The copper country evening news. [volume] (Calumet, Mich.) 18??-1907, 1897-06-23
A QUEER ADJUTANT.
AN ARMY INCIDENT RELATED BY A
RETIRED OFFICER.


pers, remarked the retired army Off
Ger, referring to something he bad been
saying as the reporter joined the group
1T must have happened 1000 miles
from printing press or IA postoffice
then, ventured the reporter, who has
an idea that everything worth knowing
is to be found in the newspapers.
Il was just on the point of telling a
story" said the officer, "of peculiar
happening which occurred some twenty
odd years ago in Montana. To make it
a bit clearer, may say for the benefit
Of those not posted on military matters
that the country is divided for military
purposes into departments and districts,
having major general, let us say, in
command of department and some
subordinate i'll command of the district.
In the department are several districts,
and in the district are several posts, the
post commanders being of still lower
rank. In this instance colonel had
been given the district of Montana, and,
as was customary, he had appointed the
adjutant of his regiment, West Point
er, by the way as his acting assistant
adjutant general, whose chief duty it
was to promulgate the orders of his
chief. said orders always being signed,
Colonel Blank, district commander;
Lieutenant Blank, acting assistant ad
jutant general, and it was obligatory,
of course, upon any one in the jurisdic-
tion of Colonel Blank to obey these or
ders without question.
AS time moved on under the new
commander and his A. A. A. G.. we be-
gan to notice that the adjutant had
queer spells and acted strangely, but it
was not quite enough to cause alarm,
and we gave it no great amount OF
thought until one day he left the post
with detail of men, four mule team
hauling their stuff and driving along
with them lot of government horses
and mules. The colonel commanding
had left the day before for st. Paul to
attend q court martial, and the officer in
command during his absence had moth
ing to say, because the adjutant showed
him the orders of the district command
er to the effect that he take such de-
tail and the stock and go on an expedi-
tion to the south to deliver them at an
other post. That's all any of us at the
post knew, and, whatever we may have
thought of it, it was none of our bust
ness to question orders which were as
plain and regular as apparently were
those the adjutant was acting on.
NEARLY three weeks after the adju.
tant's departure the detail of men and
| their four mule team returned to the
post in command of the sergeant, who
reported that he had been ordered by
| the adjutant to return to the post with
| the men and team and he would report
| later. This was the extent of the official
| report, but some of us concluded we
| would make some further inquiry,
| which developed the rather startling
fact that the adjutant had proceeded
south for two weeks at very leisurely
| pace, selling as he went along to any
! one who would purchase at any price
| he could get the horses and mules he
| had with him iii his train, and he had
kept going as long as his stock lasted
| As soon as the supply was exhausted the
detail was ordered back to the post.
ION this information the colonel, OH
his return few days later, made an in
vestigation of the adjutant's books and
papers and of those officers who had
furnished him with all he took away
with him, and it was discovered that
every man who had anything in charge
that the adjutant wanted to complete
his expedition could show proper or
der for the same duly signed by the dis
trict commander and by the acting as
sistant adjutant general. Every thing
was done regularly, and of course every
subordinate who had received any orders
from the adjutant had FASTENED to obey,
until all he needed had been turned
over to him and the whole had been
duly authenticated. Nor was it forgery
exactly, for the adjutant was very near
~ acting within his powers as far as
signing his chiefs name was concerned,
anyhow.
"Then the colonel and everybody else
made an effort to find the adjutant,
who had disappeared as completely as
if the earth had swallowed him. Moth
ing came of it, however, and his army
and home friends had given the case up
in despair, when one day at post in
Arizona, nearly two years afterward,
the lieutenant who had just arrived at
the post met an enlisted man some
where about the place who seemed like
some one he knew. He watched the
man for a few minutes and then went
after him. He at once called the soldier
by the name Of the adjutant, who had
been his classmate at the academy, and
the adjutant responded. but could only
vaguely explain why he had disappeared
and, stranger still, why he had gone
back into the army as private soldier.
OF course the lieutenant at once had an
investigation set on foot, which result
ed in a private hearing, which further
resulted in the squelching of the case
ON the ground of mental alteration and
the return of the demented man to his
home.
"At last accounts, which was two
years ago, he was still living, and
though not TO say crazy, was beyond