The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-08-10
The Fortunes of War.


Nearly year ago the quartermaster's
office at this post was notified from the |
War Department to furnish transporta-
tion to Mrs. Alice A. Hurlburt and two
children from this city to Fort Lapwai, |
Idaho Territory. AS It is a not unusual |
thing for officers and men in the service
to obtain similar orders from the de-
partment, this would have probably at
tracted little attention had it not been
for the mathematical turn of mind of
some of the clerks. The order was dated
July IL, 1876, and was to the effect that
''the quartermaster's department will
furnish Mrs. Alice A. Hurlburt and two
children transportation from st. Louis
to Fort Lapwai, Idaho Territory, the
cost Of which will be deducted from the
pay of her husband, Private VIM. L.
Hurlburt, Company F, First cavalry, in
installments of $40 per MONTH"
In glancing over this order, it occurred
to the clerk who received it that it
would take Private Hurlburt some years
to pay off his little debt to the govern
ment. Altogether it was a most singu-
lar matter. The cost of the journey
would be upward of S400. A private
soldiers pay is only $13 per month, and
the idea of giving up all of it but So a
|
would be rather gloomy to contemplate.
From this little mathematical oalcula-
tion the clerks naturally enough turned
to speculating as to what kind of people
this soldier and his wife must be to
place themselves in such extremity for
the sake of being together. 1t seemed
strange, indeed, that two such people
should ever have become separated.
Then 1t was a matter of curiosity to
know why this soldier had enlisted.
The record showed that he had only
been in the service about a year, aud
the more the matter was discussed the
more singular did it seem.
Before the question had approached a
solution, their speculations were cut
short by the arrival of the soldiers wife.
She was pretty, lady-like little body,
with two fine children, and evidently
had passed good portion of her life un-
der happy auspices. There was a
shadow of trouble on her smooth brow
that made her really charming ways ir-
resistible. Her helpless situation and
evident anxiety regarding her projected
Journey, coupled with her oft-expressed
desire to see her husband once more, ex-
cited the greatest interest in her welfare
Before she had been in the office fifteen
minutes she could have counted friend
l in every one of the good-looking young
men about the establishment. Fully
believing that she was about to take a
very foolish step, they tried every means
, of persuajiEg her to relinquish her pur-
pose. Before leaving the Office she said
her husband had lost his property a
year before, and in a fit of desperation
had enlisted. Directly afterwards he
had been ordered to the West, and she
!. had not seen him since. 1t was so hard
to be separated, and she would endure
any privation to be near him. So she
: went. Whether she arrived safe or not,
the quartermaster's office here would
probably never have known but for one
of those incidents the service is always
liable to.
The telegraph two days ago brought
the names of thirty-four soldiers and
eighteen settlers killed in the last In
dian uprising in Idaho, and in the list
was that of Private Hurlburt, Company
F, First cavalry. His company was a
part of the force that went out from
Fort Lapwai to the assistance of the set
tiers at Mount Idaho on the 18th of June
last. They were either drawn into an
ambuscade or deserted by the guard left
in charge of their horses, and the little
detachment was cut to pieces, losing in
killed and wounded nearly half the to-
tai number that went out.
A brother-in-law of Mrs. Hurlburt
called at the quartermaster's Office q
few days since with letter he had re-
ceived under date of June II from Lew
iston, Idaho, notifying him of the death
of Hurlburt, and also acquainting him
with the fact that Mrs. Hurlburt was
still at Lapwai and in destitute circum-
stances. Whatever the brave little
wOman's trials have been or may here
after be, she will probably ever be con-
soled by the thought that she had gone
where he called her and stayed by him
to the last.-S. Louis Republican of
July s.