The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-07-13
OF
WASH|NGT ON
A Woman With a Sad
History.
WAS ONCE IN LIBBY
Life Story of Mrs. John B. Ricketts,
Who Had Many Stirring
Adventures.

| those who witnessed the great drama of
| the Civil War none occupied a more
| unique position than did Mrs. James B.
Ricketts,, the widow of the distinguished
| Union general, who, after a prolonged
absence in California, has resumed her
| place in Washington society. Keeping
| almost constantly by her husbands
side, she saw the conflict bereft of the
glamour which distance lends. and for
more than six months was an inmate oe
| Libby prison, being the only woman
ever confined there. Mrs. Ricketts, is
native of Elizabeth, n. j., and through
her mother is allied to the historic Liv-
| ingstons of that State. Her maternal
great-grandfather was Peter Living
ston, and he and his brother Philip were
signers of the Declaration of Indepen-
dence, while another brother, William,
was the first Governor of New Jersey.
position which, under the title of ''the
Patriotic Governor" he held for fifteen
years. Through her father, John Sharp
Lawrence of the Royal navy, who took
| part in the battle of Trafalgar, she
traces her lineage to Sir Robert Law
| renee, a crusader, one of whose de-
scendants married progenitor of Gen
eral Washington, connection explain
| ing the fact, often commented upon by
| American visitors to English cemeteries
of the Lawrence arms being Quartered
with those of the Washingtons. An
other descendant, Sir Henry Lawrence,
the ancestor of the Lawrences of Long
Island, was a neighbor and friend of
Oliver Cromwell and the president of
his council.
FOLLOWED WOUNDED HUSBAND.
After her marriage, in 1855, Mrs. Rick
etts accompanied her husband to the
Texas frontier, where for five years
she lived in tents or adobe houses, con-
sisting of two rooms, and saw none of
her own sex but Mexicans and Indians.
In the spring of 1861 Captain Ricketts,
was ordered to Fortress Monroe, and
upon the secession of the Southern
States was detailed to Washington,
where his wife joined him, running the
gauntlet of the batteries on the Po-
tomac in a gunboat. When ordered to
Alexandria she rode with him to that
point, mounted upon a caisson, remain
ing there until after the first battle OF
Bull Run, during which Captain Rick
etts was three times wounded, and, be-
ing reported killed was left on the field
and became prisoner of war. Three
{ days later, with a pass obtained from
! General Winfield Scott, and driver as
her only companion, Mrs. Ricketts, made
: her way through the lines to the scene
of the late encounter where in build
ing situated upon the battle ground,
and owned by a descendant of Law
renee Lewis (Washington's nephew)
and beautiful Nellie CuStiS, she found
: her husband, together with five other
[ wounded officers.
s The mother of Mr.. Lewis. who took
. refuge in the cellar during the engage
a ment, was killed by the explosion OF a
r shell and the building was so mutiiated
l. by these missiles that only one small
e room could be spared for their accom-
y mediation, the narrow quarters neces-
l. stating all lying upon the floor, with
; the exception of Captain Ricketts,, who.
e desperately wounded and unconscious,
e occupied the stretcher upon which he
had been borne from the field.
o The rest of the wounded had been car
L ried into Sudley Church, across from
y these, and between the two stretched
u an emerald carpet upon which We're
's CHASTITY figures of dead men in every
- attitude of final struggle. left just as
~ they had fallen by their companions in
= the tumult of hurried retreat
re- A DYING SERGEANT'S REQUEST.
it On the first evening after her arrival
n a messenger came to Mrs. Ricketts, from
er this point, saying that her husband 8
In orderly, who was dying, wished to SPEAK
re to her, and, escorted by him, she set
out across the battle ground 1t was an
,e exquisite night and in the moons weirO
~ light with it's strange shadows and par
20 tial disclosures, the dreadful field as
IL sumed a mysterious awfulneSs, awak
III ening sense of the supernatural and
n filling the mind with vague. super
is stitious horror. But the scene whici
.e awaited them in the church, as pro-
u claiming the presence of suffering, was
y. more dreadful still. Extended upor
-, =, benches and crowding the floor Of pew
= - and aisle were wounded men, moaning
with pain or raving in delirium, while
within the chancel railing the ceaSeless
work of the surgeon went on, victim
lying stretched upon the altar, pa
thetic sacrifice to cruel, Unsuitable war
Making her way through the prostrats
d figures to the spot indicated by hel
guide, Mrs. Ricketts, knelt beside th'
dying sergeant. He had been sho
o. through the lungs, and as she ben
j. her ear to his lips he whispered family
of Put your hand under my head;
have something there that / want yol
n to give to my wife.
ne She did as she was desired, the care
n fully insinuated hand coming in con
on tact with a hard substance. Upon ex
animation it proved to be a $40 gol'
nd piece, so closely tied in the hair tina
p the lock Itself had to be severed in or
u der to free it. 1t had been placed ther
IL on the evening before the battle by II
no owner who sought thus to protect
ke from the human yultureS eagerly wait