The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1898-11-05
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had begun
The loneliness was more intense than
ever at the fort. Five troopers and a lieu
tenant had been left to guard the property
aud the women, and they were the only
signs of life down around the quarters and
! the stables. The lieutenant was mOrose
aud gloomy that he should have been
selected as the one to remain behind and
was NOS accounted much company to the
women the first few days, but gradually
he became Teconcied to his fate and sat
with them every evening and talked Of the
probable length OF absence of the men and
discussed the improbablitg Of action.
They sent once week for the mail. The
first letters and papers brought word that
the four troops had joined their regiment,
and the lette we're filled with gossip a bout
the officers and their families, for a regiment
is naught but one large family. Then
came days of watching AMI waiting and
the next was the movement of troops to
Santiago.
Then the women knew that the war had
begun in earnest. The full realization of
it came home to them. The older women
remembered when it was nothing for their
husbands to be ordered out TO suppress the
Indians, while one or two remembered the
civil war but there was nothing of that
kind for the lie of the second lieutenant
to remember She carried herself bravely
however, and proudly said that she was the
should he brave, a remark that greatly
pleased the others
The women learned more about her now
that her husband was not present to mono
police all her time. They learned that she
was qnite alone in the world, except for
him that she was an orphan and that the
aunt who had AIRED her had died. This
increased their sympathy for her, if that
were possible, for she had their sympathy
already. They could see that her thoughts
were all of her husband, but if they en-
deavored to speak words of comfort to her
she replied, " | am soldiers wife"
The news travelled slowly to them. That
perhaps was the hardest. Their husbands
might have been in battle and have been
wounded or killed; the four troops might
he wiped out and it would be fully week
before they would know it. When the
papers did arrive, there was a hurried
glance at the beadliness and then for the
regimental head.
The battle Of Santiago had been tele-
graphed undersea and overland and the
papers had come out with the particulars
under display headlines. 1t was Just a
week after that the papers reached the fort.
The trooper brought them in the evening
and delivered them 10 the women, sitting
under the cottonwood trees that skirted
the parade ground. The wife of the second
Ii eutenant had gone for walk and was
not with them. A cry burst from the
white lips of the women. The headlines
told them that their men had been in the
thick of the fight. They glanced down the
columns, read the account and of the deeds
of bravery of their men. They read the
list of the dead and wounded.
The wife of the second lieutenant came
up to them. She saw the papers lying on
the laps OF the women she glanced at their
faces. She read the truth.
There has been battle 2" she said
interrogatively.
"Yes, - said one OF the women.
"And Robert 2" she asked.
ole was in the thick of the fight, lead
his men on and cheering them," answered
one of her companions. "The papers speak
of his courage and bravery; how he strug-
gled on in the face of the deadly fire, en-
couraging his men. Some of the men fell,
but with cheer on his lips for him, an
then came an awful cross fire."
She looked out over the plain, the moon.
light changing the grease wood and sage
brush into shadows and Transforming the
beds of alkali into shining waves Of silver.
81 knew he was brave" she said, land
he was wounded ?"
Eyes; very severely, and'-the woman's
voice broke.
There was the sound Of sobbing, and one
OF the women arose and gently placed her
arm about the waist of the younger
woman.
my dear'-began one OF them.
She drew away and unwound the arm
about her. Her face was terribly drawn.
Gam l not a soldiers widow?' she
asked
Then she turned and walked slowly into
her house.