Account of Execution of Deserters at Beverly Ford Mentions Rabbi Praying With One of the Condemned Men

Background

"The execution of the substitute deserters sentenced to the penalty of death in General Orders No. 84, took place today. More than ordinary interest was exhibited in this execution of military law, and it is estimated that not less than 25,000 persons were present. The ground were well selected, and every arrangement so complete that no accident occurred to mar the solemnity of the proceedings. The position of the spectators was upon a semi-circular elevation partially surrounding the place of execution. Previous to the execution the scene presented a remarkable view to the spectator. Two of the sentenced persons were Protestants, two Catholics, and the fifth a Hebrew. The spiritual advisers of each were present, administrating the last consolations of religion. The criminals were sitting upon their respective coffins, with the yawning graves in their rear. The troops were drawn up in close column by division, covering the complete semi-circle, and separated from the spectators by a creek. The order for their immediate execution was issued by Gen. Griffin, and the officer of the day, Capt. Crocker, of the One Hundredth and Eighteenth Pennsylvania, recalled the clergyman their spiritual duties. The rest is briefly told. At the order to fire, thirty-six muskets, and instant death was by announced by the surgeons in attendance as the result. The bodies were then placed in their respective graves, and the clergy performed the last religious rites over the deceased. The spectacle was an unusual one - the Protestant, the Hebrew and the Catholic stood side by side, each uttering prayers for their souls... The clergy who attended these unfortunates were the Chaplain of the One Hundredth and Eighteenth Pennsylvania regiment; Rev. C.L. Egan, of St. Dominick's Church Washington; and Rabbi B.S. Scold, of Baltimore. They were unremitting in their attendance upon the deceased from the time of their sentence until the final hour." - "From the Army of the Potomac... The Doomed Deserters...," New York Times, 31 Aug 1863

The above-cited account of the execution of five deserters at Beverly Ford made its way into print some three days after the fact; in this letter, however, despite the rumor of a great Union victory at Charlestown and the gala presentation of a sword to General Meade, the chilling execution, witnessed that very day by young Captain Winans, takes the lead:

I have just come to camp. We were out to witness the execution of five deserters belonging to the 1st Div.... They were substitutes and deserted while on the way to the Division.

The corps was drawn out in line of column by divisions. The men were marched along the line between the Divisions, then to the graves, seated upon their coffins There was a Catholic Priest and Jewish Rabbi who prayed with them. They were killed the first volley. About 100 conscripts arrived here today from the 2nd Div. They were taken out under guard to witness the fate of conscripts who desert.

The deathly spectacle was intended, of course, to impress upon the soldiers the merciless result of deserting, and so make terrible the very idea of desertion. Certainly the presence of officiating clergy - including what to many was the rare sight of a Catholic priest, and the even more exotic sight of a Jewish rabbi - made the event especially harrowing, that so much human tenderness might be exhibited at a moment of such cold-blooded brutality.

 It musts be noted that the rabbi attending the Jewish prisoner George Kuhn, while un-named in Winans' letter home, was mis-named in the New York Times report. Rabbi "Scold" was in fact Rabbi Benjamin Szold of Baltimore - who went to Lincoln, and then at Lincoln's direction, to General Meade, to plead, unsuccessfully, for Kuhn's life.