Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-11-04
LOng-LOst Brothers Reunited.

The Cincinnati papers publish the ro-
mantle story of the loss of little child
at the capture of Corinth, Miss, by the
Union forces in the late war, and of his
restoration to his family after thirteen
years had passed and the little bov had
grown to be man. In the flight of the
inhabitants from the burning town most
of the people hurried down the railroad
track leading from the southern part of
the place and took refuge in the woods
and fields along the route Some of the
streets were deserted by all except this lit
tie boy, who became separated from his
friends, and stricken with terror ran hither
and thither in his bewilderment, and at
last hid himself in freight car which had
escaped the general confiagration.
Among the Union soldiers who
soon poured into the city was Capt
(afterward GeneraD Hickenlooper, of the
Fifth Ohio Battery, who discovered the
boy and took him back to camp, where,
by his youthful intelligence, he became a
great fayOrlte. The boy stated that his
name was Frank Foster, and that his
father and brother were in the Confeder
ate army, his brother being an aide to
Gen. Beauregard; but as all search for
them had failed it was believed that they
were dead. The General, out of pity,
adopted the boy, and in August, 1862,
sent him to Cincinnati, where he was
taken charge of by the Generals father
and mother. He was sent to school, and
afterward served an apprenticeship in the
surveyors office under his patron, the
General, becoming at length good civil
engineer. During all these twelve or
thirteen years he never ceased, when an
opportunity offered, of making diligent
inquiry with regard to his parents and
family, but in vain; all he remembered
was his fathers and mothers name; and
with only this to guide him 1t seemed a
hopeless task.
He wrote repeatedly to his old home,
but the letters were ali returned, no one
having called for them. He inserted from
time to time advertisements in the Mem
phis and other Southern papers, but they
brought no response; and from the day
that he was first taken to the Union camp,
nearly fourteen years ago, wrapped in an
old army blouse that reached to his ankles,
until Saturday Of last week, did never he
hear one syllable with regard to father,
mother or friends.
One evening, year or two ago, young
Foster, in company with friends, visited a
theater in this city, and while all were
affected with merriment by the perform
ance of particular comedian Foster was
silent and serious, and being afterward
asked the cause answered: "That man
looked so much like my mother that it
starts me to thinking"
Again one night recently young Foster
visited the same theater, and to his aston
ishment the same comedian appeared on
the stage. This time it made such an i'm
preston on Fosters mind that he could
not sleep. On Saturday morning Of last
week two interested friends visited the
theater, and found the comedian alluded
to, in rehearsal. They questioned him
closely; the names Of both father and
mother correspondent exactly, but he had
no brother. His only brother, Frank, was
lost, he said, when child, on the battle
field of Corinth, and all search for him for
thirteen years had proved unavailing, and
he had finally been given up as dead. The
history of the family was then related in
detail, as to how, after the siege and burning
of the town, they had returned to the old
home inDunkirk, n. Y, finally moving
to Cleveland, where they have remained
ever since the fathers death; the low
heart-broken old mother; the struggles of
the only surviving son to earn living
for his mother and sisters, and his final
debut and success on the stage; the IN
availing search for the lost brother; the
advertisements in papers in Eastern and
Southern cities; the journeys, many of
them on foot, to different places, of the
distracted mother, still searching for her
lost child
The brothers, as soon as they were sat
isfed between themselves that they were
brothers, dispatched a message of good
news to their mother in Cleveland, and
followed the message in person together