Page:The Immortal Six Hundred.djvu/155

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THE IMMORTAL SIX HUNDRED


than I did in inducing the doctor to see our patient. What can be said of such fellows as this doctor? Is nature responsible for their creation? Yes, but they sprang up from the foul growth of some northern city during the war; they were the poison weeds in the garden of life, killing with their poison all that is good and beautiful. Late in the afternoon the doctor came to our tent, but poor Peake had passed beyond human skill. Death, with her cruel, cold hand, was reaching out for him. He lived during the night, suffering the pains of the damned. On the morning of September 29th Captain Crow and Lieutenant Dunlap succeeded in getting Colonel Hallowell to remove Lieutenant Peake from the prison pen to the hospital, just out of range of Sumter's guns. Poor, dear Peake! We who knew him loved him for his Christian virtues, manly courage, and gentleness of heart. When he was carried through the prison pen gate we all felt we had looked for the last time upon him alive.


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