Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1881-06-11
-VIEUx Temps, the great fid
dler is dead.
Remarkable Tom Kelley.
Detroit Free Press.

Detroit Free Press.
One of the most remarkable pri-
vate soldiers on either side in the
late war was young man named
Tom Kelley, a private in the Second
Michigan Infantry. The remarkable
began with his build. He had arms
full hand longer than any other
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 silver
quarter held up twenty feet away,
and he could hear every word of a
conversation IN common tone OF
voice across an ordinary street. He
ran nalf mile as fast as any officers
horse could gallop, and there was a
standing reward OF $40 to any man
who could hold him down. On a
bet of a box of sardines he once
passed six sentinels within an hour.
On an another occasion he entered
the Colonel's tent and brought away
that officers boots.
When Toms remarkable lualifi-
cations we're discovered he was de
tailed as a scout and spy, and was
changed from one department to
another. He entered Vicksburg and
preached sermon to the soldiers a
week before the surrender. He was
in New Orleans five days before the
city was taken. He was a man who
firmly believed that he could not be
killed by an enemy, and he govern
ed his movements accordingly.
While under the orders of General
Hooker, Kelley proved on several
occasions 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 picket he could catch
the countersign. he visited Look
out Mountain, intending to spike as
many of the Confederate guns as
possible. lis 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 a
sentinel at the door, and others near
by standing over guns and stores,
but il 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 be-
gan firing at him he ian out OF camp,
but before he was clear of 1t he had
been fired at fifty times
Kelley was once captured when
asleep by Missouri guerrillas. When
he opened his eyes he was surrou nd
ed by five or six men on foot and 9TH
ers in the saddle. II was under a
tree in an open field, and he had been
tracked by dog. AS he rose up at
their command he resorted to his
wonderful skill as gymnast. By
lodging and twisting and jumping
he got out of the crowd, pulled a
man off his saddle, and would have
escaped had not the dog fastened to
MS l6Rs ne was tHth pub uuuOi
guard in log house with only one
room. Two sentinels at the door
with revolvers in their hands, kept
watch of his every movement. AT
ter an hour or two Kelley approach
ed as if to offer them tobacco, and
jumped clear over their heads like
deer. He had half a mile of open
field to cross, and he crossed it un-
der fire of score of muskets and
revolvers without being hit.
During his three years and half
in the service Kelley captured fifty
two ConfedersIes and turned them
over as prisoners. He himself was
captured and escaped Ave times. AS
a spy he entered more than thirty
camps and forts. He was fired upon
at least 1000 times, and yet was new
er wounded. He had said that he
would never die by the hands of an
enemy, and his prophesy came true.
In the last year of the war, while
bringing a captured Confederate into
camp both where killed within forty
yards of the Union lines by bolt of
liUhfniDn,