The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1880-08-12
Then, as the outer door opened, There

he comes now"
The reporter turned and met tall. well.
built man, with bright auburn slde-whis.
kers and close-cut hair, whose appearance
seemed somewhat familiar. There was a
| glance of inqniry, followed by a hand
shake OF recognition, and the two had re-
newed an acquaintance begun In another
part OF the Union several years ago. After
a little the talk naturally driitcd TO the tro-
pbies Of war just seen, and Mr.. Spauldlng,
! in answer to a request for details, made
reply as set forth at the beginning OF this
article.
| "You must know" he went on, fthis
adventure OF mine occurred few days after
THE CAPTURE OF vIcKsBURG. r,
was in MsPherson's command. Steve
Hurlbut. OF Belvidere, was our division
commander, and George G. Rogers, OF
Waukeean. our colonel. On the day Pm
speaking of-the 10Th Of July, 1S63-we
were near Jackson, Miss. getting good
ready for the battle that followed later.
just at the moment things were sort OF
quiet, and and two comrades-Joe Little
and Chris. Keegle by name-siarted of for
a scout. Once away from The lines and on
the pike, we met a big darky. He tried TO
dodge Us, and so we stopped him. Where
be. Wv hats that-a town. was my next
question. NO. he answered, it's plan
tation.' 'Who owns nl' 'Massa Davis
'Then,' says /, in a joking sort Of way,
and never dreaming / was so near the
truth, mot President JEFF. Davis, is it?'
Yes he acknowledged, and then, you
bet, we were bound to 90 there. We found
it was only five miles away, and so we
started at once, making the African lead
the way. 1t turned ont to be fine. roomy
old mansion, tenanted by 0nly-two wo-
men-a young lady and one OF middle age.
We walked in without botheriUg 10 knock
al the door, and Lord what tongue-lash-
! ing these females gave Us. / tried 10 eX-
plain something about the fortune OF war.
and so on. but il was no use for While |
| talked the Other boys tore up a lot OF great
paintings with their bayonets, and smashed
the piano. Finally | followed them up
stairs, and discovered Keegle at work tear
| ing up lot cf papers he'd found packed
| in a eun-boX. The man was German and
ignorant, and didn't know the value OF
what be was destroying. | stopped him
Just as he had ripped IN two the original
articles for
"IHE CAPITULATION OF THE CITY OF MEXICO.
| But wasn't mad when saw what he'd al
ready torn up. Why, sir, it was nothing
less than an autograph-book, in which Davis
| had the names OF all the big men he'd met
in bis long public career. Well. 1t was no
time TO cry over split milk; so dived into
the gun box myself. There were packages
of letters by the hundred, each tied up and
| labelled with the name OF the writer
pjcked out one bunch that had Miss Tay-
lor's name on it, grabbed that commits
sion you saw, showed book in
NV pocket, and tucked gold-headed
cane that Franklin Pierce had given
JEFF. under my arm. You know was sort
OF relic hunter in those days, and liked 10
get such things to ship home. Well, all this
wasn't bali load, but as passed a window
10 make for another gun-boX that hadn't
been touched | looked out and saw one OF
our BOYS slreaking il up the road on mule.
He had the relns III his teeth and his gun IN
bs left hand, while down lis useless right
arm streamed little r;vulet OF blood. 'Git,
he yelled, when he caught sight OF me; The
ouerillas amt half mile down the road,
and comm like hell or course we ran on
hearing that, but | stuck 10 my plumber,
and have most OF 1t yet. save those things
YOU were looking at in JOS case
81 see you had lettcrfrom DAVIS recent
lv. Were YOU negotiating for return OF
his propelty?'.
"Yes, did think OF sending him back
Miss Taylor letters-Miss Taylor was Il
| daughter OF Zach. Taylor, and DAVIS 5
wife-and perhaps | will. But | hate to
part with them. They bring back old
memories TO me OF the fights | have carried
them through. and the trouble IL was TO
got them NOUbr