The Atlanta constitution. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1885-19??, 1894-02-13
THIRTY YEARS a WAY.


A Confederate soldier who was Thought to
Have Been Killed,
Here is a Rip Van Wrinkle story which
comes from the pension department.
Last year one of the confederate widows
who drew $50 from the state fund was Mrs.
Permela Hanson, Of Carroll county. This
year the warrant which had been issued in
her name bears in blue pencil the words
husband has turned up
After an absence oil thirty years, during
Which time not Gne word was heard from
him. Gilbert Hanson has returned to the
bosom of his family.
A few days ago the son-in-law of Mrs.
Hanson walked into the office of the or
binary of Carroll county and said well,
Jede, [ reckon We'll lose the pension now
that the old mans turned up
ana on Judge Browns questioning him the
romantic story of Gilbert Hansons disap
pearance and temperance came out.
Left for Dead at Petersburg.
Hanson lived in Macon county, Alabama,
when the war broke out and was one OF
the first to volunteer q private In Compa-
ny f Of the Thirteenth Alabama regiment.
He was a good soldier and escaped injury
until the battle of Petersburg when he
ceived what supposed TO be his death
wound.
The papers upon which Mrs Hanson was
granted a pension last year very full
and explicit. The affidavits of e. T. Bolan,
r. r. ASherSt and j. M. Hancock, made
before the probate judge of Macon county,
showed that these We're members of
the company in which Hanson enlisted IN
1861, and they alleged that he died as they
believed In the service in May, 1888.
They say that after the fight at Petersburg
EI9lpIedsap IHlldsou am on lJIos uosupH
wounded; that he was never heard OF again
and that they are under the impression
that he died before getting to the hospital
Captain Strickland, of Company f, made
affidavit that he was satisfied that Hanson
died in the hospital. The widow, In her
affidavit, says that he was among the miss
ing at the battle of Petersburg; that she
heard he was dead, and had never heard
anything of him since.
Drifted to Pittsburg.
The case was strong one, and the pen
sion regularly issued.
The other day Hanson walked into the
office Of the ordinary and told of his re-
turn. AS his widow would, by his re-
turn lose the $50 q year pension, he called
to see if he could not get a pension under
the law 1t seems that the loss of the pen
sion was the fact foremost in the minds
of the members OF the family and that
account of it, this modern Rip Van Wrinkle
had not received any too cordial a welcome.
He found that he couldn't get the pension,
though he bears the evidences of nara
usage during his thirty years absence
"Where have you been during all these
years." Judge Brown asked him
well" he said, IT was pretty badly
wounded at Petersburg and 1T took me a
good while to get over it, and when I did
I drifted to Pittsburg, Pa, and L have
been there since
"Why didn't you come home?"
II was too poor. didn't have any money"
''Why didn't you write homer"
~ didn't know where the postoff1ce was
and didn't have anybody to write for me-
Hanson has been working a day laborer
in and around Pittsburgh for these last thtr-
ty years. Finally he saved enough money to
get back to the south. and learning that his
wife had moved from her old home in Ala
bama to that of her parents in Carroll
county, he made his way there. He has
been welcomed home, the only blight upon
pension.