Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1891-10-30
done for vono, alUef all have

done for you?' ''iOef oil L have
, - And anltl then it went on calling b, =,
Of Of a lug rascal, reminding him
or ms humble origin, and f}n nil1
enued by forbidding him ever IN n wn;t )
,,i e letter to the family or to i set
nus loot in the house, should he w or neo
return from the war. III oSei
Il concluded not to read tho ont, ~
,: to McCully, but after ei li,,u
lllm a Slight idea of it's confents
ask, nm who wrote the last lette,
ne sent home for him. He oavo NJ
the name of the man. e"'' lug
,Dld ne read it to you?' / asked !;
YES he replied.
Did you tell him to write INV
lhlhg insulting, or anything VIZ,
WOULD have reason to be ashan,od
did not. ' 'iiao ne
'iihen,' 1 said, keep quiet and saw
hothlng to any one about HAVING ro.
i ; a letter from home, and we'll
-1'N'oiooLC UIllS lnauJGr,'
After he left me I immcdiato,u
wrote TO his friends at home, and re-!
quested them to send me the letter
they had received The request was
computed with, and in due time the
letter was in my hands. 1 will NOT,
tell you what it contained. or all
vulgar, obscene and insulting epistles
u was the meanest and most insolent
L have ever read.
10 make the matter worse. if con.
cluded by saying, L have learned to
write since / have been in the army.
ana take the opportunity to write nv
first letter to you.'
u sent for McCully and read the
letter to him. A more indignant man
you never saw. He almost tainted
from anger and establishment. He
swore. he would kill on sight the man
VINO had played such dastardly mean
trick on him.
Il succeeded in calming him, how
ever, and assured him that the man
should be punished. And my prom
Use was kept. When the man was
shown the letter he acknowledged his
guilt, but said he only did it as a Joke,
1t didn't seem so mnch like Joke
before l got through with him. But
let that pass.
"My first thought was to set mat
tiers right with the young lady to
whom the letter had been sent. An
explanation to her father restored
the lad to the former esteem and
confidence Of the family. After that
McCully was the most loyal and faith
full friend 1 had in the company. He
sought every opportunity to do me a
favor, and was never happier than
when / allowed him tc do me some
slight personal service.
Zone day he came to me and said
that he had determined to learn to
read and write, and asked if l would
teach him. I readily consented, and
every night, though it was not strict
~ in accordance with military discip-
line, allowed him the use of my
tent that he might be by himself to
study. He made great progress, and
it was not many months before he
could write. When he found that he
could write his name he almost
jumped through the top of the tent
in the extravaganza Of his JOY. His
gratitude apparently knew no bounds
Shortly after this we went into &C
ton. 1t was the battle of Spottsyl
vania. While the fight was the hot
test, and l was moving about givin,
orders to the men, 1 felt mysel
caught by the heel. Surprising tina
my foot had caught in some Of tn
underbrush, mechanically STOPPED
down without looking around, to dis
entangle it. AS l did so l felt hant
clutching my ankle. l looked, ant
there on the ground, gazing up at me
was poor McCully. His face was a
white as marble, and one of his leg
had been shot off.
Looking up into my face, he faint
ly gasped:
I thank you! l thank your ant
then fell over on his side, dead.
"The ground for distance of fit