The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1886-07-25
A ROMANCE OF WAR.
A True Story, Which Shows How a
Soldier Kept Strange
Promise.

Ny friend Dave Is one of your Quiet
vets who has little to say Of his army
life. though few could give a more thrill
ing experience. You might know him
long without discovering that he had
been in the service of Uncle Sam through
those eventful years. 1861 5. and that
he carries in his body painful reminders
of that terrible conflict. In the Ohio
community, where he has lived from
hildhood. and still lives, respected and
honored by all, the facts here given are
well known, ana 1 have thought they
might be Of interest to the larger public
of the Dispatch.
During the summer of 1854. in one OF
the hot skirmishes nea- Winchester,
our young Ohio soldier received what
he ana his comrades considered a fatal
wound in one of his lungs. In the
hurried retreat of the Union forces he
was left upon the field in an apparently
dying condition When last seen by
his fellow soldiers, blood was freely
! flowing from his mouth, and the news
flashed over the wires: Left upon the
field, dying" In the same skirmIsh
fellOwSoldier Of the same company and
from the same neighborhood received
what also appeared TO be deadly hurt.
The two were carried TO a neighborIng
house to die, while other prisoners were
hurried on TO Richmond. Ny friend
Dave was single. His wounded COM
rsde had left behind him young wife. |
AS they lay side by side in the attic |
of the Virginia farm house, each. as |
-. 1. 4.
cheer the other. If. perchance, one |
should survive, be was to bear the me
menJOes and messages OF love TO the |
dear ones at home. But il was evident |
from the first that Dawes comrade had /
received a mortal wound. Toward Il Q
closing hours of that first night the
mind began to wander; there were
visions of the Ohio home, the fond wife,
the boy he had never seen, and with
these in his thoughts and upon his lips.
his life went out. AS our young soldier
saw the remains of his comrade borne
from his side TO be laid away to their
last rest by strange hands. there came
over him a feeling of utter desolation
thought than that he would soon fol-
low, and in his weakness and loneliness
little cared he how soon. But friendly
fates had ordered otherwise.
Dave soon found that he was among
friends. The mistress of this Virginia
home, who tenderly cared for him a
gave him 10 know that she was
not "Secesh," but Union. The dis
covery gave him new heart and hope.
His would began to heal, the tide turn (
ed, and so rapid were the heaiing pro- {
,esses Of nature, that in the course of
week full recovery was assured. In s
mother week the rebel guards coHclud- I
ID that Dave was able for the trip TO
His nurse had other plans
n view. On the night previous to that c
liked for the ION TO Richmond" by the
assistance of some Union friends of the
,olored persuasion, the Ohio boy was 5
10 a safe hiding place IN the
direction of the Union lines. which he I
inally reached after many narrow l
escapes and several days OF intense
and privation.
In four weeks from the day that the I
news was carried home that he was
lying in the hands OF the enemy, Dave q
vas within that home. and father aud
mother were weeping with sacred Joy
)ver the boy they had mOurned as dead.
But what OF .he young widow, whose
husband had brea he'd his life out in
hat Virginia home? Thereby hangs a J
tale. Dave and she had been friends c
rom childhood. On the village green Z
hey had pl,yed together in the happy
lays Of girlhood and bOyhood. When
he cruel war was over, he did not for 5
yet the covenant he had made with his q
lying cOmrade. In higher and holier !
way than either soldier dreamed of
hen, the survivor fulfilled his VOW by c
making the soldiers widow a soldiers I
wife again, and for twenty years or more :
has been to her q loving and faithful !
husband, and she has been to him J
loving and faithful wife. The babe of !
"a is now one of the stalwart Sons of ,
the Veterans, ready, If need be to give !
his life as his father did to the Union.
There come before me as | write. ter ,
der memories of a quiet Sabbath eve in
the autumn Of 81, when the remains Of
the young soldier, which had been
brought TO Virginia, were laid to rest
at his own home, among his own
kindred. From near and far friends
had gathered to pay honor to the dead.
Men who seldom wept cried hike chill
dren as they stood BY that grave on the
hillside and saw the bride OF a wear be-
fore a widow and mother, and thought
of the trials and hardships before her
now shat she was alone in the world.
Around that same grave, a few weeks
ago friends gathered to scatter flowers.
In the company was a middle aged ma
iron, with whom time had gently dealt
By her side stood our friend Dave, and
the son Of him in whose memory they I
had gathered there. And strong men
wept again as they remembered that
Sabbath eve of "a, and how the young
Union soldier, when dying in the valley
OF Virginia had hidden his comraie
care for the wife and boy, and then to
receive his crown.
Thank God that whatever the darkness thar
covers His creatures dim sight
He always vOuchsafes some deliversuce |
. q l.