Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1892-01-28

On the first morning after our bivouac
on the shore of the Coosa a file Of con-
fed rate soldiers marched by the guard
into the camp The prisoners, one
thousand three hundred in number,
We're ranged in single file on the four
sides of the Enclosure. The officer, the
captain of regimental company, who
headed the squad of newcomers, then
passed along the line. With him were
two women. They seemed to be Of the
ordinary type of southern women one
met in those days in the little farm
houses in the mountain regions of
Tennessee or the Carolinas. The elder
one was perhaps forty-fve, while the
younger, though sallow faced, was
rather comedy and scarcely twenty
years of age.
Wintermuth and | stood side by side
in the line. There was much wonder
ment among the men as to the purpose
of this inspection A slight tremor of
the arm that touched my own on the
right caused me to look at Wintermuth.
His face was corpselike. but not word
escaped him. The officer and the WON
EN- in his company were approaching,
! closely scanning each man in the lines
as they stood with heads barred for the
scrutiny. When the eyes of Winter
muth and the woman met, there was
flash of recognition, betraying hatred,
too, on the part of the visitors.
When the younger female had quick
" scanned the face of my comrade, she
said, sharply: That's the man. Your
name is Al Wintermuth."
Not word fell from the lips of Win
termuth, but as his face took on a deep
er pallor, l felt the tremor in his arm
cease His muscles seemed to be al
most rigid.
"Step out here" said the officer
Wintermuth obeyed. A motion of the
hand to the file of confederate soldiers
who had been quietly standing at order
arms brought them to where the cap
tain stood
March this man to the guard-house
and see he don't escape. AT the first
move he makes put bayonet or a bull
let into him.
These were their orders, and without
word my comrade in arms was gone
There was no time for leave-taking and
the suddenness and mystery of the
thing had driven words away. The
two women passed without the lines as
they had come in the company of the
officer.
Within ten days after Wintermuth
left the lines he was dead. Court
martialed and shot for desertion and
serving with the enemy" was the entry
on the roster after his name.
His story was learned after the war.
Business called me into that part of
Tennessee from which Wintermuth
had come and from relatives the facts
were CLEANED. His family were stanch
unionists. The father and three sons
had enlisted in a Kentucky union regi-
ment. Albert being the youngest re-
manned at home. He was paying court
to young girl in the Sequatche Val
ley, whose family were all ardent sup
porters of the confederacy. The en-
gagement was broken off by the i'll
| feeling engendered by war. Winter
muth was conscripted into a Georgia
regiment deserted and joined Ten
nessee battalion in Rosecran's army.
| The families became bitter enemies.
The Egglers, driven out of their home
by the change in the shifting tide of
war, had gone to Georgia, and mother
and daughter were visiting brother
and son stationed with his regiment at
Rome when Streight's men rode
through the streets as prisoners They
saw and recognized Wintermuth. Their
story was soon told to the provost-mar-
shall, and willingly or unwillingly the
woman who had once promised to be
the brave young mountaineer's wife,
pronounced the words which caused his
execution as traitor. st Louis Post
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