- Joined
- Aug 27, 2011
- Location
- Central Massachusetts
[Elkton Whig, Sept. 22, 1864]
September 16th — All troops in the command were paraded to witness an execution of a private Fourth Maryland Volunteers, shot for desertion, at eleven a.m., in the open field northwest of Sickels Barracks Hospital. The negroes in and around Alexandria made a gala occasion of the affair, with tents pitched near the spot for sales of cake, pies, lemonade, etc. So far as appearances went the man to be shot, a thick-set fellow, with heavy, black whiskers, was more indifferent to his fate than the soldiers formed to occupy three sides of a square, obliged to be unwilling witnesses. On the open side were gathered a curious crowd of colored people. The condemned man was marched upon the ground, a band playing a dirge. He was followed by a faithful Newfoundland dog, who had to be taken away when his master took position in front of his coffin, face to the firing party. In a speech he confessed to being a professional bounty-jumper, worth at that moment near twenty thousand dollars, the proceeds of his work in jumping sixteen bounties. When the detail of soldiers fired upon him he fell lengthwise upon his coffin. The troops were then filed past him, and had just commenced the movement when signs of life were shown, necessitating a second file of men to be ordered up and put another volley into him."
Samuel Downing appears to have been very much at ease, joking and laughing with his guards, and clearly had come to terms with his fate. To the end, we are told, he behaved with dignity, showing no fear. The Washington Evening Star (Sept 16.) reported his last words:
“Well, soldiers, I suppose I’ve got to be executed, and I reckon it’s all right. All I’ve got to say is, do your duty to your country faithfully. I was once color sergeant of the 110th Pennsylvania, an honorable man, but I have disgraced myself and now have to die for it. You had better work for one dollar a day all your lives than act as I have. I am worth twenty thousand dollars, but I am to be executed, and it won’t do me any good. Take my advice then, and let prostitutes alone. Bounties won’t do you any more good in the long run than they have me. Serve your country faithfully and take a little whiskey now and then -- it won’t hurt you! I haven’t got time to say anything more. Good bye.”
Downing had enlisted in Co. E, 110th Pennsylvania in August 1861. He participated in the battle of Fredericksburg, at Chancellorsville, and Gettysburg. He served honorably, by all accounts, until July 1863, when he deserted. A few weeks later, he enlisted once again at Greencastle, Pa., collecting a bounty of $500. Before the month of August was up, he had enlisted three more times, twice in New York, once in Harrisburg, each time disappearing within days of collecting his bounty. He pulled the same trick nine times more before the end of the year at various points in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. His final enlistment attempt was his only one in Maryland, but his fourth in 1864. By that time he was over $7000 ahead of the game. But, it was all-too easy, and greed for "one more time" overcame him.
1861-1865 Union Executions, by Corey S. Retter contains more detail.
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