The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1866-04-07
An Interesting Story Of the War---Faets that are
Stranger than Fiction.

Al Interesting StOr! OIL Tie Nar-.-FtCCS IhdI art
Stranger than Fiction.
There is now living in Cincinnati family
the history of which forms something so ro-
mantle as to constitute most interesting
story:
In the summer of 1859, Charles Geroux
became graduate of college in the south
ern pa1t of this State He was the descen-
dant of an aristocratic family who lived i'll
Louisiana, and, to be brief, he was then a
full embodiment of the % chivalry," just hav
ing entered his majority. While attending
college he had formed the acquaintance OF
Clara G., who attended a college for
young ladies in this city, which acquaintance
ripened into attachment and love, and, just
before the breaking out of the rebellion, they
were married, and removed South. Miss
c. was an orphan, possessed OF consid
cradle property, which was held in trust by
her uncle, a Southern minister, who had
raised her from infancy, and personally su
perlntended her education. In addition to
the endowments of collegiate education,
she was possessed of a strong character, bor
dering almost on the masculine, but tempered
with a sweetness and mildness not often
combined in the same person. She was at
once handsome and womanly.
Within year after their marriage and
settlement in the South, came the fierce, wild
| blasts of war from Sumter's parapet, and
there was none more ready to enter the deadly
fray than Charles GerouX. His political tu-
tors were practical secessionists, and he
tered upon the war with fervor and zeal to
command the admiration OF his friends, and
which secured him majors commission
His wife opposed his mad scheme with all
the power of womans eloquence, but to no
avail. She openly espOused the cause of the
Union, and steadfastly refused to cooperate
with her new friends and neighhors. Not
withstanding her love for the old flag and
|
while her husband was at home the neigh
bors respected her Geroux invested all his
ready property, which included his wife's
| fortune, i'll Confederate bonds, placed them
| in her hands, gave her a kiss for short
farewell, assuring her that the would
soon be over, and, marching at the head Of
a victorious column of his country's defen-
ders she would be proud to welcome him.
After his departure, her treatment by his rel
atives and neighbors became almost intoler-
able because of her hatred of secession.
After two years of service in the Confcde
rate army, he was captured a prisoner by the
victorious Sherman in his march to Atlanta,
and sent to Camp Douglas.
This was good news to hlS wife, who
could no longer endure the persecutions she
received at the South, 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 Con
! tederate bonds were worthless, and she was
| pennilcss; she made her way to the Mississip-
pi river, and took passage or the Inflated
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 of the Sultana, she remained there to
secure medical aid for the child. Within
twenty-four hours thereafter the boiler of the
Sultana exploded, and twelve hundred lives
were lost.
Geroux Jared i'll at ease in Camp Douglas,
and made many stratagems to escape. He
| finally succeeded III bribing raw sentinel to
| let him pass and to avoid pursuit, resort
to deception became necessary. A comrade
of his was on the point OF death. His mess
dressed the dead soldier in the Majors uni
form, and conveyed him to the dead house,
and gave his name as Major Charles GerouX,
Third Louisiana regiment, Confederate States
army 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 Camp Douglas dead
| by G. II. Jordan, the undertaken for the
Government at Chicago. That mig hit GerouN
escaped. His absence created no inquiry, as
he was reported dead. For the purpose of
avoiding public roads and conveyances, he
! took horse from the pasture near Camp
Douglas, belonging to ]. l.. Hancock, for
merly President of the Board of Trade of
Chicago, and by avoiding public roads as
much possible, reached hIomence the next
day. His actions excited suspicion, and he
was arrested on suspicion of having stolen
the horse, and was lodged in the Kankakee
Jail. He was taken out ON writ of hdbeds
corpus, and no proof being found to hold him.
| he was discharged.
Coming thence to this city, he obtained a
situation in a wholesale grocery house.
After the usual delays in passing letters
4l,o+
brothers were killed in the battle of the Will
derness, that his fathers estate had been
confscated to the United States Government
and his father had voluntarily exiled him
self to Mexico. OF his wife and child, the
only information was that they had sought
to get North, and took passage on the Sui
| ia na, since which they had not been heard
of, and no doubt remained that they had
perished. His true position had been studi-
ously concealed and he avoided his former
| acquaintances. Shortly after he received
this intelligence from the South. Sherman
had started on his grand march from Allan
ia, and Grant marshaled his grand army be
fore Petersburg, and the Confederate States
army vanished almost as vision. During
the past summer, Geroux returned to the
South, and was fully confirmed in the infor-
nation 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
returned to Cincinnati.
After his wife and child had remained in
Memphis, and escaped the disaster of the
Sultana, she started for Chicago, anil reach
ed Camp Douglas. Impatient at the delay,
she hastened 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. stranger, destitute of
money, carrying in her arms weakly child
not yet recovered from servere illness, and
she herself worn out with fatigue and ankle
ty, 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 description on pine board:
MAJOR CHARLES GERoUx,
Third Louisiana Lntant1y.'
The same grave this day Is neatly sodded
over, and at its head grows rose-bush.
Broken-hearted and bowed down with
grief, she wended her way on foot to the
great city of Chicago-not knowing why she