The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-05-09
FILL BY AN0THER'S HAND.
OFF A DUEL TOLD BY A TOMB
STONE IN COLONIAL PARK.

she killing of Lieut. James Wilde In
s.,annah in 1915 Recalled by an
,,.nb supposed to Have Been
tam Inv Hon. Richard Henry
,,.-The slayer of the Young
chased From the Cemetery
lille watching the Funeral by
rnraCed Citizens.
,s,ut the center of the old South Broad
nurying ground. now known as
st stree mark" is a tombstone, the in
'Oo'0'.' an which tells the sad story CT
s =. 5aath of a young man by the hand OIL
another. 1t reads
This
Humble Stone
rocords the f1lial piety,
.,aI affection and manly virtue,
IdVei of
rAAyFcS WILDE. Esquire,
,,is+rict Paymaster IN the army Oh
ave the U. ).
He fell in duel
-. the 10th of January, lSlo'
O nv the hand OF man
~ lime before would have been
Fno friendless but for him,
10 Iil5-l instantly in his 22nd year,
anu diving as he had hVeo'
rI-a1 courage and unblemisned
Win reputation.
,n+imely death the prop OF
BY Ms Itother's age is broken,
,.,. rone and consolation OF sisters Is
Inc nv destroyed,
.,.of BROTHERS humbled in the dust,
Inc whole family happy until then
anu C..rv,bA 1med with att1lcuon.
wilde was a brother of Hon.
i-garS Henry Wide, a member OF CON
t 'lclo' rom Georgia, gentleman whose
eIe35 even at this day, sheds its light
eenlu ne literature of Georgia. The cpl
taph was douotless "ii'tSA ~
stricken brother.
stIlcA me- volume published by the Georgia
lL ~ Society on "Wildes Summer
nn,a. or the Lament of the Captive,
Rose, ,a nv the society in 1871, there is re-
ppi,aIisbed an article from the New York
pSiTror Feb. %, 1885, in which Mr.. Wilde,
-aferring to the poem, though twenty
years had passed. speaks OF his orotner'
death: -, Ill, r.oo,,,a
..,sro originally intended as part of a
No1rar noem. MY brother, the late James
wilde. was an officer Of the United States
army. and held a subaltern rank in the
evnedition of Col. John William against
the Seminole Indians of Florida, which
first broke up their towns and stopped
their atrocities. When James returned,
he amused my mother, then alive, my sis
ters and myself, with descriptions of the
orange groves and transparent lakes, the
beauty of the ST. Johns river, and of the
woods and swamps of Florida, a kind of
fairy land. of which we then knew little
except from Bertram's ecstacies, inter-
spersed with anecdotes Of his campaign
and companions. AS he had some taste
himself I used to laugh and tell him I'd
immortaze his exploits In an epic. Some
stanzas were accordingly written for the
4 amusement of the family at our meetings.
That alas. was destined never to take
place He was killed in duel. His vio-
lent and melancholy death put an end to
my poem the third stanza of the first
fragment which alludes to his fate, being
all that was written afterwards"
The omitted stanza referred to by Mr..
Wide is as follows:
t. too had once a brother; he was there
Among the foremost, bravest of the
brave;
To him this lay was. framed with fruitless
care:
Sisters for him the sigh in secret gave;
For him a mother poured the fervent
prayer.
But sigh or prayer availeth not to save
A generous victim In villains snare.
He found a bloody but inglorious grave,
And never nobler heart was racked by
baser glaive'
These extracts and inscription on the
old tombstone tell the story of the
death of the young soldier. The body was
escorted TO the grave by his fellow sol
diers followed by the people of the town,
en- masse, and it is related that while the
services were being held at the grave, the
'ayer of young Wilde was discovered
e ookng on from a distance, and only saved
bis life from the enraged people by fleeing
back to camp.
At the time of his death, Mr.. Wilde was
INST lieutenant in the Eighth United
states infantry, commanded by Col. Pat
mex Jack. This regiment was Differed by
ieorglans and South Carolinians. 1t ap-
pears from the army register that all of
NE regular regiments organized during
me war Of 1Sl2-15 were raised by or in
me several states and were differed by
ltlzens of those state. Some states furn-
shed six and others only one regiment.
MS Eighth Regiment of infantry, COM
oseu OF Georgians, it would seem, Is the
predecessor of the present Eighth United
states Infantry.