermon preached at Warwick, Mass., Sept. 13, 1868, and now gives it
to the public at the request of those who, knowing something of the
young soldier's history, naturally desire to know more.


COST OF THE SLAVEHOLDERS' WAR.

Others than his immediate comrades have reasons for an interest in this
young soldier, and should join in honoring his memory, and recalling at
his death the record of his army life. Dying though he did among the
green hills of Massachusetts, in these days of palmy peace, with parents
and sisters ministering to his comfort, as he wasted slowly before their
loving gaze, he was really one of the dead of the war, one of the
starved of Andersonville. His vigorous constitution was broken down
under the malarial damps of the sea-island death-swamps, beneath the
smiting sun-glare of the Carolina sands, in the fatigues of dreary
marches and anxious picket service, and amid the excitements of battle
and the crushing responsibilities of a mission of imminent peril within
the lines of the enemy. His young life was really worn away, not here at
the North, but there at the South, in dragging months of imprisonment,
in teeming hours of attempted escape, in rapid flight from the swift
pursuers, and in the death-clutch with the fierce-fanged hounds in the
swamp of despair!

And he was but one of many,--a representative youth; one out of thirteen
thousand martyrs of Andersonville,--

    "The men who perished in swamp and fen,
    The slowly starved of the prison pen;"--

a solitary soldier among fully three hundred thousand who gave their
lives for the nation's life, the sodden mounds of whose graves, like an
encircling earthwork, make secure that nation's proud though
dearly-bought position among the kingdoms of the world. Surely, there is
little danger that the story of such a man will be told too widely, or
his services be too highly esteemed; small cause for fear, that, in the
glad days of rest from war, there will be too vividly recalled those
dark hours of the imperilled republic, when the bared right arms of two
and a half millions of loyal and loving Union soldiers and sailors were
essential to the preservation of a free and righteous government; and
not only each blood-drop shed by those who stood or fell in battle for
their country, but every heart-throb of their suffering or toil, and
every tear of those who loved them, counted on the ransom of Liberty,
and helped--

    "To make, for children yet to come,
      This land of their bequeathing,
    The imperial and the peerless home
      Of happiest beings breathing."


A MASSACHUSETTS BOY.--FORESHADOWINGS OF A NOBLE LIFE.

Henry Hatch Manning was born in Warwick, Mass., May 17, 1844. He was
ever a loving and dutiful son and brother. Just before his
death, his mother remarked, "I cannot now recall any act of his
disobedience."--"Our brightest earthly hopes will perish with him,"
added his sister. When young, his frequent wish was that he had been the
eldest child, so as to lift burdens his sisters now must bear. At eight
years old, he was at work for a neighbor, earning something beyond his
board. While thus occupied, he was startled by the sudden death of his
employer by accident. Hurrying to his home, he whispered the sad story
to his mother, adding in almost the same breath, "But don't tell father.
He wouldn't let me go back; and what would Mrs. Holmes do without me?"
Thus early he showed his independence of character, and his desire to
live for others.

Having the ordinary common-school advantages of a Massachusetts
town,--such as are now, thank God! extended into regions whither they
won an entrance by blood,--Henry Manning improved them well. He had,
moreover, faithful home instruction; and the influence of a Christian
mother's prayerful teachings followed him like a continual benediction.
When about sixteen years old, while at work in another town from this,
in a season of spiritual declension and coldness there, he was drawn by
God's Spirit to make a full surrender of himself to Jesus. Evil
influences were around him just then: a sneering scoffer sought
persistently to dissuade him from his new-formed purpose; but God was
with him, and he witnessed faithfully for Christ. Others followed his
example, and a precious revival of God's Spirit-work followed in that
long cold and formal community.


THE SOLDIER OF CHRIST AND COUNTRY.

It was soon after this that the echo of rebel guns against Fort Sumter
aroused the New-England sons of Revolutionary patriots to the perils of
the nationality their fathers had founded in blood. Henry Manning was
not yet seventeen when the old flag was dishonored in Charleston
Harbor; but he was old enough to realize his country's need, and
patriotic enough to stake every thing in her defence. His heart, warm
with new love for the Saviour who died for him, throbbed to evidence its
affection in some sacrifice for a cause approved of God. Delayed
somewhat in his original plans, he enlisted, in the early autumn of
1861, as a private in the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment, then
forming near Boston, under the gallant and lamented Stevenson.

After his enlistment, on the Sabbath before he left for the war, he
stood up alone in his home-church, and made public profession of his new
faith, and was there enrolled as a follower of Jesus; his pastor
preaching an appropriate sermon from the text, "Thou therefore endure
hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ;" which inspired counsel
Manning certainly followed to the letter. Going out thence