Ashtabula weekly telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1880-1886, 1880-12-03
Remarkable Tom Kelley.

ONE of the most remarkable private
soldiers on either side in the late war
was young man named Tom Kelley, a
private in the Second Michigan Infan-
try. The remarkable began with his
build. He had arms full hand longer
than any man who could be found. He
had no more backbone than a snake,
and could almost tie himself in knot.
He could tell the date on o silver quar-
ter held up twenty feet away, and he
could hear every word of a converse
ton in a common tone of voice across
an ordinary street. He could run half
a mile as fast as any officers horse
could gallop, and there was standing
offer of $40 to any man who could hold
him down. On bet of box of sar-
dimes he once passed six sentinels within
an hour. On another occasion he en-
tered the Colonel's tent and brought
away that officers boots.
When Toms remarkable qualifica-
tions were discovered he was detailed as
scout and spy, and was changed from
one department to another. In the ca
pacity of spy he entered Richmond three
times. He entered Vicksburg and
preached a sermon to the soldiers a
week before the surrender. He was in
New Orleans five days before that city
was taken. He was a man who firmly
believed that he could not be killed by
an enemy, and he governed his move
ments accordingly.
While under the orders of Gen. Hook
or, ,Kelleyproved on several loccasionsth that
he could see further with the naked eye
than any officer could with field glass.
If he could get a place of concealment
within fifty feet of a picket he could
catch the cOuntersign. He visited Look
out Mountain, intending to spike as
many of the Confederate guns as possi-
BILE. His disguise was that of a farmer
who had been driven from home by the
Union forces. The enemy somehow got
suspicious of him, and he was placed in
the guard-house for the night. There
was sentinel at the door, and others
near by standing guard over guns and
stores, but it was all the same to Kelley.
With an old tin plate for use as shovel
and scoop he burrowed out at the back
end of the building, and walked up to
two pieces of artillery and spiked both
before any alarm was raised. When the
sentinels began firing at him he ran out
of camp, but before he was clear of it
he had been fired on fifty times.
Kelley was once captured when asleep
by Missouri guerrillas. When he open
ed his eyes he was surrounded by five or
six men on foot and others in the sad
die. 1t was under tree in an open
field, and he had been tracked by dog.
AS he rose up at their command he resort
ed TO his wonderful skill as a gymnAst.
By dodging and twisting and Jump
ing he got out of the crowd, pulled
a man off his saddle, and would have
escaped had not the dog fastened to his
leg. He was then put under guard in a
big house with only one room. Two
sentinels sat at the door with revolvers
in their hands and kept watch of his ev-
cry movement. After an hour or two
Kelley approached as if to offer them
tobacco, and jumped clear over their
heads like a deer. he had half a mile
of open field to cross, and he crossed it
under the fire of a score of muskets and
revolvers without being hit.
During his three years and a half in
service Kelley captured fifty-two Con-
federates and turned them over as pris-
oners. He himself was captured and
escaped five times. As aSpy he entered
uOIb buhu IulIlI OOubueIhIo ChLupS
and forts. He was fired upon at least
1000 times, and yet was never wound
ed. He had said that he would never
die by the hand of an enemy, and his
prophecy came true. In the last year of
the war, while bringing captured Con-
federate scout into camp, both were
killed within forty rods of the Union
lines by a bolt of hghtning.-DetroH
Free Press. ....' ..
Mr.. JACOB HoFF and wife, of Balti-
more, celebrated their golden wedding
the other day, and the Rev. George