The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1870-07-22

pired, of second ietaenaAtrin the artil.
lery branch of the service, and was soon
afterwards married to the Fifth Ave.
nue. young lady of whom mention las
already, been, made. a month or SO
after his marriage he was ordered to do
duty at q Southern post, and ON pro-
ceeding there he took his young and
beautiful bride along with him. Eve
rything went smoothly with, him FOL
some time. Young-officer-like, be be-
for the slightest offences on the part OF
the soldiers he always metad out the
severest punishment. One day he had
one OF the privates of the post put in
the guard-house for a long period for
some trivial neglect of duty u and wien
the man got out he, it is said, swore he
would get even with the officer. 1t
was the latter's turn, fewlda after
he had released the soldier, to drill the
troops in the manual. He stood in
front of O soldier whose rife was loaded
with ball. When the command OF
Fire " was given, the officer fell, shot
through the head, and died an hour af-
forwards. The soldier who shot him
was he who had been placed in the
guard-house a few days before. Cir
cumstances pointed strongly against
the man. He, however, was terribly
afflicted over the Occurrance and pro-
tested his innocence. He had, on 60
ing to the drill, been relieved from
guard duty, and his musket was load.
ed. The fact he had overlooked in the
firing. The coroner's jury acquitted
him of all evil intent, and SO did a
court-martial. 1t was fatality that
placed the officer in,front of the loaded
rifle, a fatality guided by Him who
ever Furnishes the wrongdoer. The
young wife of the officer was of course
almost crazed with grief at her terrible
misfortune, and her case excited the
sympathy of all the offers of the fort.
The day after her husbands terrible
death she telegraphed to clergyman
in New York, of whom she had often
heard her husband speak, informing
him of the terrible tragedy, and asking
him to -.r.'... o.. - -... I'm -
BREAK THE NEWS
to the officers mother who she be-
lieved to be travelling somewhere in Eu-
rope for the benefit of her health. The
officer had told her, when a cadet, that
his father was dead, and that his moth
er was an invalid seeking health
abroad. When the clergyman got the
dispatch, he went straightway to a GER
tain house, i'm rather a low neighbor>
hood in New York city, and there found
the officers family-that is, his father
and other persons who ought to have
been dear to him. The cadets story of
his fathers death and his mother being
in Europe was a falsehood. He had
told the story to keep the real condition
of his family in the dark. He did not
have the manliness to own to the Fifth
Avenue girl, when he was a cadet, that
his family was is low circumstances
living in miserable locality in the
city; but for all that, as honest and as
upright as the richest in the land.
.t A wRANGLE OVER A CORPSE.
Now to return to the Southern post.
Word was telegraphed to the West
Point authorities, after the officers
death, and preparations were there
made for the funeral. The cadet corps
were to turn out upon the arrival of the
body, and the funeral ceremonies were
to be of a very imposing character, for
the deceased was we'll known to all the
cadets, having only been a few months
out of the ranks of the corps at the time
of his death. A guard of honor, con-
sisting of four officers, classmates of
the dead man, accompanied the body
and the sOrrOwing widow from the
scene of the tragedy on their way to
West Point. The train bearing the
corpse arrived at night time at Jersey
City, and, as it was taken out of the
baggage car to be placed in a hearse,
which the officers had the foresight to
engage to take it to the Hudson River
Railroad depot, when several persons
whom they did not know, came up and
proceeded, in an unceremonious way,
to take the body. The officers inter-
fered, and the young widow who stood
by placed herself between them and
the coffin. The officers swore that they
would kill the first man who came near
the corpse; but the strange party was
nothing daunted, and one of them adj
vanced and declared himself TO be the
brother Of the dead man. GO And this
woman" he added, pointing to fe-
male at his side clad in black, who was
weeping, I" this woman was Lieuten-
ant -'s wife. She was married to
him years ago, and that person who
claims to be his wife has no claim on
the body" These remarks dumbfOund-
ed the officers, and the Fifth Avenue
girl was terrified. She asked for ex-
plantations, and the brother of the Off
Ger, Modified at the sight of her sorrow,
told her what her heart refused to be-
lleve. The officer had been married
before he became a cadet, and a child
was born to him before he got his ap-
pointment. How he kept the whole
matter secret, and had entered the mil.
itary academy bearing his own name,
was a mystery; and whether he was
married, before he became a cadet, un-
der an assumed name, is q thing which
but only few can answer. AT any
rate the curtain fell in the last scene of
this West Point tragedy in an humble
house, i'm the lower part of the city, a
few days after the wrangle over the
corpse at Jersey City. The scene was
q heart-rending one. A small apart
ment was darkened 10y thick curtains
hung over the windows, and. in the
center of the room there was coffin,
ficer. On the lid was silver plate
bearing his full name and rank in the
army. There were sOrrOwing friends
about, and when the face of the dead
was shut from mortal view forever,
there was q woman clad in mourning
who knelt at the coffin-side, with her
head buried in her hands, and sobbing
as though her heart would break. She
was the wife of the lieutenant Of artil-
Iery, the graduate of the class of 1868,
but she was not the young Fifth Ave
nue. girl. Two hearts were broken by
the ball that sent the officer. into eter-
nity, and although the one was that of
a wife and that of the other was not,
the future of both will be darkened by
the same cloud, and their lives made
full of woe by the same recollections.
As nv companion stood up to leave
the cemetery ventured to ask, Will
the class of '6S erect monument here
to the memory of him who is gone@'
Pointing to tombstone at our very
side, he asked, "What is that inscrip-
tionN?', Faithful unto death, ,p'I re-
piled. "The lieutenant of artillery will
get no monument here" was his an
swer, and we both left the silent graves
behind us, without speaking another
word. 81 e. .-s- -.l. .I..
The place occupied by Mormon
wife i'm her husbands household is
simply that of servant, with fewer
than has Jane the cook, or
Lucy the waiter, in our domestic econ-
omy. She has 10 "afternoon out -
no wages to do as she will with-nO |
followers" and no chance OF change.
But she has hard work, unrealizable in |
our comfortable houses; the privilege I