The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1900-02-17
SEEKING MISSING SOLDIERS


In the whole copious realm Of lit
erature dealing with our wars, big
and little, it is rather surprising that
there should be only one passing men.
ton made of the fact that periodically
tens of thousands of circulars and
handbills are issued by the relatives
of supposedly dead young soldiers in
the ranks asking for detailed &C
count of the last moments of the
slain.
The writer has seen many of these
circulars that have not only been cir
culated in the regiment to which the
dead or missing man belonged, but
have in certain cases been given to
every surviving soldier of the particu-
lar campaign in which he was en-
gagged. One of these latter handbills
was periodically issued, literally by
the hundred thousand, over period
covering ten years. 1t related to q
young private of high connections,
whose real name was Gordon, but who
had enlisted in the name of BRASIL.
He was reported as missing" and it
is an army tradition that something
like e 10000 was spent by his mother
on advertisements and inquiries in all
parts of the world, regular army OF
non-commissioned officers of certain
regiments-who never asked for and
sometimes declined taking penny
receiving tips" for making strenuous
inquiries among Sepoys.
Some of these circulars that have
related to men killed in very early
engagement of a long-continued cam
paign have followed the dead man't
comrades who participated in and sur
vived the same action to the most out
landish places, where our troop
seemed cut off from the whole world:
and, in one case, a slender and deli.
cate looking middle-aged woman her
self bore her circular of inquiry into
the very heart of Burmah.
AS the handbills that go with the
tardy and scanty mail to isolated bod.
les of troops, here is an actual one
that in 1879, just before the battle Ct
Ulundi, arrived at the camp Of "Con.
ference HILL" in Zululand, when our
troops were waiting to advance on
the savage King Cetewayo. In texture
and printing the bill is only of the
sort that is given away by thousands
IN our streets; in its text it affords
clear view of what many OF
these momentous and really vivid cir.
,ulars are like.
1t is notable that in this handful nc
particular regiment-the man really
belonged to the Twenty-fourth-o
'egimental number is specified, nor
loes the advertiser insult the dead |
mans comrades by offering and sem
dance of a gratuity. But how ter.
IDLY the tragedy ofIsandlwana, where
'ur brave fellows miscalculated the /
trength of the teeming thousands OF
.ulus, who chased them for miles, is
Indicated in such graphic clauses as
he second! ibid he escape the car.
age and get to that river where sc
many were cut down? Or was he With
he poor remnant which depended on
he bayonet alone, and which fought
o the last gasp?"
These circulars are, in all the seem.
ng simplicity CT few lines of print
UGH as we at home are accustomed
D associate with lost bracelet, most
irid reminders of the horrors of war,
DR. there is dreadful particularly
I information asked for. The Soudau
reduced whole sheaf of them. and
l each one occurs the dreadful ques.
on: WAS he mutilated?v
The writer can state on the best
rmy authority that in the case of one
our brave ones who died at Maiuba
ill, and about whom the most ex.
licit information was subsequently,
skcd, the reply of comrade wa.
rat the dead man shot himself rath.
: than be taken or surrender. And
ave not many alleged that even Gen.
If Pomeroy Colley himself died BY
is own hand?
VI course many such circulars are
sued to British troops everywhere
'rtain of them have been repeated at
tervals for years-in regard to miss
e men who have never been in &C.
on in their lives, and one of these.
hich has again and again been re.
lated, and which palpably relates tc
me "neer-do-weel," states that the :
opposed private is ''given much tc
ink wherever he is" A copy of il
as seen posted at Aldershot only
Mail.