Let me assure you that everything possible was done for him, by his comrades and our good surgeon, Dr. Hurd, to save him from ravages of ship fever, but all our efforts were in vain. The light of his youthful countenance has gone out forever.
What can I say to you, his good mother, who gave her only son an offering upon the altar of our common country?
A fond mother will desire the sad details, his last acts and words. An hour before he died, I told him the doctor feared he could not live. He seemed to be fully aware of his condition, and, turning his head toward me he said, “Tell mother I should rather have died fighting the battles of my country, but God’s will be done.” Very soon he drew his blanket over him and calmly sank into the arms of death, like one “who wraps the drapery of his couch about him and lies down to pleasant dreams.”
His last thoughts were of his mother and he died lamenting only his inability to do more for his country.
He was a mere boy in age and looks but he had the judgment of an older patriot.
There are many creeds which will tell you that your son has not gone to happiness or Heaven. He lived an honest life, but died according to those creeds “unconverted.”
“The upright, honest-hearted man,
Who strives to do the best he can,
Need never fear the Church’s ban
Or Hell’s damnation;