At one point the officer in command of the dragoons ordered Andrew to clean his boots, an order the lad instantly rejected. “Sir,” he supposedly cried, “I am a prisoner of war, and claim to be treated as such.”24 Outraged, the officer lifted his sword and aimed it straight at Andrew’s head. The boy instinctively ducked and threw up his left hand in time to break the full force of the blow. Even so, he received a deep gash on his head and fingers, the marks of which he carried through life.
