The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-05-27
Wade Hampton and His Leg.


1t is rather mournful to look at Wade
Hampton in the Senate, nursing his
stump of leg and subjectng his splcn-
did physique to the disgrace of crutchcs.
He is the only cripple in the body-I
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 infrmities are not visible. Not so
with Hampton. He is in the very prime
of life, scarcely over fifty, and Il hopeless
cripple. Nobody feels pain on looking
at Aleck Stephens, for his case is just the
result of q 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 inirmities, because
both came along prematurely, like the
hurricane on the oak, and marred pow
erful frames. And the General croons
over his abbreviated limb all the time
not in any growing or testy spirit, for he
is the soul of patience, but it must be
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 "moy-
ing accidents by flood and field" Can it
be supposed that when Morton sat in the
Senate, o 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 at his
Governors Office in war times, and dash
to camp or arsenal, 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 Incl
dents 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 standing on his
crutches in the main hall, near the SEN
ate entrance, a large man came along,
his right leg lost above the knee, and lie
had some patent arrangement that seem.
ed like framework, light and portable,
to help him out of his scrape. Accost-
ing him, Hampton spoke of their mutual
inGrmities, and asked how that arrange
ment worked. every WE'LL" replied the
stranger. at is an invention of my
own'-and he went on to explain it.
"Alay 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
grieyed 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 Wis
consin.
Later in the day the General was on
bis 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 a seat and managed the payment
of his fare.
"Where did you lose your arm?" asked
Hampton.
"Well, sir, it was at Gettysburg" an
swered the man, when Hampton made
that terrific charge with his cavalry"
Whereupon those two shook and made
up and the man now says if Hampton is
put OH the Democratic ticket he will
swallow it hook and line. 1t 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 whole truth in
case of defeat. Let me tell another in.
stance of Hampton's kindheartedness,
and then the reader can possibly judge
why it is that he is the idol of the col
ored race of the South. Recently, it will
be remembered, he went to Mississippi,
on the death of his son. While there be
met three old slaves of his. They called
to pay their respects, and in an apollo
getic way told "Massa Wade" that they
he'd to fight for their freedom and hoped
be did not feel bad aboutit. On inquiry
he learned of them that all three had
been wounded on board the "NIonarch"
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 their rights.-Brooklym Eagle
Letter.