The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1866-04-08

ception became necessary. A COM
rade of his was on the point of death.
His mess dressed the dead soldier in
the Majors uniform, and conveyed
him to the dead-house, and gave his
name as stMajor Charles Geroux,
Third Louisiana Regiment, Confede-
rate States Army" The next morn
ing the body was taken away and
buried, and the rank, name, regi-
mentt, and place of burial, were duly
recorded in the register of Camp
Douglas dead by G. II. Jordan, the
undertaken for the Government at
Chicago. That night Geroux es-
capped. His absence created no in
quiry, as he was reported dead. For
the purpose of avoiding public roads
and conveyances, he took a horse
from a pasture near Camp Douglas,
belonging to j. L. Hancock, former
ly President of the Board of Trade
of Chicago, and by avoiding public
roads as much as possible, reached
Momence the next day. His actions
excited suspicion, and he was arrest
ed on suspicion of having stolen the
horse, and was lodged in the Kanka-
kee jail He was taken out on
writ of ha6eas corpus, and no proof
being found to hold him, he was dis
charged.
Coming thence to tEis city, he OBJ
tanned situation in O wholesale gro
Gerry house.
After the usual delays in passing
letters through the lines, he learned
that his two brothers were killed in
the battle of the Wilderness, that his
fathers estate had been confscated
to the United States Government,
and his father had voluntarily exiled
himself to Mexico. Of his wife and
child, the only information was that
they had sought to get North, and
took passage on the Srlltana, since
which they had not been heard of,
and no doubt remained that they had
perished. His true position had been
studiously concealed, and he avoided
his former acquaintance. Shortly
after he received this intelligence
from the South, Sherman had started
on his grand march from Atlanta, and
Grant marshaled his grand army be-
fore Petersburg, and the Confederate
States army vanished almost as a
vision. During the past summer,
Geroux returned to the South, and
was fully confirmed in the informa-
ton he had received about his family,
and that his real estate had also been
confiscated. He gave his wife and
child up as lost, and returaed tr Cir Cir
cinnati.
After his wife and child had re-
NAMED in Memphis, and escaped the
disaster of the Sultana, she started
for Chicago, and reached Camp Doug
las. Impatient at the delay, she hast
ened there with expectations high to !
meet him who was dearer to her
than life. The reader can picture to
himself the agony of this sad wife.
A stranger, destitute of money, car
rying in her arms weakly child not
yet recovered from q severe illness,
and she herself worn out with fatigue
and anxiety, when she learned that
her husband was dead. There was
no doubt of his death; the registry |
kept at Camp Douglas showed it, and
the grave was pointed out to her,
which bore this inscription OF pine
board
s'MAJoR GEORGE GERoUx,
Third Louisiana Infantry"
The same grave this day is neatly
sodded over, and at its head grows a
rose-bush.
Broken-hearted and bowed down
with grief, she wended her way OH
foot to the great city of Chicago
knowing why she went. A stranger
among strangers, with no one to aid
or pity her, save the good God, who,
in her utmost heart, she believed had
her.
She was taken in and cared for by
the Sisters of Charity until she could
hear from her friends in Ohio, from
whom she had received no intelligence
for the past four years. A letter was
received, stating that Immediately af-
ter the war her uncle had died, and
that, soon after, his widow had re-
moved to Iroquois County, Illinois,
TO live with her married son. Mrs.
Geroux was supplied with money 20
enable her to find her friends in Iro-
1uois County, where she has since
Geroux returned to his situation at
Cincinnati, and was sent by his firm
TO collect O debt due in Iroquois
County. While there, he sought out
The attorney who had him discharged
On the hcbeas corpus to learn the
of the horse that did