The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-02-05

WAC.
Last week, writes correspondent of
the New York Times, went to see my
friend the Colonel, Virgiuian, who was
a distinguished officer on the side of the
South. Since the war his duties as con.
sulting engineer have taken him all over
the country, and being a close observer,
his opinions are entitled to respectful
consideration. As we sat smoking on the
wide piazza, and watching the growing
moonlight gradually discovering the
grounds of the adjoining mansion, saw
a number of ladies looking eastward, and
heard them commenting in low, melodi
GUS voices on the glories of the night.
-Four maiden sisters" whispered the
Colonel, and they are the owners, and
with their servants, the sole occupants
of that fine old mansion"
st is evident that your wife has I'M
bounded faith in you," l laughed, "Or
she would not leave you alone in this
neighborhOod."
"She is good friend of the widows,
and she feels that am quite safe with
them within CALL"
But thought you said that they
were maiden sistersP"
$50 did, but when l said Widows
l meant widows by brevet. Those ladies
are now between forty and fifty years of
age. Friends tell me that as girls they
were very pretty. They are the best ed
ucated women l ever met, but they are
neither pedantic nor misanthropic. They
are above want. But their husbands
were killed.
"Their husbands killed." l inter-
rupted.
eyes, killed in the war; but all of
them may not know it. Let me explain.
North and South there were killed in
battles, or died of disease, fully five hun
bred thousand men, not One-tenth of
whom we're married. OF the men at the
front who bore the brunt of battle fully
nineteenth of them were under 80 years
of age. Now it is law of nature that
every male must have his mate, and
every man who is killed or dies prema-
turely and unmarried, f3Eees some wO.
man in some place to remain single. This
! subject interests me and SO have made
it study. started out with theory
to account for the number of women
over forty whom met with uhvaryng
regularity in the South as well as in the
| North, and my theory is correct; that is
why call them, not old maids, but wild
ows by brevet."
at is true that many of the widows by
might have married had there been no
war, but in the great majority of cases
they knew the man, for they had been
neighbors, friends and school mates. l
was single man when in 1868 | took
command of my tro ps at Staunton, Va.
| OF the one hundred and ten men in the
company there was not one married. |
was then twenty-five and the oldest man
in the troop. Our youngest men were
about eighteen but was told, and l be-
lieve it. that from the captain down,
every man that rode with us for Bull
Run that July morning had a sweetheart
andwas engaged.
"When the war ended | checked off,
with a friend, the original muster roll of
that company and thirty-one survived.
The rest had gone down before the bull
let or the more fatal disease of the camp.
But that meant eighty girls in and about
| Staunton whose sweethearts went away
to die. There never was a soldier, worth
the lead that killed him, that didn't
have some woman at home, mother, sis.
ter or sweetheart, Oftener all three, to
mourn his taking off. The bullet sell
dom stopped in the brain OF breast of the
man it struck down on the battlefield,
| but winged its way over river and hill to
| find a final resting place in a woman's
heart. But of ali the people who suf-
| fered in the war the brevet widow most
excites my sympathies.
Il do not think regard her from the
standpoint of sentimentalist; but felt
when the last congress was looking about
for something to pension, that, instead
of wasteing so much money on Home
Guards, substitutes and others, who
either did not need pension, or were
unworthy of it, 1t would have been Il
stroke of craftsmanship and an evidence
of chivalry had the brevet widow been
pensioned. You laugh! viii you let
me cite case in point?
81 know right here in New York State,
a lady who deserves a pension for her
brevet condition far more than do many
of the widows of full rank. This lady
was engaged to be married to young
man, member of the Seventh Regiment
who belonged to good family, and who
held position that would have made
him rich in a few years, had he kept
close to business. The day set for his
marriage was that on which the regiment
marched to Washington. He saw the
lady the night before, and said he would
remain back and join the regiment, she
accompanying him, the day after his de-
parture. But her pride and her marriott