Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-09-07

"a oONAN VI ASiiAetlS AAhlobScS nVllC
of whom made the slightest pre-
tense to being lady.
There was no scandal about the
sergeant, but she was honorably
discharged, and very promptly.
Crawford admired the dashing
Lydia; and one day she rode up to
the captains quarters, before which
group of ladies and gentlemen
were standing, and jauntily touch
ed her riding-hat to him. He sa-
luted her, and entered into CONVEX
sation with her with great gravity.
At the close he said
Sergeant Green, | shall be glad
to recommend you for promotion
as junior lieutenant of my battery"
The sergeant replied: "All
right, Cap; I'll. take the commish.' ="
"When can you report for duty
to the commando" said Crawford,
formally.
"I'll be on hand, Cap, just twelve
hours before you receive marching
orders, and not BEFORE" and of she
rode with gay laugh, to the aston
ishment Of the spectators.
One Of the ladies present after
ward innocently asked the captain
if 'that young woman had reported
for duty" and was informed with
perfect gravity:
"No, madam. Her engagements
were such that she was compelled
to decline the appointment"
incidentally | might remark, the
sergeant afterward appeared as the
presiding and hospitable genius Of
a perfectly respectable household
near Messy Greek, East Tennessee,
where our troops were stationed
after Mr.. Longstreet very kindly
withdrew his ragged besiegers from
Knoxville, in the winter of 1914.
At Messy Creek the ci-deyant SER
geant was playing the role Of lady,
and very prettily, too. She had an
Ohio Colonel deeply fascinated, and
would have married him had not
some one exposed her eccentricities
of character.
"Why didn't you stick to Clay
Crawford?' she was asked one day.
She replied:
swell, would have done so, only
| could not understand him. | was
afraid Of him, aud as was going
to the devil l didn't want company
and disliked being hurried"
| saw Crawford no more after he
went to Nashville and donned his
eagles. He was the friend of ANDY
johnson, and did just about as he
pleased. He chafed under the tame.
ness of the war, but kept his own
counsel.
When the Eastern States were
recruiting negroes to ill theil
quotas Colonel Crawford effected
an arrangement with substitute
broker from Massachusetts,, and
transferred to him between four
and five hundred stalwart recruits,
receiving as a slight mark of the
brokers' regard about S40O per
head. An old friend of mine, a
captain of one of Crawford's bat
terles, Captain W, was sta
toned at the State-house, and was
a kindred spirit Of Crawford's.
On the return of the troops after
the capture Of Atlanta, l was sit
ting in my friends tent one night,
and asked: "Where is Colonel Clay
Crawford ?"
Then in reply he told me that he
had gone into Crawford's quarters
late one night and found him pack
ing his trunk. Said he:
Captain, I've got a leave of ab-
sence, and am going to New York
in the morning. Just lift the lid
Of that trunk, will you, and take a
gold piece for a keepsake. NY
friend looked into the trunk and
saw, as he expressed it, "more than
a bushel Of money" consisting of
gold and greenbacks. There had
been a vague rumor about the regi-
ment that Crawford had made "a
little dicker in negro recruits with
a Yankee broker" but, as you re-
marked this morning, "the times
were out of joint" and besides,
Crawford had the ear of Johnson,
and johnson was a power in those
days, as you had cause to know.
HE GOES To MEXICo.
Colonel Crawford went to Mexi-
co, and a brief sketch of his career
was given me by a Lieutenant
Winans, an adventurous spirit who
was with him. Crawford did make
the raid on Bagdad you speak of,
and was full major general in the
Mexican service. Said Winans to
me; "The general carried away
with him from that expedition over
SlS0,000, and,p he added, with a
tinge of regret, i couldn't raise
more than SO, ,00O."
That is the last / heard of the
dilettante, soldier, sybarite, littera-
teur and restless adyenturer, until
your article appeared this morning.
| don't take much stock in the
story of his being 0sman Pasha, for