Litchfield enquirer., 1862-04-03
o. JENNINGS WISE.
\ Roanoke letter writer says:

A Roanoke letter writer says: -....
 On entering the house which the rebels had taken possession of for, their hospital found every room occupied by wounded men, some of whom were undergoing operations while oth- CTS waiting their turn On low cot in one of the corner rooms, covered with coarse quilt, lay the quiverng form of pale young man, ap- parently not over thirty five years of age. His countelance indicated great suffering, and as he turned occasionally from side to side, he gave vent to groans which indicated the intense pain caused by his wounds. l had never seen him before, but no one one who had ever seen tho eccentric genius of Occoquan could fail to recognize him as tue son of Henry A. Wise. in this obscure and poverty y-struck dwelling, most forcibly conjured up in my mind the image of John Brown, as he lay bleeding and unpited in the Courtroom of Charlestown. Here died o. Jennings Wise, the most mischievous and persistent of all the young men of Virginia ia flaming by his contributions to the Richmond Enquirer, the flame of disunion in the Old Do minion. By permission of General Burnside his remains will be delivered to his friends
 o. Jennings Wise was graduate of Asbury University. Indiana. He spoke and wrote sever- al languages, and though his reputation is that of duelist and mischef-maker generally, he was personally amiable. His personal appear ance was almost insignificant. He was slender and thin faced, had light hair and singular white eyes. The redeeming feature of bis face was his nose, which was thin and prominent. His movements were quick and nervous and his manners very unassuming. He was4 hard stu dent, and despised the dssipations in which so many of the young Southern men, given posi- ton by family notoriety, find theirg glory. Though narrow chested and thin in the throat, he had a powerful voice, and as g public speaker was unusually forciDle. He was engaged in nearly a dozen duels, and, unlike most heroes of such encounters. habitualIy refused to talk of them
 He protested, however, with every mark of sincerity, that he was opposed to duelling, and some years ago, met .an old friend, who had picked a quarrel with him, on the field, received his 6re declined to return it, and refused to shake hands with his antagonist who was anxious to be his friend again. In this, young Wise set at defiance all the laws of the chivalry. It was a new thing to refuse to shoot man and also to shake hands with him. At that time he is said to have made resolution never to fight another duel. It was understood among the Chivs'' that he had done his share of fighting, and would not fight again if he could help it. His inAu- ence over the young men of Virginia was very great. He was for several years the editor in chief of the Richmond Enquirer, and wrote bet ter than most editors. His style was generally far removed from the usual froth and fury of the Southern editor. And yet he sometimes wrote like desperado. He was bitterly hostile to the Federal Government, and was the leader in the Richmond mobs that coerced the Convention last Spring to pass an ordinance of Secession In 1856, he was one of those who plotted to take Washington if Fremont were elected Presi- dent, and we presume there is no doubt he would have made the attempt. He was 2 pri- vate in the ranks of one of the Richmond eom- panies at the hanging of John Brown. At the Charleston Convention, he was one of the fire caters'' who made ferocious war upon Douglass.
 When killed he was Captain of the Richmond Blues, a company which was for years one of the organizations of which Richmond was particu- larly vain. While he richly merited death for his treason, he had qualities of manhood, that may now only be recognized as vividly marking his detection from the cause of true men as lam entable. s si
 As interesting in this connection, we give the following item from the Cincinnati Comn,esoial ; l When the body of 0. Jennings Wise was dis
 intered to be removed to his friends the features were recognized as those of an apparently old
 shabby seller of papers and envelopes to Burn
 sides soldiers at Annapolis. The fact throws light on the rebel spy system. M
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