The Pioche weekly record. [volume] (Pioche, Nev.) 1877-1900, 1892-03-24
AN lNFREQuENT OCCURRENCE.
A Private of the Regular Army Placed
on the Retired List.

A Private of the Regular Army Placed
on tho Retired List.
The retirement of privates from the
regular army is of most infrequent oc-
currence, says the Washington Post
from the simple fact it is seldom they
ever remain long enough in the service
to reach the age of sixty-two years.
Private Thomas Kelly of Battery X at
the Washington barracks, however, has
added another honorable name to the
list and well-earned his retirement,
which has already been announced. He
is still at the battery and will probably
spend several months in the city enjoy
ing his freedom from soldierly cares.
Mr.. Kelly is sixty-two years old, but he
does not look minute older than
well-preserved man of forty-five. A
robust son of Erin, he came to America
to find the people aflame with all the
mad passions of war. He landed at
Boston harbor, and in 1862 enlisted in
Company II of the Thirty-ninth regi-
ment of Massachusetts volunteers. Be-
ing hurried to the front his regiment
was assigned to the Fifth corps, under
Gen. Warren. The first battle that
Kelly was in was that at South Noun
tain and the second was at Laurel Hill,
Va, where he was severely wounded.
Having been left on the field he was
taken prisoner, and that ended his ap-
pearance on the field so far as open hos
tilities were concerned. When he got
out of prison the war was over, but he
had tough time of it until peace was
declared. The comfortless walls of
Libby, Belle island and Salisbury were
made familiar to him, and time and
again he thought of how much more
convenient it would have been if he had
only postponed his trip to America. He
received an honorable discharge and re-
turned to Boston, but he had grown
used to being a soldier, and in less than
a year thereafter he enlisted in the
regular army, and has served continu-
ously since. He has seen hard service
in fighting the Nez Perces and Cheyenne
Indians. For the last six months he
has been member of the battery.
| People who receive letters from the
! Pacific coast in six or seven days adj
mire the speed with which the mail
travels across the continent, but forget
| that the present rate is not SO much
i greater than that of the pony express
as might be supposed.
The pony express was the first
through route from the Missouri river
to the Pacific in 1860 by a firm of gov
crnment contractors, and the termini
were San Francisco and st. Joseph.
The distance traversed by the pony
express was about nineteen hundred
miles, and relays of Indian ponies were
provided at station houses every few
miles. A courier rode from one station
to another, taking fresh horse at each
and leaving his tired animal, and when
himself was too tired to go further
gave the mail to another rider and
stopped to rest, says the st. Louis Globe
| Democrat.
The distance was traversed by the
| ponies in about seven and one-half days
or at the uniform rate of about twelve
miles an hour. 1t was the first through
mail between the Missouri and Sar
Francisco, and although the riders were
often chased by the Indians, compare
lively few fatalities occurred among the
'caGGnnparS