Extract from a letter written in 1863:—
“Levant, 2° 2´ S. @ 131° W.
“Dear Fred:
“I try to find heart and life to tell you that it is all over with dear old Nolan. The doctor has been watching him very carefully, and yesterday morning came to me and told me that Nolan was not so well, and he said he should like to see me. Well, I went in, and there, to be sure, the poor fellow lay in his berth, smiling pleasantly as he gave me his hand, but looking very frail. I could not help a glance round, which showed me what a little shrine he had made of the box he was lying in. The stars and stripes were triced up above and around a picture of Washington, and he had painted a majestic eagle, with lightnings blazing from his beak, and his foot just clasping the whole globe, which his wings overshadowed. The dear old boy saw my glance and said with a sad smile: ‘Here, you see, I have a country!’
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
“An hour after I had left him, when the doctor went in gently, he found Nolan had breathed his life away with a smile.
“We looked in his Bible, and there was a slip of paper at the place where he had marked the text: ‘They desire a country, even a heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city.’
“On this slip of paper he had written: ‘Bury me in the sea; it has been my home, and I love it. But will not some one set up a stone for my memory at Fort Adams, or at Orleans, that my disgrace may not be more than I ought to bear? Say on it:
In Memory of
PHILIP NOLAN,
Lieutenant in the Army of the United States.
He loved his country as no other man has
loved her; but no man deserved
less at her hands.’ ”