The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1880-07-08
Wade Hampton and His Leg.

Hampton in the Senate, nursing his
stump OF leg and subiecting his splen-
did physique TO the disgrace OF crutches.
He is the only cripple in the body. /
mean visibly so. To be sure his col
league, the dashing Butler, has but one
leg. but you might watch him move
about for ten years and not know it, so
perfectly does he manage his cork. To
be sure, too, there are men who suffer
sometimes intensely for trying to stop
bullets in the late unpleasantness, like
Gordon and Ransom and Maxey; but
their in6rmities are not visible. Not so
with Hampton. He is in the very prime
Of life, scarcely over fifty, and hope
less cripple. Nobody feels pain on
looking at Aleck Stephens, for his case
is just the result Of a slow and natural
process Of decay, which he rather seems
to relish. But you insensibly feel
deep sympathy with Hampton's loss as
with the late Senator Morton's infrmi.
ties, because both came along prema-
turely, like the hurricane on the oak,
and marred powerful frames. And the
General croons ever the abbreviated
limb all the time-not in any growing
or testy spirit, for he is the soul of pa
tience, but it must remembered that his
whole life has been one of nerve, vim,
dash, and his present forced inactivity
must only intensity the memory OF his
daring exploits and "moving accidents
by food and field" Gan it be supposed
that when Morton sat in the Senate,
big, chained dog, the defenseless prey
of the smallest cur that had legs and
could use them, he never fretted at the
picture of his past activity, when he
used to bound into the saddle at his
governors Office in war times, and dash
to camp or arsenal, the very embodi-
ment of physical vigor, as he lashed his
horse to white foam through the ex-
cited streets. No wonder, then, that
while the General nurses his leg, he
also nurses manly regrets. Several in.
teresting incidents happened lately in a
single day, os told by one of Hampton's
ultimate friends. The General, in the
hope of picking up some views about
cut legs, has way of stopping people
similarly afflicted. As he was standing
on his crutches in the main hall, near
the Senate entrance, large man came
along, bis right leg lost above the knee,
and he had some patent arran cement
that seemed like framework, light and !
portable, to help him out of his scrape.
Accosting him, Hampton spoke of their
mutual infirmities, and asked how that
arrangement worked. VERY well IRE
piled the stranger. SIT is an invention
of my own, and he went on to explain.
"May l ask where you lost your leg ?"
inquired the General eyes, certainly;
it went off when Hampton charged our
battery at Gettysburg" "Indeed; I'm
grieved to hear" said the General, very
sincerely. "Aiy name is Hampton. -
They shook hands very warmly over
the bloody chasm, and the stranger
turned out to be Representative Caulk,
of Wisconsin.
Later in the day the General was on
his way home in the street car, when a
man entered with only one arm, the
other gone at the socket. The General
invited him to seat, and managed the
payment OF his fare.
"Where did you lose your arm ?"
asked Hampton.
"Well, sir, it was at Gettysburg"
answered the man, "when Hampton
made that terrific charge with his cav.
airy"
Whereupon those two shook hands
and made up, and the man now says if
Hampton is put on the Democratic
ticket he will swallow it hook and line
II was on the same bloody field that
Pleasonton and Hampton met as rival
cavalry leaders, and they met only on
Wednesday last over the pipe of peace.
Pleasonton was enchanted with his old
enemy, and said that he was the only
soldier he ever heard of who told the
whole truth in case of defeat. Let me
tell another instance Of Hampton's kind
heartedness, and then the reader can
possibly judge why it is that he is the
idol OF the colored race in the South
Recently, it will be remembered, he
went to Mississippi, on the death of his
son. While there he met three old
slaves of his. They called to pay their
and in an apologetio way told
"Massa Wade" that they had to fight
for their freedom, and hoped he did not
feel bad about it. On inquiry he learned
OF them that oil three had been wound
ed on board the Monarch during the
war. They knew nothing OF how their
account stood, or might stand under the
law, with the United States Treasury,
and the Generals first act when he came
back was to obtain them pensions. -
That's the way the "rebel brigadiers"
are depriving the Southern negroes Of
heir rights.
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