The youngest one began to beg and cry and plead most piteously.
It was horrid.

The older one kicked him, and told him to stand up and show the Rebels how a Union man could die for his country.

Be a man! The charges and specifications were then read.

The props were knocked out and the two boys were dangling in the air.

I turned off sick at heart.
EATING RATS While stationed at this place, Chattanooga, rations were very scarce and hard to get, and it was, perhaps, economy on the part of our generals and commissaries to issue rather scant rations.
About this time we learned that Pemberton's army, stationed at Vicksburg, were subsisting entirely on rats.