Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1894-01-26

of forest without the least idea of his
whereabO bouts To make his situation still
more forlOrn it was night and drilling
rain was falling, wetting him thoroughly
and chilling him to the bone.
As soon as he thoroughly appreciated
the situation, he set about to find his com
rades. This he soon discovered was no
easy task, and it was near morning when
he finally came out of the woods in the vi
entity of the house which had served Gen
eral Hooker as headquarters. Imagine his
establishment and dismay to find the To-
cality deserted by the Union army for this
was the night of May >, 1868, and Hooker
had already retreated beyond the Kappa
hammock.
After time, the truth dawned on
Blake, and he hurried to the river. which
was reached in the gray light of morning.
Then his dsmay was increased to discover
the rain had so swollen the river that he
could not cross at the fords. He set out
TO find pontoon bridge, if possible, but
the last Federal was supposed to have
reached the northern shore. and no bridges
were to be discovered.
Then it was that Blake saw escape was
impossible, and he considered capture GER
tain. In no way delighted at the thought
of spending weeks or months i'll Libby
prison or Andersonville, he was trying to
devise some scheme of avoiding capture,
when he came to spot where an engage
ment had taken place the previous day
There were many dead soldiers lying on
the ground, and the features Of a Confed-
crate who lay stretched on his back attract
ed Bake's attention. TO his profound
establishment, he saw the man was almost,
I ,. - ..nlf
1t gave him shock at first, for it was rs
if he had seen himself lying dead.
As he looked at the corpse, II bright
thought came to him, and he muttered
I'm do it, and take the chancesl may
be able to fool them until can slip away
and rejoin my comrades"
Immediately he dragged the body into
a thicket, and there exchanged clothes
with the dead man, or, rather, he appro
priated the outer garments of the other
and threw his own away Then he dragged
the body to the river and thrust it into
the swollen tide, which soon swept it
away.
Some hours later falling in with a
squad of southern skirmshers, he was
shrewd enough to feign he was somewhat
dazed from the effect of the wound on his
head. When he was questioned he acted
AS if slightly deranged declaring himself
General Lee.
As natural result, he was sent to the
hospital, where his wound received atten-
ton. In his pockets, or in the pockets OF
the dead Confederate's clothes, he found
several letters addressed to George HattOn.
Those letters We're from a sweetheart of
Hatton's, and they revealed the fact that
the dead man had belonged to HOke's bri
gade.
In short time he seemed to recover
from the wound and then he said he was
George Hatton, although protesting t O
have lost his memory to great extent,
The hospital doctor said that was nat
ural result of such wound, but his mem.
DRY would gradually return to him.
In the course of short time, Blake
found himself serving in Hoke's brigade,
although he was constantly on the out
look for an opportunity to escape and re
turn to the northern army. He received
two or three appealing letters from Mary
St. Orme, HattOn's sweetheart, and they
were so full of love, tenderness and solici-
tude that he thought it cruel to ever let
the girl know of her lovers death.
How was this to be prevented? Al
length, "A wild scheme entered his head
lie would write to her in llatton' stead
and she would never know the difference
/ He was aided in this hy half finished
letter in the dead soldiers handwriting
which he carefully initiated
His first letter was short, but be told hel
how he had been wounded on the head
aud his memory had almost entirely failed
aim 50 far as events before the battle were
concerned. He said he could not remem
! bar If "a had posspssq1 a picfnra of her