If possible, not to let the men so much as surmise that their officers anticipate aught amiss from them is the tacit rule in a military ship. And the more that some sort of trouble should really be apprehended the more do the officers keep that apprehension to themselves; tho' not the less unostentatious vigilance may be augmented. In the present instance the sentry placed over the prisoner had strict orders to let no one have communication with him but the Chaplain. And certain unobtrusive measures were taken absolutely to insure this point.

In war-time on the field or in the fleet, a mortal punishment decreed by a drum-head court-on the field sometimes decreed by but a nod from the General-follows…

Billy's agony, mainly proceeding from a generous young heart's virgin experience of the diabolical incarnate and effective in some men-the tension of that agon…

Says a writer whom few know, 'Forty years after a battle it is easy for a non-combatant to reason about how it ought to have been fought. It is another thing p…

I never disobeyed an order and never used my discretion.

My duty is to obey orders.

They've taken of his buttons off an' cut his stripes away, An' they're hangin' Danny Deever in the mornin'.