Arizona weekly citizen., 1883-01-07
Remarkable Tom Kelly.

One of the most remarkable private
 soldiers on either side during the late
 war was a young man named Tom Kel- ly, q private in the Second Michigan h. fantry. The remarkable began with his build. He had arms a full hand longer than any nan who could be found. He had no more back bone than a snake and could almost tie himself in a knot.
 He could tell the date of silver quar- ter held up twenty feet away, and he could hear every word of an ordinary conversation across a common street. He could run half a mile as fast as an officers horse could gallOp, and there
 was a standing offer of ten dollars to any man who could hold him down. On bet of box of sardines he once passed six sentinels within an hour. On anoth- CT occasion he entered the Colonel s
 tent and brought away that officer s boots.
 When Toms remarkable qualifications 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 Nlcksburg and preached to soldiers a week before its surrender. He was in New Orleans five days before that city was taken. He was man who firmly believed that he could not be killed by an enemy, and he governed his movements according ly.
 While under the orders of General Hooker, Kelly proved on several Occa- siOns that he could see further with the naked eve than any officer could with s field glass. IT he could get a chance of concealment within fifty feet of a pick ct he could catch the cOuutersigu. He visited Lookout Mountain, intending to spike as many of the Confederate guns as possible His disguise was that of a farmer who had been driven from home by the Union forces. The enemy some how got suspicious of him, and he was placed in the guard house for the night. There was a sentinel at the door and Otbers near by standing guard over guns and stores, but 1t was all tine same .0 Kelly. 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 them before any alarm was raised. When the ssutinels began firing at him be ran out of camp, but before he got clear of It he was fired at fifty times.
 Kelly was once captured when asleep by Missouri guerillas. When he opened his eyes he was surrounded by five or SIX men on foot and others in the sad dla. It was under tree n an open field and he had been tracked by a dog. As he rose up at their command he re- sorted to his wonderful skill as gym mast By lodging and twisting and jumping, he got out or the crowd, pulled a man of his saddle and would have escaped had not the dog fastened to his leg. He was then put under guard in a log house with only one room. Two sentinels sat at the door with revOlvers in their hands, and kept watch of his every movement. Alter gu | hour or two Kelly approached aslf to ! offer them tobacco. and jumped clear ! over their heads like a deer. He had | half a mile of open field to cross, and be l crossed it under fire or a score or mus kets and revOlvers without beng hit.
 During his three years and half Il | the service Kelly captured hity two | and turned them over as | prisoners. He himself was captured and ] five times. A a spy he had en- tered more than thirty Confederate ! camps and forts. He was fred upon at l least 1000 times and yet wns never ! wounded. He had said that hs would 1 never die by the hand of an enemy, and l his prophecy came true. In the last ! year of the war, while bringing capt l 1red Confederate scout into camp, both 1 were killed within forty rods of the Union lines by a bolt of lightning.