After he drank his glass he stepped out of the room into the entry and entered a back parlor on the opposite side of the entry from the bar-room and closed the door after him. It being early in the morning, the window shutters were still closed. In a very few minutes after he left the bar-room we heard a very great noise. Youse jumped up, and exclaimed aloud what is that," "I believe the back sheds have all fallen down." We all started to run out back, by passing through the entry.Whether it was, that smoke came out at the parlor door and that caused Youse to stop and open it, I do not recollect, but upon his opening it the room was discovered to be full of smoke, Youse rushed in for the purpose of opening the back shutters, but had not proceeded far through the smoke and darkness of the room until he stumbled over the dead body of the Light Horseman ; who it was discovered (as soon as the light of day was thrown into the room,) had blown his own brains out. He was a gun-smith by trade and had made his own pistols. These he had charged heavily. It was supposed (and no doubt justly) that he had held the muzzle of one pistol to one side of his head, and the muzzle of the other to the other side, and had discharged them both at the same instant. By this arrangement he had blown off the whole of the upper part of his head, and his blood and brains were scattered upon the ceiling and upon the floor in every direction. My readers may imagine, what the loads were like, when I state that the pistols had been thrown from his hands in opposite directions and with such violence against the walls as to break the cock from off one, and making quite an indent in the wall at the same time, and to dig a hole out of the wall when the other pistol struck against it. We buried him on the hill, not far from where the capitol now stands. I think we did not bury him with. the honors of war. I recollect however, that we placed his pistols crossways and his sword lengthways across them upon his coffin, and above or over his breast.From papers found upon his person his name was ob -- tained. His horse, clothing, &c. were sent in the course of a few days thereafter to his wife at Philadelphia.The person sent with them, found upon his arrival at Philadelphia, that upon the same morning and about the same hour this Light Horseman's wife had committed suicide also by drowning, she having thrown herself into the Delaware river at Market street wharf. This singularly horrid tragedy in two acts, the scene of one laid in Harrisburg and the other at Philadelphia, with the distance of one hundred miles intervening between, and both performed in one and the same hour, made a deep impression upon the minds of all hearing thereof and was for a time as all other horrid affairs are, the whole talk among all classes. 11 It appeared (from a letter or papers in his possession or from information otherwise obtained,) that he had volunteered against the will of his wife who was much opposed to his joining in the expedition. This troubled him very much, and the farther he went from his home, the more it appeared had he been troubled and harrassed by it. On the other hand, it appeared that the farther he went from home, the more had his wife become troub→ led in mind until both had resolved on ending their own lives, which they did do, and rushed uncalled for into the presence of an angry God. Oh ! the thought, how horrible it is, when indulged in, that of rushing uncalled for into the presence of angry God. Ye living, that are, or that may be goaded on by the tempter, can ye not summon resolution enough, to enable you to trust yourselves in the hands of a just God that Glorious Being with whom your existence began. Can ye not trust him whose arm can be made bare to save whose arm has been made bare to save, and whose arm he will make bare to save in the sad hours of deep trouble, proportionate to the faith and trust of the possessor, can ye not confide in him and "live 'til to-morrow," to "the darkest day will have passed away." "Beware" then "of desperate steps." The sum and substance of which counsel is this, confide in the strong arm of the Most High God, until the tempter shall flee away, and then ye shall be free. If Christ the good Shepherd shall make you free, you shall be FREE indeed. Pause! Reflect, Agonize in faithful prayer to him who cannot, (as he will not) turn a deaf ear to the voice of your plaint, or turn you empty away. His promise is an ample guarantee to you and is all sufficient of itself to beget a full confidence within you towards him who cannot and that will not lie.”—Hanna's Glory of Columbia. Captain Fisher's company being about to move on to Carlisle, I then broke up house-keeping. This was in consequence of the ill health of my wife, who at this time was rather sickly owing to her late confinement and the death of her infant. I put my household goods into the house of a French Barber of the name of Rongee, who accompanied us in the expedition to Pittsburg. I then sent my wife off by stage to her fathers, or at least by stage to Reading which was within three miles of her fathers. Previous to our marching, His Excellency Thomas Mifflin, Governor of Pennsylvania, arrived from his farm near Reading and paid to each man in the corps, the sum of six dollars. This sum, each man was to leave with his family. Whether this was out of his own private purse, or on account of the State of Pennsylvania I do not know, but I recollect that it was said at the time that the Governor had made a present of six dollars to every man for the purpose above stated. 