The Wilmington daily Republican. (Wilmington, Del.) 1890-1902, 1897-04-10
CAPTAIN HALLER.

who sat at little table in the snug corne
Of a cafe near the Army building in White
hall street, comfortably slipping their tod
dy, smoking and talking over the OLE
times, but every one of them had smellet
powder and heard the scream of shells
and they We're living over again the day
tales that each one told.
"You will find, )" said Captain Havelook
white haired veteran, who had served
through the war Of tho rebellion and
nearly score Of the Indian campaigns fol
lowing 1t, lone entry among those In the
largo army register which runs as follows
:" Halter, George. Born in Prussia, ap.
pointed from army second lieutenant Fiji.
tenth infantry, 23d December, 1864; first
lieutenant, 2sd December, 1854. Trans.
ferred to Twenty fourth infantry e1st Sep
TENDER, 1855; captain. 10th July, 1868.
Transferred to Eleventh infantry e5tl,
April, 1859. Died 8th June, $780,
ut Is like many another entry in that
register, which embraces the names of all
officers who have ever held regular COM
missions. And you may wonder how 1t is
that I remember 1t all so distinctly. I
will tell you" .-
Here the old soldier paused, blew cloud
of smoke from his cigar toward the cell
Ing, looked around the table at the other
old veterans who had just listened to
| story from Lieutenant -- of the kill
Ing of Black Bill Bickersteth, Texan
desperate, and then went on.
"'Died 8th June, 1862, SO the register
says, but this may or may not be correct.
No one SO far as l know Is alive now to
tell just where George Halter did die. I
myself fixed the date In the register from
the best evidence could collect, but that
Is all. do know this, however, that after
serving II gallant and meritorious' four
years, rising from the ranks to captaincy,
George Haller, one of the bravest, truest
men that ever fought under the flag, was
dragged to death at the heels of horses by
fends In human guise. The mystery of
his death was never wholly laid bare, but
parts Of 1t were disclosed, and his whitened
bones were brought to my quarters in
gunny sack. But, Lord bless me- am
pulling the trigger ahead of time. l have
never told tho story BEFORE and the cir
oumstances are known to few besides my
self
Like Lieutenant -, was one of
bnc uHiOFbuudto ueVllS eXlleu TO IeXuS
shortly after the close Of the war and was
sent with my company--I was captain,
then, Just promoted-to the capital Aus
tin. We were canped In tents on bluff
outside the town, overlooking the Colo
RADIO river, and had large post-that is,
our force consisted Of half dozen troops
Of cavalry and eight companies of infantry,
the idea being that in case of trouble in
the surrounding country we could. sond
out detachments sufficiently largo to put
stop to it. There was trouble enough,
the Lord knows-horse stealing, cattle
stampeding, plunderings, murders and
what not. So that we had our hands full
most'of the time. .,'r,.
''About u month after we had estab-
lished our garrison-that is, about the
middle Of May, 1869, ono day there limped
into camp distressed looking negro, with
blistered feet and a haunted expression Of |
face that was pitiable.
" Fo do good Lo'd's sake, he pleaded |
with our commander, sen ev'ry Union
man yo' alls got hyar up to Camern. Gus
Lightfoot an hist Is done murder'd ev'y
niger In Milan county,
mot to trouble you with the varied de-
tails of the darky's story told In the Pc
culiar dialect of the race and plentifully
interspersed with prayers and oaths i'm
partially distributed, we learned from him
that Gus Lightfoot, daring young des-
perado, who had for some time terrorized
Milan county just as the lieutenant's
friend Bickersteth did McClemnan, had
only the Sunday previous perpetrated pc
culiarly atrooious crime and had conduct
ed q wholesale butchery Of defenseless no.
groes at Cameron aided by dozen choice
spirits, which he had gathered about him
This butohery, according to our sable
friend, had taken place while the little
Methodist church In the village was crowd.
ed with blacks who had gathered to attend
the funeral Of one of their number. Light.
foot had arranged his plans systematically.
for while the services were In progress ono
Of his gang had fastened the church door
to prevent exit and the others had taken
up positions at the windows thus com.
the interior
"On signal the entire band began
their revolvers into the terror.
stricken mourners, causing an indescrib.
able scene. Some 20, the courier said. had
been shot to death, men and women, and
10 many more wounded. He himself had
escaped from the church, leaving his wifc's
dead body lying there, where it might be
yet for ali be knew He had walked dav
md night until he had reached Austin,
where he had heard there were soldiers,
md that was all except that he assured US
hat all the blacks in the country would
reed burying If we did not hurry men to
he scene,
while the story Impressed us we could
hardly credit the facts-we were new to
Texas then. So 1t was not deemed neces.
airy to send force Of men to Cameron,
which lay some 90 miles northeast of US,
NTH more was learned Some were for
ending part Of company or small de.
.,hrnont =, u,,,.,t., =. =. a.
oint that 1.an.a Ismas ..on ~ was s az 'n,S
:, ia s.,,,.sS ~ al 'S'Ppeu AL VERY.
i, ,aaa VI, s m1, s",a no, .has Ihele 10
" ~ 800 Va =, nuii! ny on io' u ineh oa
,har. ~ ~ ~ t.s ~, VI Nv , .np',S'.Ce
IT,. t w. "iy ~ al, very u1C,e III Ihis
,n nht.no S'0 ~, t,s nas pronaoiy peen
ieu'onea' anu MS ihiaBinaoioh mas run I