The judge of the court asked me what I would plead to the charge.
"I plead guilty to the charge of desertion and violation of the forty-seventh article of war."
He asked me again if I knew what it meant to plead guilty. I answered that I knew.
He then asked me what my plea on the specification of the forty-seventh article of war was.
"Guilty," I answered.
He said to the court, "I want to make plain to this boy the solemnity of these charges, that he may know the consequences thereof." He then asked me if I had any pleas to make.
I told him no, and repeated the scripture that the Lord had given me: "Fear them not; for I the Lord thy God shall fight for you." I said, "I fear you not, for my Lord will fight for me and will deliver me."
Then the counsel for the defense arose and made this statement:
"Fellow Officers: You all know what a bitter man I was against the Jews. You know that I was not going to make any plea, but to let this boy get all that the court could give him, and be sorry afterwards that the court could not give him more. But the same God that he serves troubled me and made me sick, as you know, until I realized that the same God must be my God and the same Savior my Savior; and furthermore, the same Jesus that saved this Jewish boy has saved me also."