, for the purpose of taking home some who belonged to that
place, and the commander of the hospital ship had the humanity to use
his influence with the master of the cartel to take us on board, and
to our unspeakable joy he consented."
When at last he reached home he says: "My brother Sam took me into
another room to divest me of my filthy garments and to wash and dress
me. He having taken off my clothes and seen my bones projecting here
and there, was so astonished that his strength left him. He sat down
on the point of fainting, and could render me no further service. I
was able to wash myself and put on my clothes."
After this he was obliged to spend twenty days in bed. Poor
Mrs. Falls, the mother of the two young men who had died on the
hospital ship, called on him and heard the fate of her sons. She was
in an agony, and almost fainted, and kept asking if it was not a
mistake that _both_ were dead.
CHAPTER XXXI
CAPTAIN ROSWELL PALMER
In the year 1865 a son of Captain Roswell Palmer, of Connecticut,
wrote a letter to Mr. Henry Drowne, in which he narrates the story of
his father's captivity, which we will condense in these pages. He says
that his father was born in Stonington, Conn., in August, 1764, and
was about seventeen at the time of his capture by the British, which
must have been in 1781.
Palmer had several relations in the army, and was anxious to enlist,
but was rejected as too young.
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