Biography
Seth W. Laughlin was a North Carolina man who, having become convinced of Friends' peace principles, joined the Marlboro Monthly Meeting in November 1863 and was conscripted into the Confederate army. Reporting to camp near Petersburg, Virginia, he refused to wear the uniform, bear arms, or follow orders. He was tortured — deprived of sleep, "bucked and gagged," and hung by his thumbs — then court-martialed for insubordination and sentenced to be shot. The firing squad refused to shoot him; he was imprisoned instead, fell ill from his treatment, and died. He is remembered for praying for his persecutors, and his story was recorded in Fernando Cartland's "Southern Heroes."
