the ones who had enlisted under him, marched and drilled with him.  Rather would he perish in the swamp with them.  He worked like a Hercules, encouraging, helping, carrying some of the more exhausted.  A wet, straggling remnant reached Newberne.  Even then, when Captain Conwell found that two of his own company were missing, he plunged back into the swamp to rescue them.  Hours passed, and just as a relief expedition was starting to search for him, he came back, his hat gone, his uniform torn into rags, but with one of the men with him and the other left on a fallen tree with a path blazed to lead the rescuers to him.  No heart could withstand such devotion as that.  Young and old, it touched his men so deeply, they could not speak of it unmoved.  They would gladly have died for him if need be, as one did later, changing by his heroic act the whole current of Russell Conwell’s life.

This same earnest desire to save that made him plunge back into that swamp, regardless of self, is with him still to-day, now that his whole soul is consumed with a longing to save men from moral death.  He lets nothing stand in his way of reaching out a succoring hand.  Then it was his comrades that he loved with such unselfish devotion.  Now, every man is his brother and his heart goes out with the same earnest desire to help those who need help.  The genuineness, the unselfishness of it goes straight to every man’s heart.  It binds men to him as in the old days, and it gives them new faith in themselves.  The love of humanity in his heart is, and always has been, a clear spring, unpolluted by love of self, by ambition, by any worldly thing.

CHAPTER X

THE SWORD AND THE SCHOOL BOOK

Scouting at Bogue Sound.  Capt.  Conwell Wounded.  The Second Enlistment.  Jealousy and Misunderstanding.  Building of the First Free School for Colored Children.  Attack on Newport Barracks.  Heroic Death of John Ring.

Once more, garrison duty laid its dull hand on the troops, varied by little encounters that broke the monotony and furnished the material for many campfire stories, but otherwise did little damage.  The men eagerly welcomed these scouting expeditions, and when an especially dangerous one to Bogue Sound was planned, and Company F, eager to be selected, Captain Conwell personally interceded with the Colonel that his men might be given the task.  The region into which they were sent was known to be full of rebels, and as they approached the danger zone, Captain Conwell ordered his men to lie down, while he went forward to reconnoitre.  Noticing a Confederate officer behind a tree, he stole to the tree, and reaching as far around as he could, began firing with his revolver.  Not being experienced in the shooting of men and believing since it must be done, “’twere well it were done quickly,” he shot all his loads in quick succession.  His enemy, more wily, waited till the Captain’s ammunition was gone and then slowly and with steady aim began returning the fire.  But Captain Conwell’s comrades watching from a distance saw big peril, and disobeying orders, rose as one man and came to his rescue.  The Confederate fled but not before he had left a ball in Captain Conwell’s shoulder which, of little consequence at the time, later came near causing his death.