He pined for home

An ex-Confederate, writing in a Washington paper, gives an account of the execution of a Confederate soldier named Radcliffe, a conscript from southwest Virginia, who had been assigned to the First Virginia Battalion of Infantry. He was a mountaineer with a large family of children, and was always pining for home. He was utterly worthless as a soldier. After deserting and being brought back two or three times, he finally desperately wounded a guard who endeavored to balk still another attempt to desert. He was captured, court-martialed, and sentenced to be shot, although the court for a long time hesitated to pass sentence, as some of the members believed the man to be half- witted. Had not Radcliffe nearly killed the guard, he would have merely been confined, as he did not attempt to desert to the enemy, but to go home; but the assault determined the minds of the court. On being brought out for execution the poor devil blasphemed and howled and struggled in a heartrending manner, and it was not until he saw that his prayers for mercy were useless that he braced up like a man, and quietly kneeling upon his coffin, received in his bosom the fatal bullets. I have ever thought, and think still, that the execution of this man was a stain on the court that tried him, under the circumstances. He was a monomaniac on the subject of home. His Captain deemed him irresponsible and the majority of the officers of the battalion were of the same opinion.

Angola Herald (Angola, Indiana) 13 Feb 1901