I can’t remember where I got this illustration from but I love it:
Behind a church in the small town of Flint Hill, Virginia, you will find the grave of a young seminary student named Albert Gallatin Willis who died on October 14, 1864. Albert Willis’ story is unusual. Albert Willis served with the famedcommand of Mosby’s Raiders during the Civil War. Because of Mosby’s harassment of Federal supply trains, wagons, and stores, General Phil Sheridan ordered that Mosby and any of his men be hung on capture. In October 1864, Willis and an unnamed comrade were captured by the 2nd U. S. Cavalry and sentenced to die by hanging. However, Willis was offered a Chaplain’s exemption as a ministerial student. But because his companion was married, young Willis offered himself as a substitute for the comrade and died in his place so that the other might go free. Willis professed his “Christian Readiness To Die,”prayed for his executioners, and was hanged.