The statement passed without contradiction
by the prisoner, who, to the interrogations and entreaties of his legal
defender, only replied that the facts were stated accurately as they
occurred, and that his reasons for the deed he declined to assert.
When once more questioned as to his country and his past by the
president, he briefly declined to give answer. When asked if the names
by which he was enrolled were his own, he replied that they were two of
his baptismal names, which had served his purpose on entering the army.
When asked if he accepted as true the charge of exciting sedition among
the troops, he replied that it was so little true that, over and over
again, the men would have mutinied if he had given them a sign, and that
he had continually induced them to submit to discipline sheerly by force
of his own example. When interrogated as to the cause of the language
he had used to his commanding officer, he said briefly that the language
deserved the strongest censure as for a soldier to his colonel, but that
it was justified as he had used it, which was as man to man, though
he was aware the plea availed nothing in military law, and was
impermissible for the safety of the service. When it was inquired of him
if he had not repeatedly inveighed against his commanding officer for
severity, he briefly denied it; no man had ever heard him say a syllable
that could have been construed into complaint; at the same time, he
observed that all the squadrons knew perfectly well personal enmity and
oppression had been shown him by his chief throughout the whole time of
his association with the regiment.
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