The Kosciusko star. (Kosciusko, Miss.) 18??-1898, 1895-09-06
THE PECULIAR Provision
OF A CONFEDERATE
LIEUTENANT.
The Last Words He Said We're
Heard by His Absent Wife
He Was From Carroll
County, Ga.


naturally witnessed and expert
enced many melancholy happen
lngs. The four years were to me
an unbroken chain of instances of
mans inhumanity to man and of
strange and, in many cases, heart
rending condolences. Thirty
years of active business life have,
of course, served to blot from my
memory many of these stirring and
so full of melancholy interest that
| will remember it as long as long
as life lasts" SO spoke an old
Confederate soldier as he rested
himself in a comfortable chair in a
hotel lobby here yesterday.
"How was it, Colonel?" inquir-
ed several fellow-listeners in con-
cert.
Tell us about it. 4"
''Well, it is tale that a man
who desires to preserve intact a
reputation for veraCity can relate
only to his friends. tits as true as
gospel, but it is so strange and un-
accountable that it sounds like a
reporters fake. 1t occurred way
back in 81. We were camped
near Lookout Mountain. 1t was
the day before the battle of Mis-
sionary ride, In one of the com
mands was a handsome young
lieutenant from Carroll county,
Georgia. | cannot for the life of
me remember his name, but | re-
member distinctly how he looked.
He was a gallent, spirited, intel
ligent fellow.
On the afternoon before the bat
tie he received box from home.
He had wife and five children
and each of them sent some little
remembrance. Among the con-
tents was neat suit of clothes.
The Lieutenant promptly and JOY
fully entered his tent and donned
his new suit. When he emerged
with it on, his face wore a worried
look, and in surprise, we asked
the cause of his anxiety. Boys,
said he, you all know that | am
no coward nor sensationalist, but
somehow the moment put this
suit on realized that | would
never live to wear the creases out
of it, am as certain to be killed
in to-morrow's fight as that to-
morrow comes We. attempted
to ridicule his notion, but he con-
tinued so serious in his belief that
we desisted and left him to figure
himself into better humor. His
mind not having by the next morn
ing, his company insisted on his
not entering the fight in the face
OF his strange conviction. The
Captain of his company was absent
however, and the Lieutenant posi-
lively refused to stay out, saying
an officer should lead his men
whenever and wherever his duty
called him. At the head of the
company he plunged that day into
the thickest of the fight. My com
pany was near his. Almost at the
same instant each of our bodies
caught bullet. We We're carried
to the side and placed near each
other under a tree. 1t was evil
dent the yong Lieutenants predic-
ton was soon to be fulfilled
Twenty minutes after he was shot
he died.
But now comes the strangest
part Of the story. the part which
4nost affected me, and the part
which hesitate always to relate.
In the last moments of the young
soldiers life, why he was lying
there dying with his head in the
Zap Of a comrade, | hear his moan:
MY poor wife and FIVE little chill
dren, What will become of them?'
He died few minutes aiterward-
Just at the noon hour.
"My wound was not serious and
| was out again in couple Of days.
As | was limping around the young
Georgia soldier in whose arms
Lieutenant - had died ran up
to me and inquired if had com
municated the fact of the soldiers
death TO his wife. | replied that
had not; that | did not know even
the name or residence OF the un-
fortunate man and only had few
hours camp acquaintance with him
Read this, he said, handing me a