11 Captain Fisher received orders for his company to march on to Carlisle. We all got in readiness, paraded through the principal streets of Harrisburg, and then marched for Carlisle. When we left Harrisburg, we crossed over the Susquehanna river in flats. The banks of the river on the town side were covered with women and children, and there were great weeping and mourn ing indeed. Our country called, and duty was clearly spread out before our eyes; we had therefore to steel our *A kind of boats 20 or 30 feet long and 10 or 12 feet wide, with sides a foot and a half or two feet high. hearts against the cries of mothers and children, and brave up against the tide of weeping and wailing, by playing and beating up merrily "Charley over the water. This, we continued to do until Harrisburg was partly lost in the distance behind us. As my readers' tastes are as varied as a soldier's life, and a soldier's tastes and life as varied as the tastes of my readers, I must indulge a possessed spirit of levity upon the part of some of my readers, and amuse them Occasionally. Those especially that are not too hidebound to engage in a good laugh once and again.Gravity proper, all will (or ought to) acknowledge is very becoming, but the personification of it unaccompanied by the reality, is not only immoral in itself, but irreligious. The wise man has said that there is a time for all things-a time to laugh as well as a time to weep. Taking this view, then, I do not apprehend that indulging in a laugh is as unpardonable a crime as some pharasaical persons would fain make people believe it to be. Cheerfulness is a very sacred bond in life. Cheerfulness will propel, when a frown is powerless. Cheerfulness is by no means sinful, and a hearty laugh, when occasions provoke to good humor, dont constitute a person as much of a strait out in the bonds of iniquity as want of charity, backbiting, slandering, cheatingexacting exorbitant prices, established through the instrumentality of lying, which is cheating in the worst sense, and falls within a pale other than that which is a right one. To profess the name of the only Messiah at the very horns of the altar, and do these, is by far, more injurious to the well being of society, and by far more staining to the soul than a hearty laugh is at any time. About midway between Harrisburg and Carlisle, we pushed upon a lot of very fine hogs, belonging to some of the farmers near by. The hogs becoming scared threw off the reins of self-government, throwing themselves upon their own resources (heels) in an emergency, and dashed first one way and then another. Some trying to run round the soldiers on both sides of the road, whilst others opened lanes for themselves by run ning in a zigzag manner through the troops, which gave way on their approach. One there was, however, a very large, wild Germany boar kind of a chap, one altogether worthy of a generalship among the race of porkers, that threw himself upon his own adventurous spirit, agility, strength and heels. This fellow came direct to the charge, turning neither to the right hand or to the left. He dashed headlong amongst us, accompanied with his musical booch, booch, booch, and happening to run between the legs of a stout bodied, but short and bandy-legged little member of the company, he lifted him (the soldier) instantly from off his feet, and ran away with him. As he was borne along (musket, knapsack and all,) with great rapidity, it was a thing altogether impossible for our little soldier to turn himself in his saddle, and had therefore to content himself in riding with his face towards the hogs tail, instead of towards his head. This raised a fine laugh, but a much better or greater one was in reserve by Mr. Porker, and to be enjoyed at the expense of our little soldier, for after carrying him some distance, he plunged with him on his back into a deep mud-hole, carrying him pretty nearly into the middle of it, and then in his rearing and pitching efforts to go ahead, threw his military rider over his rump, upon the broad of his back all fours into the mud and water. This piece of hog drollery afforded us fine sport, and was well enjoyed by us, although we had gravity pretty well seated upon our countenances, in consequence of our having so lately left our home's and our friends behind us. If it afforded us a lot of fun, it was enjoyed at Tommy Thumb's expense. Tommy, who often thereafter had to bear the jestings of his brother soldiers upon the subject. He was often inquired at if he did not wish to meet a drove of hogs, or if he did not want a ride, a saddle, bridle and spurs, to enable him to have a hog gallop, &c. Sometimes when plagued about it, he became very much displeased, and wished that the devil would again go into the hogs, and drown them all |