Memorials of Capt. Hedley Vicars, Ninety-seventh Regiment by Marsh, Catherine, 1818-1912/Preface
PREFACE.
It may strike some who take up this volume, as strange that a memoir should be written of one who was so early cut off, in the flower of his age, that he had scarcely begun the fulfilment of his youthful promise; whose name, till its last honourable mention by his Commander-in-Chief, was little known beyond his own family and an extended circle of friends and comrades.
Why, it may be asked, was he chosen out of the many not less brave or less beloved, who as freely offered up their lives for their country, and whose graves are, like his, far distant upon the shore of the stranger? It is thought that a perusal of the following pages will sufficiently answer this question, and that, by God's blessing, these records of his brief career will not have been preserved in vain.
If any have cast the bread of life upon the restless waters of some wanderer's heart, and are still waiting and hoping to find it after many days, let them take comfort as they read how the parental prayer and blessing, which seemed to be disregarded, were recalled in the moment of temptation and in a distant scene, were mused upon during lonely midnight watches, and cherished in a close companionship with danger and death.
There are those who, in the face of examples to the contrary, still maintain that entire devotion of the heart to God must withdraw a man from many of the active duties of life, and who would be prepared to concede that in making a good Christian you may spoil a good soldier. To them the subject of this memoir affords a fresh and ample refutation. While so many, whom God's grace has awakened in our Army and Navy, conceive it to be their duty, as they feel it will be their delight, to receive a fresh commission as ministers of the Gospel of Peace, that they may preach at once to others the Name so dear to themselves; and while the weak in faith seek a sphere more sheltered from temptation, he determined upon the wiser and nobler course of standing firm to the colours under which he was already enrolled. When called to God's service, he found his mission-field in the camp and in the hospital. He lived, during months of sickness and pestilence, to commend the religion he professed to all around him—while he pursued the duties of his profession with distinguished ardour and constancy—maintaining as a Christian a high reputation for bravery among the bravest of his companions in arms, and winning on his first battle-field the blood-stained laurels so soon to be exchanged for the crown of glory that fadeth not away.
These pages may meet the eye of some of the many young Englishmen who have more of Christ's religion in their hearts than they have ever avowed in their lives, whose best feelings are stifled by the atmosphere of the society in which they find themselves, and which they might and ought to elevate and purify. Most grateful to God will the writer of these memorials be, if the courage of any such be exalted and confirmed, and their manly hearts inspired to emulate the noble example of a Christian Soldier.