Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1891-12-03
WAR "REMINISCENCES.
AN ORIENTAL PENsIoNER.
The Queer story of One of Uncle sans
WardR


The Queer story of One of Uncle same
Wards.
Il will never forget" said former
clerk Of the house committee on invalid
pensions ''one case that came before
me for report. The bill had been intro
duesd by Hon J. Proctor Knott The
applicant had been rejected at the PEN
sion Office, then presided over by Bent
ley, who was as illiberal In the granting
of pensions as Raum is liberal
THE applicant was an Oriental named
Mohanmed Kahn. He had been
brought to this country in 1861 by
Goodyear, Buchanan's minister to Per-
STA, and Goodyear dying soon after, he
was thrown on his own resources in q
country of strangers with a strange
tongue and strange manners. A re-
cruiting sergeant got hold of him and
enlisted him In a Massachusetts, regi-
ment soon after the first battle of Bull
Run. Being an ignorant man, the SER
geant thought he was an Indian and
enrolled him as such. of the Blackfeet
tribe, and gave him the name of John
Ammahoe. He was sent to the front,
and was wounded in one of the battles
of Jackson's Italian campaign. He
was separated from his command and
a wounded colonel of a Pennsylvania
regiment, mistaking him for a negro,
took possession of him, registered him
as a contraband, and made of him @
body servant. The colonel got leave
of absence till his wounds were healed,
and carried Ammahoe with him to
Carlisle, Pa, where he remained for six
months Deserving his master he en-
listed under the name of Mohammed
Kahn in a Pennsylvania regiment, and
was severely wounded at Gettysburg.
He was then discharged, though by
some mistake he was borne on the rolls
of both regiments as deserter. Half
a dozen claim agents had tried to get a
pension for him without avail He
dTifted from Boston to New York, to
Philadelphia, to Washington, and at
last Il score of surgeons had reported
that he was disabled by gunshOt
wounds.
"One day he approached Mr. Knott
and related his story. He claimed to
have blue blood in his VEINS, and as
serted that he had been of the house.
hold troops of the Persian emperor,
having been recruited in Afghanistan,
whence came the finest cavalry of the
east. He was an expert swordstnan,
and the blood in his veins was of the
Hotspur order. Knott is a man of gor-
geous Imagination, and, no doubt, as
the poor fellow recited his pathetic
stony, visions of the wondrous cline of
the sun rose before him. His mind was
carried back TO the days Of Tamerlane
and Saladin, or Solyman the Magnih-
cent and the Mamelukes, that nearly
wrested victory from even Napoleon's
veteran columns He introduced bill
for Ammahoe's benefit, and it came be-
fore me. Daily he, along with others,
fbesought me to look into his case. 1
thought he was some worthless Ne
gro, too lazy to work, and put him
OF.
Zone day, however, looked up the
papers and soon became absorbed in
the military history of the fellow as it
was sent to the committee from the adj
jutant-generars Office. asked him to
relate the story of his life, He claimed
that at home he was a nobleman, and
that he was owner of vast estates in
.Afghanistan. why do you not return
there and enjoy your patrimony, in
stead of waiting here for miserable
pensionp said l. He answered: L have
eaten hog and have got drunk and they
would execute me at home if l should
return made favorable report on
his case; the bill passed and he got his
pension. louisville Courier ournaL