The military execution on Saturday.
--On the evening of the 4th inst. ten deserters from the 3d North Carolina infantry, of Gen. Geo. H. Stewart's brigade, Johnson's division, Ewell's corps, arrived at the camp of the division, near Orange Court-House, under charge of a guard from this city. At the same time there arrived at the headquarters of the division an order from the Department of Henrico directing that these men, charged with desertion and the murder of Adjutant Mallett, be executed at such time and place as the division commander should direct. From division headquarters an order was immediately issued to have the execution take place at 4 o'clock on the following day. At half past 3 o'clock on the afternoon of the 5th the troops of the division were promptly formed on three sides of a square, with side arms and without colors, whilst ten stakes ranged in a row on the fourth side showed where the execution would take place. A few minutes later the prisoners arrived upon the ground, preceded by the officer of the day, the music of the brigade playing the dead march, and escorted by a detail from the brigade guard. The bearing of the prisoners was calm and self-possessed, and they marched to the place of their execution with a step as accurate in its cadence as that of the guard who conducted them.On arriving upon the grounds the prisoners here fronted to the division, who had been paraded to witness their death. The officer of the day read the orders reciting their offences, their sentences, and the time and place of their execution.--This ceremony concluded, the Chaplain of the 3d N. C. infantry kneeled with the prisoners, and in a most fervent manner read the ritual of the Episcopal service for the condemned. The prisoners joined in the act of devotion with fervor. The soldiers who were there to witness the execution of their comrades, used as they were to the blood and carnage of twenty battle fields, beheld with uncontrollable emotion the solemn preparation for the execution of the condemned, and seemed to be penetrated with the solemnity of the religious services which were being carried on.
The services over the Chaplain blessed and affectionately bid adieu to each prisoner — the non-commissioned officers of the ten different firing parties rapidly carried the prisoners each to his own stake, where, after kneeling, their arms were pinioned behind the stake and their eyes bandaged to shut out the sight of the muzzles of the muskets levelled not more than ten paces from them.
At this part of the proceedings, and whilst the firing parties were being deployed into one rank, the more effectually to deliver their fire, the prisoners broke out into loud and frequent appeals to the Almighty to have mercy on their souls and pardon their sins. The preparations being concluded, the officer of the day gave the command "ready!" and the clicking of the locks alone broke the silence that prevailed; "aim!" and the muzzles of the guns were pointed with unerring aim at the breasts of the miserable condemned, and the very breathing of the crowd seemed stopped in a terrible suspense; "fire!" and the corpses of ten men hung in the horrible relaxation of death to the stakes where they were pinioned.
The troops of the division filed by the dead bodies in melancholy procession, and the field, being vacated by all but the detail for burial, was as silent and solemn in the evening gloom as the painful scene of which it had been the theatre. So perish those who would betray their country in its hour of need and peril. The sentence of these men was as just as their execution was prompt.--Necessity demanded their blood — justice approved, and even tearful mercy sanctioned it.
