Morris tribune., 1881-12-29
STORY OF THE CIVIL WAR.

Mother and Son United After Mourning
Each Other for Dead.
Cleveland Letter.
A few days since there arrived in this city
from Texas, the hero of one of those I'M
written histories of the war, and in little
house in our very midst was enacted the
closing scene of the drama, which is a
forcible illustration that truth is strange
than faction" The story is in substance as
follows
Some years before the war wealthy
southern gentleman passed the summer
months in a little town in northern Ohio.
He boarded with the clergyman, and
warm love grew out of the acquaintance
of the young Tenneseean and the clergy.
man. daughter, then fifteen years old. 1t
ended in his returning the next year t.
claim her for his bride, and bear her to his
home in the sunny south; which proved,
indeed a sunny south to the happy couple
until tho angry mutterings of the war were
heard, and, like MANY others, their little
circle enlarged now by two precious chill
dren) was broken, and the happy family
separated. .
In the midst Of the excitement, the day
after the secession of South Carolina, the
leave the south, because of her staunch
and outspoken support of northern princi-
pies, and in obedience to the behest of thu
! tyranuical power, which aimed with such
| determination at the nations life, She
turned away from the sacred spot where
were conferred all her dreams OF love and
| ioy, and with her baby started for Ohio,
expecting her husband to follow with her
| little four-year old son, by the next boat
but the next boat came not. The blockade
was ordered, cutting off connections as
we'll as travel, and in vain did she wait, fol
tidings from her lost ones.
DAYS of weary watching followed eacl
other for nearly two years, and when the
oft-told tale of his death in southern hos
pital reached her obliterating the bad roy
Of hope, the agony of despair settled upo1
! her. AS soon, however, as the condition
of the country would admit OF travel she
returned to her home for the child, only tt
| find that the relatives had gone to the fa
west before his fathers death. leaving hin
with old friends, of whom she could hea
nothing. All efforts to find them, OR tc
regain even pittance of the fortune he!
husband had left in trust for her, failed.
Her handsome wardrobe and jewels were
sacrificed to secure the services of lawyer
and detectives, who received her none!
only to add one more to her long list c.
! disappointments Death tore her bah,
from her, and heartbroken and despairing
with no more means to carry on the search
! she gave up and mourned as dead her dea
| irst-born. 1t is impossible to describ
her suffering in those years Of mourning
Only those who have drained the bite
dregs can understand the misery of tn
sseepless nights, and the sad, empty day
of this poor, lonely mourner.
After many years she returned to he
home and mother, in Ohio. One day, nc
long ago she received strangely familis
letter, bearing far distant portmark. m
from it child taught in the long ago hi
mother was dead; turned into the world t
care for himself, when he should have bee
t,,nderly nurtured and educated, while
cruel and treacherous guardian lived in lux
ury upon his Inheritance; and how throug
ali these years his heart had yearnad wit
srch intensity for a mothers love, and he
he had wandered from place to place
search of her; though ignorant of h
whereabouts, until hope deferred had mad
his heart sick, and he, too, had given up
J. despair; how his young wife had found
the lining of an old trunk, a letter whic
she thought gave q new address, an
an1sous to satisfy the constant, longing de
sire OF his life, made this one more effo
to accomplish it. If it were impossible
, tell her 10Y, or the Impotence with whlt
she bad waited till time and circumstance
: through the medium of a scrap Of yello'
= time-Worn paptg, should bring to her er
brace her long lost son.