Having tried, though vainly, to shake off the terrible torpor and regain
the use of his limbs by exercise, the stricken soldier was at last
compelled to admit defeat and resign himself to the inevitable. He
returned home after a short tarry with his friend, and passed the
remainder of that winter at the farmhouse he had built in his younger
days, surrounded with loving care and affection by his children. At
first disposed to rebel against this stroke that had rendered him
useless while his country still stood in need of his services,
eventually he regained his cheerfulness and gave himself up to the
enjoyment of the home comforts of which for so many years he had been
deprived.
The partial paralysis from which he suffered was premonitory of the
final stroke; but it was eleven years before it came and removed from
earth this stout-hearted man who had given his best years and his best
efforts to battling for his native land. There is no doubt that his
mighty struggles in the several wars--his daylight marches and nighttime
vigils; his tremendous exertions in emergencies like the fire at Fort
Edward, the running of the rapids at Fort Miller; long hours without
rest in the saddle, and in the trenches, with wet and frozen clothing
sometimes unchanged for days--all conduced toward the weakening of that
mighty frame prematurely stricken with paralysis.
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