Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1880-05-27
WADE HAMPTON AND HIS LEG.

WADE HAMPTON AND HIS LEG.
1t is rather mournftA to look at Wade
Hampton in the Senate nursing his stump of
a leg and subjecting his splendid physique to
the disgrace Of crutches. He is the only
cripple in the body. l mean visibly so. To
be sure his colleague, 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 some.
times intensely for trying to stop bullets in
the late unpleasantness, like Gordon and Ran
som and Maxey; but their infrmities are not
visible Not so with Hampton. He is in
the very prime of life. scarcel ly over fifty, and
hopeless cripple. Nobody feels pain on
looking at Aleck Stephens, for his case is just
the result of slow and natural process of
decay, which he rather seems to relish. But
you insensiby feel deep sympathy with
Hampton's loss as with the late Senator Nor
tons in6rmilies, because both came along
prematurely, like the hurricane on the oak,
and marred powerful frames: sAnd the Gen
eral croons over the abbreviated limb all the
time-not in any growing or testy spirit, for
he is the soul Of patience, but it must be re-
membered that his whole life has been one of
nerve, vim, dash, and his present forced in-
activity must only intensity the memory Of
his daring exploits and knowing accidents by
food and field"
Can it be supposed that when Morton sat
in the Senate, big, chained dog. the defense:
less 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 ut his Governors
office in war times and dash to camp or arsen-
AL the very embodiment of physical vigor as
he lashed his horse to white foam through
the excited streets? No wonder, then, that
while the General nurses his leg, he also nurses
manly regrets Several interesting incidents
happened lately in single day, as told by
one of Hampton's intimate friends. The
General, in the hope of picking up some
views about cut legs, has way Of stopping
people similarly afflicted. As he was stand
ing on his crutches in the main hall near
the Senate entrance, large man came along,
his right leg lost above the knee, and he had
some patent arrangement that seemed like
frame work, light and portable, to help him
out of his scrape Accosting him, Hampton
spoke of their mutual in6rmities, and asked
how that arrangement worked.
"Very WE'LL" replied the stranger; "it is
an invention of my own" And he went on
to explain.
"May ask where you lost your leg ?" in.
quired the General.
ayes, certainly; it went off when Hamp-
ton charged our battery at Gettysburg"
Indeed! I'm grieved to hear it," said
the General, very sincerely. "My 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 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 p asked
Hampton.
swell, sir it was at Gettysburg" answer
ed the man, "when Hampton made that ter.
H6c charge with his cavalry"
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. It was on the same bloody
field that Pleasanton and Hampton met as
rival cavalry leaders, and they met only on
Wednesday last over the pipe of peace.
Pleasanton was enchanted with his old enemy,
and said that he was the only soldier he ever
heard of who told the truth in case of defeat.
Let me tell another instance of Hampton's
and then the reader can pos
sibly Judge why it is that he is the idol of the
colored race of 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
respects, and in an apologetic way told "Mass
Wade" that they had to fight for their free
dom, and hoped he did not feel bad about it.
On inquiry be learned of them that all three
had been wounded 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
10 obtain them pensions. That's the way
The "rebel brigadiers" are depriving the
Southern negroes of their rights. Brooklyn