St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-12-26

father, years after, applied for q pen
sion on account of his service, his moth
er having dice prior to his enlistment.
No doubt was raised as 10 his death In
the army, but the claim was rejected on
the legal ground of non-dependence.
The next scene in this strange history
opens on a snowy country road in North
ern Illinois. near the village of Cleve-
land. in the winter of 1870. Night was
coming on as a small-siZed but sturdily
built traveller breasted his way against
the keen winds that swept the bleak
prairie. He was comfortably dressed in
a good working suit. with a pair of new
boots on his feet and a cO0nsKin cap
on his head lie carried an old-fashioned
oil cloth valise, and appeared to be look
ing FOR a place to Stay over night. And
there on the lonely road. in the darken-
ing twilight OF that freezing February
evening in the year OF grace 1870, Hugh
Thompson, the wounded soldier of
Chickamauga, ''came to himself" as he
expressed it. 1t was just as If at that
moment he had awoke from a dream
less sleep of seven years, and become
conscious of existence.
But his memory was gone, totally and
absolutely. His other faculties were
keen enough, but he could not recall
no W uiuN N1C lO a OCCus tIlo
family, or his home. His entire past up
to that moment was simply a blank.
The only thing that connected HIM with
q former existence was al idea that he
was looking for a Mr.. Baker, who need
ed men to work. This turned out to be
correct. He found him and was given
employment in a coal mine.
When asked his name he replied me-
chanlcally. Henry Thompson" though
why he said Thompson" rather than
Brown or SMITH lie could not ex-
plain. He was a good and reliable
worker. but subject to spells. when he
would disappear for days or weeks, but
always returned and took up the thread
OF existence where he had left it.
The cloud Oh his darkened mind grad
ually lifted. and old scenes and Incl
dents came back to him more or less
wildly. He became aware that he had
been in the army and had been wounded.
Along in the SOS he drifted to Kansas
n entered a homestead. OH which he
settled, having married in Illinois.
He finally became satisfied that he
had served in an Ohio regiment, and
then. aided by the Grand Army men of
Kansas, to whom he told his story, he
set about discovering his home and
family. The discouraging feature to
him was that he did not know whether
the name he vent by was really his own
or not. The local newspapers took up
the matter, gave accurate descriptions
of him, and the TRANCE history of the
Nameless Soldier, as he came to be
known, travelled to Ohio, and was read
in the columns of the Van Vert Ga
zette by his aged father. The personal
description tailed in q measure with
that of his long-mourned SON. and cor
respOndence followed.
The son, while not able to recall Van
Vert, had a clearer vision of his boy
hoods home, and wrote an exact de-
scription of it as he had last seen it, a
quarter of a century before-log house
and stone chimney, the well with the
long sweep to raise the bucket, the high
banked stream that ran through the
farm all still as he had left them, for
changes are slow in the backwOods.
The result was that he returned home
in 1887, was easily identified by his fam
lily and former comrades, applied for a
pension, and yesterday the certificate
directing payment to him as the wound
ed and missing Hugh Thompson of
Chickamauga was duly forwarded.
Through all his wanderings-and this
sounds like a Sunday school tale. but
the incident is legally proved. and
forms part of the evidence of his iden-
tity-he carried a little Testament,
given to him by a sister, with an in
scription in rhyme. when he enlisted.
The sister, still living, recognized it at
nee when he exhibited it upon his re-
turn. All his efforts have so far failed
to recall to him anything that occurred
to him from the time that he tumbled
over on the bloody field of Chickamauga
until the strange awakening of his dor
mant %perceptive faculties in 1870.
He has a dim impression of working
in a village or town, with a fountain in
the square, and of a bright-faced Ger
this was or when is a blank. Should
his memory V be thoroughly rehabil-
itated what a strange tale of a double
life 1t might unfold.