Connecticut western news., 1883-01-03
AN OFFICERS SAD DEATH.
Lost in the Mountains of Arizona, He Suc-
 cumbs to Cold and Hunger.

The particulars of the sad fate of Lieu tenant Jordan, of the United States Army, are as follows Being an excel lent shot and fond of hunting, he joined party of officers and soldiers which left Fort Whiffen to go to the summit of the Mogollon range or Black Mesa. This range, about sixty miles east of Prescott,
 is noted for the numbers of wild turkey, deer and bears to be found in it's forests and canyons. Not one of the party was in such high spirits or in such apparently excellent health as poor Jordan. On the night of December 10th, he arose from his blankets in fit of somnambulism or temporary alteration and wandered away from the camp. He is said by officers who knew him when a cadet to have once or twice walked in his sleep at the Military" Academy, and the concur renee of evidence and belief is that some such calamity befell him on the present occasion The precise hour of his de- parture is not known, but 1t must have been some time between one and three in the morning, the herder on duty at the first named hour having seen him in his blankets, and the one who went on guard over the animals at three reporting | that his bed was empty, 8 circumstance which gave him no uneasiness, as he presumed the lieutenant was only tenn porarily absent Camp was aroused for | the work of the day shortly after four o'clock, and it was then discovered that Lieutenant Jordan was missing, and that | his boots, coat and vest had been left on given, and the camp ''circled" to 'scut" his trail In the darkness this was hard to find, and when struck, doubled and twisted in way to confuse the most ex- perienced woodsmen, and to assure them that the comrade of whom they were in pursuit had travelled with great rapidity. ] The country in that vicinity is so fear fully broken, cut up with deep canyons and covered with so much rock, that the human foot makes little or no impress, and consequently, notwithstanding the energy and intelligence with which the pursuit was maintained, three days elapsed before the unfortunate officer was found-dead-in small ravine, some seven or eight miles from the canyon of Clear Creek, one of the deep est and most rugged in America. He was lying face downward on ledge of rock, his only clothing the undersuit worn at the time of his retiring for the night, and his pantaloons, in the pockets of which was silver box containing thirty matches. From careful exami- nation of his trail it was seen that he had been walking and running about day and night. During the day his trail avoided all rocks, thorns and bushes, whereas in his night travel he had stumbled over stumps and fallen down the little ravines in his course. His feet were badly torn and cut by jagged rocks, and his face bore marks of severe bruises received in his falls. The nail of the little finger of the left hand was completely torn of, and deep scratches on his hands and wrists showed the effects of a fearful struggle in climbing up or down steep lodges. That he never regained posses sion of his faculties is highly probable.
 Certainly the first thing to be done by a man in his right mind, under the circum- stances, would have been to kindle fire.
 The country is thickly wooded, and to
 one so perfectly able to look out for him.
 self as Jordan was, the kindling of big
 blaze would have been the work of few
 seconds only. By this he could have
 kept himself tolerably warm and signalled his whereabouts to the comrades from whom he had wandered. Be this as il
 may, the event remains as one of the
 saddest and most shocking in the mill tary annals of Arizona. Many brave officers and soldiers have given up then lives on the field of battle; others have succumbed to the insidious approaches
 of disease; but it may be questioned
 whether any loss has occasioned such {
 shock as that of Lieutenant Jordan-st
 young, so bright, so promising, meeting
 L c.L ,,1