The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1880-05-21
A HEROINE IN TROUSERS.

Among the heroines who have turned
up in this latter day is Catherine Hill.
Catherine is a short and rather feshy
mulatto, about "a years Of age, residing
in st. Mary street, below Seventh. A
few days ago this woman called at the Of
fee of Col. VIM. B. Mann to secure his
assistance in procuring for her pension
from the United States Government, to
which she was entitled for services rem
dered while serving the country as a
soldier. She told him most remarkable
tale about having enlisted as private
in colored regiment, dressed in mems
habiliments. Colonel Mann agreed to
take the case in hand, but directed her
to procure evidence, however, and this
she Immediately set about doing. There
were many things which she withheld
from the lawyer, including the reason of
her joining the army, all of which, how
ever, she related to Record reporter in
this language:
enlisted" she began, Sin the Thir-
firth Maryland Colored Volunteers on
| the Sd of May forget what year-un-
der the name of Henry Williams. was
passed through the examination by Drs.
Cook and Perry of Baltimore. got into
little difficulty, and that was why I
went. The difficulty was: I shot a man.
He shot me first. His name was Henry
Stump, son of Judge Stump, of Perry
| vile, and he fred at me for crossing bis
premises. The Government had run a
blockade across the public road, allowing
no one to pass but the soldiers. I cros-
sed it, and he halloed, sHaltp three
times and then fired. I had two cham
pagne baskets of victuals which was
going to sell to the soldiers. After he
shot me I fell. I was picked up by a
gentleman VINO was passing along with a
load of hay, and was taken to the corral
where I was found with the food. There
they put me on a stretcher and took me
on board little tug Pacific, which took
me to Havre de Grace, where I was at
tended by DIR. Lloyd. He took thirGy-
two buckshot out of my right arm, and
two more he left in, as he said they were
in the veins, and it would be dangerous
to extract them
At this point in the narrative Mrs.
Hill barred her arm and showed the re-
porter the shot that still remained in that
member.
"After Stump shot me, forgot to say
he walked to me, and asked him what
he shot me for. He said, I tried to kill
you I said, You didn't do it, though
U
I got well returned to Perryville, where
I met Stump few hundred yards from
where he had shot me. He was riding
his horse, and said to me, L have good
mind to run this horse over you.' I
walked away from him and he kept rid
ing toward me, and fired at him once
He fell from his horse, but was able to
walk, however, and went to the house ofla
fisherman named George Brown, serv-
ant of Stump's, who took him home. DIR.
Primrose of Port Deposit dressed his
wound, which afterwards heard, proved
fatal. Three weeks from the day this oc-
Cured enlisted for the first time in Bal
timore. After enlisting I was sent to Camp
Belgia, and tie stayed with the COM
pany-the Thirteenth Maryland, COM
pany K - under Lieutenant William
Ropes, Captain Perry. was removed
from the camp to Fortress Monroe, and
there staid five weeks. I was sent from
there to the Shenandoah Valley on July
7th. In the first battle at Deep Bottom,
Shenandoah Valley, which was nothing
more than scrimmage, received a
wound in my right leg from which was
laid up six weeks. After I was pro-
nounced well I was sent to Raleigh, N.
c., where I stayed five weeks with my
ahassee, where we stayed nine weeks,
and had one little scrimmage there.
From there we went to Chattanooga,
at Richmond. I was then just recovered
from wounds I had received at Peters
burg. I mad received a wound in my
right jaw, knocking the teeth out, at
Wilmington, N. c., on Saturday. In
the seven days fight at Petersburg I re-
ceiyed a wound in the right hip, and lay
on the field three days and three nights
without anything to eat or drink except
two hard tacks and canteen of water.
I laid up at the hospital at Halifax, Vir-
ginia, where ] was attended by DIR. Per-
ry, one of the doctors that had passed
me on my first physical examination. l
also received wounds on my hand from
defending myself from the saber of a
rebel Colonel with my musket at
Kaighn's swamp. I succeeded at last in
unhorsing him by bayonet thrust.
got my discharge in Washington from
Claim Agent George B. Fisher, and was
paid off in Baltimore, receiving 81 ,472,
the first money paid me since my enlist
ment."
After her discharge she became pastry
cook in hotel, then stewardess on a
steamboat which was wrecked, and later
she worked in tailor store. She came
to this city the year Cato was killed,
and earned a living as best she could.
Her husband, whom she met after the
war, has been living with her. The dis
charge, she said, was in the hands of DR..
Wood of Twentieth street, near Wood
street, with whom she had placed it for
safe keeping.
James Redding, who was in Mrs.
Hills regiment, states that he is willing
to swear to her having served through
the war, and that he did not know her
sex until after it was made known in the
hospital.
Second Lieutenant P. F. Dillon of the
Ninety sixth Pennsylvania, who keeps a
grocery store on st. Mary street, near
Seventh, told reporter that he first met
Mrs. Hill in the hospital at Baltimore,
in 1868, when she was discovered to
be female. He is agent for the house
in which she now lives, and he believes
her to be one of the most honest and
brave women that he ever knew.
Determined to test the truth of the
woman's story still further, the newsman
proceeded to Twentieth and Wood
streets, attempting to find the residence
of DIR. Wood, who wss mentioned as f.he
holder of the discharge. In spite of yall
- a