The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1866-07-20

Notwithstanding her love for the old
flag. and open UnIonism, her husband loved
her, and while her husband was at home
the neighbors respected her. Geroux in
vested all his ready property, which includ
ed his wife's fortune, In Confederate bonds,
placed them in her hands, gave her kiss
for a short farewell, assuring her that the
war would soon be over. and, marching at
the head of victorious column of his coun-
try's defenders, she would be proud to
welcome him.
After two years of service in the Confed-
crate army, he was captured prisoner. by
the victorious Sherman in his march to At
lanta, and sent to Camp Douglvs.
This was good news to his wife and she
resolved to make her way North and rejoin
him in his prison home. and If she could
not secure his pardon, to at least stay near
him. Her Confederate bonds were worth
less, and she was penniless. She made her
way to the Mississippi river, and took
passage in the ill-fated steamer ''Sultana"
for the North. She sold some jewelry for
money sufficient TO carry her to Chicago.
Arriving at Memphis, her child was taken
very i'll, and by the advice of the captain,
she remained there to secure medical aid
for the child. Within tWenty-four hours
thereafter, the boilor of the "Sultana" ex-
ploded, and twelve hundred lives we're lost
Geroux Jared i'll at ease in Camp Douglas,
and made many stratagems to escape. He
finally succeeded in bribing a raw sentinel
to let him pass, and to avoid pursuit re-
sort to DESCRIPTION became necessary. A
comrade 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 Major
| Charles Geroux, Sd Louisiana Regiment,
G. 8. A. The next morning the body was
| taken away and buried, and the rank. name,
| regiment and place of burial were duly re-
corded in the register Of the Camp Douglas
dead, by G. H. Jordan, the undertaken for
the Government, at Chicago. That night
Geroux escaped. His absence created no
enquiry, as he was reported dead.
For the purpose of avoiding public roads
and conveyanees, he took a horse from
pasture near Camp Douglas, belonging to
J. L. Hancock, and by avoiding the public
roads as much as possible, reached Mo-
mence the next do His actions excited
suspicion, and he arrested on suspicion
of having stolen Il and was lodged
/ in Ispkake ja PAS taken out on
] a 80 A NJ. y,-or,f k,a;pc.
found, he was discharged.
Coming thence to this city he obtained
a situation in a wholesale grocery house.
After the usual delays ia passing letters
| through the lines, he learned that his t7o
brothers were killed in the battle of the
Wilderness, that his fathers estate had been
confscated to the United States Govern
ment, aud his father had Voluntarily ex-
lied himself to Mexico. wife and
child, the only information was that they
had sought to get North, and took passage
on the ''Sultana,'' 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 avoid
l
/ be received this intelligence from the South,
Sherman started on his grand march from
Atlanta, and Grant marshaled his grand
army before Petersburg, and the Oonfeder-
ate States army vanished almost as a vision.
During the past summer GerOux returned
to the South, and was fully confirmed i n the
information he had received about his fami-
ly, aud that his real estate had also been
confscated. He gave his wife and child
up as lost, and returned to Cincinnati.
After his wife and child had remained in
Memphis, and escaped the disaster of the
steamer ''Sultana,'' she started for Chicago,
and reached Camp Douglas. Impatient at
any delay, she hastened there with expec-
tations 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, carrying in
her arms weakly child, not yet recovered
from 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 register kept
at Camp Douglas showed it, and the grave
was pointed out to her, which bore this in
scription upon pine board:
MAJOR CHARLES GEROUX,
THIRD LOUISIANA IKFANTRE."
The same grave this day is neatly sOdded
over, and at its head grows rose-bush.
Broken-heartsd, and bowed down with
grief, she wended her way on foot to the
great city of CbicagO-not knowing why
she went A stranger among strangers,