Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1896-07-23
GEN. FORESTS SILVER SPURS.

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"A Much-Prized Confederate Relic Meltet
Up by a st. Louis Barber.
Ihere is lawsuit pending in judge
Dlllon's division of the circuit court tina
not only involves the intrinsic value O
famous pair of war spurs, but alst
their sentimental value as the relic of {
| great soldier, who, like Mirabeau, tram
pled on responsibilities IN his march tt
lame, says the ST. Louis Post-Dispatch
1hey are the silver spurs whose row
els SO often sunk into the TANKS of the
ccoai-Dlack charger that Lieut.-Gen. Brad
Iord Forrest rode into battle at the heaG
OF his devoted cavalry Forrest never
ordered his men to follow the lead OF
subordinate commanders; he always led
the charge and well in advance, an ex-
emDle that made his legions invincible.
ne spurs are of solid silver and were
l Ie git of number of Mississippi la
ules. hey wanted to give the general
something that if such thing were pos
slble would spur him on to more last
ing victories. Money they had not with
winch to purchase an almost priceless
PAIR, for they wished to have them of
eolo, and equally scant were they in sill
yer coins. 80
SO they decided to make collection
OF silver thimbles and have them mold
&c 100 a PAIR ol spurs. II TOOK upwards
OF IOOO, but they bought and begged
tnem until they had enough, and in their
stead they used brass thimbles, with
winch they sewed night and day to make
uniforms and other clothing for ''the
boys in the field
When Forrest died he bequeathed the
SILVER spurs to his grandson, Bedford
grandslre's war relics. and when Young
Forrest came to st. Louis from Mem
PMS to live, nearly year ago, the young
man was so careful of his prizes that he
would not risk them in his own bag
gage, but put them along with a number
OF silver spoons, knives and forks into a
package and shipped them by the Amer
lean Express company to st. Louis.
The package was prepaid and marked
10 >. Bradley. brother-in-law of
young Forrest When it arrived in St.
Louis. there being no street address on
1t. the express clerk looked into the
city directory for ''T.sJ. Bradley" Of
the first one he came to and thereby
made grievous mistake.
The t. J. Bradley picked out at the
express offlce happened to be a Journey
man barber at a Pine street shop.
Straight to that barber shop the express
delivery man drove. asked for Bradley
and was told that he was standing just
outside the door. but was no longer EN-
ployed there. The eXpressman handed
the package over to Bradley and went
away
Luck had come to the idle barber. He
opened the package, saw it's valuable
contents, but knowing full we'll they did
not belong to him, decided to appfopri-
ate them. al
Young Forrest and his brother-in-law
grew uneasy about the precious package,
and made imperative demands on the ex-
press company. An investigation re-
vealed that mistake lad been made.
and the express company set about
to recover the mementoes.y After weeks
Of searching they We're located-that is,
the metal that had composed them was.
The bogus Bradley, knowing that he
could never dispose of them i'll their
artistic shape, resolved not to be cheated
of their gross value. He melted them
in silver slugs and sold the base metal
for "a pittance to an out-of-the-Way jew
elf fins had pe,;snea from al semn,ance
of their former value the devoted gift of
band of patriotic women to one of the
South's idolized field marshals.
Young Forrest and his family were
furious and grieved at the irreparable
loss and demanded restitution in heavy
to meet it. Then followed the suit Of
Forrest against the company for $40.
600 1t was brought by Harry NJ. Hill
and the bill is an historically interesting
one. The origin of the spurs is re-
counted and SO is that Of the other high
ly-prized gifts,
the fall term. and the Forrest heirs side
of it, at least will be most interesting to
hear and will be eagerly watched by
Confederate veterans especially the fol-
lowers of the matchless Forrest.