
In his account of the revival, Reverend J. William Jones recounts a story of one such lad. The boy's mother was terrified that her son would go into the army an innocent boy and through its "school of vices" emerge a foul man, but the revival fires got hold of that boys heart. Here it is in Jones' own words.
"The surgeons gave us no hope, but God spared him to reach home and linger for over six months to illustrate how a Christian soldier could be patient under suffering, and how, when he came to die, a smile could reign within his heart. The camp had not proven to him a "school of vice," but on the contrary he had learned there the preciousness of his mother's Bible, and had gone with simple faith to her Savior. And as the last hour drew near he met death with calm resignation, said to the weeping loved ones who stood around: "I trust in Jesus and am not afraid to die." And left, in his triumphant deathas well as in the peaceful hours of his later life, the fullest assurance that he went to join his sainted mother -- for she had gone before, a few weeks prior to his death -- in that brighter, better home above, where "war's rude alarms" never disturb, and loved ones never part."