TRANSLATION.
“To my great sorrow, I here learn that our Englishman, during my stay at Kolding, has left the corps, and gone to Norway, as if he had suddenly formed a wish to see it. As I consider his return very uncertain previous to the expiring of the armistice, or whether he will revisit Denmark at all; whether or no, I wish to mention the person who has supported our cause with such personal interest for more than half a year. When he first arrived, the Colonel asked him whether he would accompany the army in the capacity of a civil officer, of course without any military obligation towards the corps. He volunteered his assistance in the medical department, and, after remaining some time with us, and becoming generally known, the men called him ‘the English Doctor.’ After this, T. Bennett sportively called himself ‘Voluntary Assistant to the Medical Officers of the Danish Army.’ Although he has left the corps, he was esteemed by every one, on account of his kindly character and earnest desire to be useful to everyone. On the retreat from Nörre Maestrup, after the nocturnal attack, one of our Jägers was lying in a yard; the enemy had surrounded it, and he was certain of being taken prisoner, had not Bennett carried him off on his back, and trudged away with him as far as he could. On the march he was always on foot, notwithstanding that he might have had a place on the baggage waggons, and on longer expeditions he would frequently take muskets or knapsacks from the weary, and carry them forward. When we happened to be lying in bivouac, or were forced to stop in any place, without daring to advance or recede, Bennett always went with the Colonel and officers to reconnoitre, for which purpose he carried a couple of bottles of wine in his knapsack. Many similar instances might be related of the devotion with which he felt himself bound to our army corps, and of his ardent zeal to be useful to all, and how all our men loved him. He deserved a public distinction.
“On the last occasion he accompanied us, his noble behaviour again deserves an excellent report. When the corps first left Copenhagen, there was a brother of one of our volunteers, who wished to accompany us in a civil capacity, and, indeed, reached Roeskilde sufficiently, but his health broke down at the review. Bennett deemed it his duty towards the volunteer’s family to write, that if the younger brother should join, he would be a companion to him, and bring him home if he wished it. And when the younger brother left the army, at Ejstrup, in the beginning of the month of July, Bennett most kindly went with him to Copenhagen, and, provided with a most flattering letter from the Colonel, was to remain there. Scarcely, however, had Bennett reached Copenhagen, ere he, unsolicitedly, visited the officers’ families, bringing greetings from friends and kindred, after which he immediately returned to the army, with many personal messages from home.
“Until he had become better known, he had many annoyances. At Als he was taken for a spy, and in Hadersleben the police actually wanted to arrest him, to the Englishman’s great amusement. Our men even looked upon the tall man, with his fair beard and white neckerchief, as a German mechanic who had deserted, and kept an eye on him while on the march, until they learned to know him better.
“I should also finally mention, that he is the author of the English poem and war songs, which I found last summer printed in the Berlingske Tidende.”