them well you might think poor Nevin better off dead surely. For they did rend his balls off altogether & the Sgt.’s legs were red washed with blood & gummed in dirt & pine needles from how he crawled some 100s of yds. through the forest where he was ambushed to make it back to the lower blockhouse where our men found him. His prick was barely hanging 1/2 on him & 1/2 off him like the b_______ did not care to finish the job they started or were disturbed in the work of it. It was terrible Sir. Even in the War I never saw such a thing.
Another of our men Linders a quiet gentle Swede was found dead too with his throat cut & with no scalp but his trousers on him in the same spot where we reckoned Nevin had his horrors for there was blood on the ground & even on the pine trees & in the branches. One of Nevin’s boots was found too but his & Linders’ horses were gone no doubt stolen away by the savages God’s Curse Upon Them. I tell you when I think of it I would kill every 1 of them in this whole black country women & children all. I am not the only one to think this as you will see.
Well Tom did turn his mount away from the sight of Nevin steering him this way & that among the stumps like he was searching for something he might strike down or kill & some other of the men were the same while many of the boys from our C Company had tears cutting ditches down their faces their very eyes gleaming with them. And tears came to my eyes too for our 1st Sgt. his chest rising & falling with the labour of taking breath & the broken arrow shafts rising & falling too with blood leaking from their wounds with each breath.
I made a prayer to God In Heaven. “Please Holy God Take Sgt. Nevin from here & keep him now beside You for the Devil has already done his filthy work. Seat him with You in Heaven Holy God because this place is no more for him & he is no longer fit for it.” But God as He is want did not listen to me at all.
With the mules at last harnessed we made an escort around the wagon as the timber man & the soldier in the wagon bed with him tried to pour water through Nevin’s lips but I could not see if he could take it.
All I can tell you now is that the 5 mile journey back to the Ft. felt a life time & again I prayed that our Sgt. would die & be free from his terrors & his torment but he did not pass on yet but instead lived for 10 more hours. A harder man to kill you will never in your life meet but this quality does not always be a blessing.
If my prayers were answered & he did pass on in that wagon bed then all that was to happen later that night might not of happened. If one thing was different or if God ever listened to a single prayer I made—
44
December 20, 1866—Fort Phil Kearny, Dakota Territory
PALE LIGHT FLARES AS THE GUARDHOUSE DOOR OPENS.
“Daniel, my dear Daniel.” Molloy is propped on his new crutches.
“Captain, you should not be out of your bed.”
Molloy laughs and begins to cough. He holds a handkerchief to his mouth and hacks, heavy and liquid into it. Kohn sees blood in the kerchief as the captain wipes his lips.
“I have come to see your prisoner, Dan. I hear he has a testament of sorts for my eyes only.”
Kohn notes how weak is Molloy’s voice—the officer’s skin yellow, malign shadows under his eyes—as he guides him to the woodstove to warm himself. “It is near a book now, sir. He wants to see his brother, he says, before he can finish it.”
“A book . . . fine thing. I will sit with him and read it but he won’t be seeing his brother any time soon I don’t imagine. The surgeon’s dog has told me he’s skedaddled.”
Kohn shakes his head. “I could have told you it would happen, sir.”
“Daniel, you make me weary with your hard charging.”
There is a stirring behind the cell door and then a banging on the door. “What is that, sir? What did you