San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1878-02-16
AMENITIES OF WAR.
How Mcclellan and Custer Treated an Old
West Point Comrade.

West Point COmrade.
In the summer of 1862, when Generals
Mcclellan and Joe Johnston were COM
handing the two opposing armies in the
attack and defense Of Richmond, a freak
of fate or decree of destiny ordered a
singular coincidence in the situation of
the Northern and Southern cadets.
Custer was acting on General McClel-
lan's staff, and his former friend on that
of General Johnston, each as aid to the
commanding Generals of the Northern
and Southern armies. On the day of
the battle of Seven Pines, or Fair Oaks,
the Confederate commander was severe
ly wounded by a shell, and his place
afterwards filed by General Lee.
The same Johnston's young aid was
captured by the enemy while in the dis
charge of his duty, and taken to McClel-
lan's headquarters as a prisoner of dis
tinction. He had been known to the
Federal General when at West Point,
and being courteously recognized was
treated with much consideration. Here,
too, he met several young officers who
had been cadets at the same time with
him, by whom he was welcomed with
much cordially and glee-kindest and
most cordial was Custer. 1t was a
singular, a striking scene; one that
merits description among the incidents
of a sectional war. The blue jackets
greeting the gray, foes meeting as
friends, hands clasping kindly that were
armed in deadly strife against each
other. ..,.....
Just small green spot in the dreary
desert of war. To Custer's care Nc
Clellan especially consigned the young
Confederate officer, with the charge,
givet in a serio-comic tone, that "The
prisoner should not be treated very Sc
verely, but allowed cigar and other
refreshments occasionally" So that
night there was rather a jollifcation in
one of the headquarters tents which the
party occupied, rehearsing scenes at
West Point, in which they had mingled,
"skylarking" at Benny Ravens and
other hap-hazard frolics, stories of study
and drill, and mutual inquiries for
friends scattered South and North amid
the ranks of the contending armies. Af-
terward, when the Confederate prisoner
was ordered to be sent to Fort Della
ware, in parting with his acquaintance
again, Custer, his generous guardian,
suddenly struck with kind thought,
exclaimed impulsively: "You must
have some money, Jim; those pictures
in your pockets Confederate currency
don't pass upthere;" and in spite of the
earnest protest of his friend, who assured
him he could really draw on relatives
in Baltimore for needed funds, finding
it impossible to persuade him to take
the money he offered, stepped up and
stuffed some notes in his vest pocket,
nolens volens. Such acts are only
prompted by noble heart. During his
detention at General McClellan's head
quarters, while one day the Federal and
Confederate officers were seated togeth-
err under q tree, an itinerant artist seiz-
ed on the striking effect of the singular
situation and promptly portrayed them
in a photograph. As an amusing and
appropriate addition to the scene, Gus
ter had negro boy seated at their feet,
putting, as he said laughingly, /" the If
repressible conflict between them"
This picture attracted much notice from
the press at the time with the singulari-
ty of the circumstances and incidents
attending upon the meeting of the two
yong men.-MrS. E. r. Washington, IN
Philadelphia Times. g.