The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1891-02-12
A SOLDIER ROMANCE.
ASTORY WHICH lsYS RUOIARD KIP.
LING IN The SHADE.
Hugh Thompson. "A Wandsrer on the Face
OF the Z rtii for Twenty-Five Years and
Could Not Recall HIS Own Name.

Among fhe million claims filed away
in the Pension Bureau is hidden
material for more thrilling romanres
than Rudyard Kipliug ever dreamed
of. SAYS writer in the Washington
Post. There was case brought to
final adjudication recently that even
when told in the rigid. concise phrase
oIogy of the legal documents verifying
its strange features. reads more like the
fanciful creation of ii novelist Z ian cold
reality.
Sept. l. 1862. there enlisted ut Van
Vert. O., in the Fifteenth Ohio Volun-
teer Infantry slender. bluc-eyed youth
of 20 named Hugh Thompson. There
was nothing to Distinguish him special
" from a thousand other farmer lads
who donned the blue and marched
away to the front in the early days of
the great war. His surviving soldier
comrades recall him rs n bright, cheer
full young fellow. with a low pitched
voice, as one of them remembers, and
always cheerful and ready for duty.
At the battle of ChickamauTa, as n
comrade relates. while they were lying
on the ground at the front 10 escape
the tempest Of balls that swept the thin
woods where his regiment was en-
gagged. case shot. probably detected
from tree, struck him in the head and
his face was instantly covered with
blood. His companion spoke to him,
but he did not answer.
Just then the order TO fall back was
given. He was assisted to his feet,
staggered few yards in 4 dazed way,
and then fell in a heap rs Confederate
brigade swarmed into the woods. and
his comrades were forced to leave him,
evidently dying from a mortal wound.
He never reioined them.
The War Department records bear
opposite his name this note: Wounded
and missing in the battle of Chicka-
manga, Sept. 70. 1868. And SO he
disappeared from comrades, and
friends, aud home, one OF the unknown
dead, remembered only rs a component
Of the myriadS of soldier boys who
gave their young lives for their coun-
try. His father, years afterward, APP
piled for Il pension on account of his
service, his mother having died prior to
his enlistment No doubt was raised
us To his death in the army, but the
claim was rejected on the legal ground
o. non-depeudence.
The next scene in this strange his
tory opens on Il snowy country road in
Northern Illinois. near the Village of
Cleveland. III the winter of 1870. Night
was coming on rs small-SiZed but
sturdily bniit Traveller breasted his way
against tie keen winds that swept the
bleak prairie. He was comfortably
dressed in Il good working suit, with
Il pair of new boots on his feet and a
coon skin cap on his head He carried
IN old-fashioned oil-cloth valise, aud
appeared To be looking for place to
STAY over uignt. Aud there on the
lonely road in the darkening twilight
OF that freezing February evening in
the year OF grace 1870. Hugh Thomp-
son. the wounded soldier Of CHicka-
manga, came to himself" as he ex-
pressed it. 1t was just is ii at that mo-.
meut he had awoke from a dreamless
sleep OF seven Years and become con-
scious of existence.
But his memory was gone. totally
and ABSOLUTELY But other faculties
were keen enough but he could not re-
call his own name. where he had been
his family, or his home His entire
past up 10 that moment was simply a
blank. The only thing that connected
him with former existence WAS au
idea that he was looking for Il Mr..
Baker, who needed men to work. This
turned out 10 be correct. lie found him.
and was given employment in a coal
mine
When asked his name he replied
mechanically, Henry Thompson, "
though why he said Thompson"
rather than Brown or Smith he
could not explain. He was 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 on his darkened mind
gradually lifted, and old scenes and
incidents came back to him more or
less wildly. He became aware that
he had been in the army and bad been
wounded. Along in The sos he drifted
TO Kansas and entered homestead. on
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, 10 whom he told his story. he
set about discovering his home aud his
family. The di>couragin@ feature to
him was that ne did not know whether
the name he went BY was really his
own or not. The local newspapers
took up the matter. gave accurate de-
scriptionS of him. and the strange his
tory of the Namcless Soldier. rs he came
10 be known. travelled to Ohio and was
read in the columns of the Van Vert
Gazette by his aged father. The per-
sonal description Tailed in Il measure
with that of his lonw-mourncd son, and
correspondence followed.
The son. while not able 10 recall Van
Vert, had a clearer version OF his boy
hoods home, and wrote IN exact de-
seription of it rs he had last seen it. a
quarter OF Il century bcfore-lor house
and stone chimney, the we'll with the
long sweep 10 raise the bucket. the
high-banked stream that ran through
the farm-all still as lie had left them,
for changes arc slow in The backwoods
The result was that he returned home
in 1887. was easily identified by his
family and former comrades. applied
for Il pension. and the certificate direct
ing payment to him as the wounded
and missing Hugh Thompson of
Chickamauga was duly forwarded.
Through all his wauderings and
this sounds like Sunday-school tale.
but the incident is legally proved. and
forms part of the evidence of his iden-
tity-hc carried little Testament
given to him by sister, with an in
srrip;ion in rhyme. whca he enlisted.
The sister, still living, recognized it at
once 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 tumhled
over on the bloody field of Chicka-
manga until the strange awakening OF
MS dormant poreeptive faculties in
1870.
He has dim impression of working
in Il Vii lace or TOWN with q fnuntoin .,