The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1900-03-09
BATTLE TRAGEDIES.
OFFICERS WHO HAVE BEEN KILLED
BY THEIR OWN MEN.

That Were Inspired by Malice or n
Spirit of Revenge-Marshal Bazaine
Nearly Met This Fate.
Tragic indeed is every incident con-
nected with the battlefield, but more so
are some of the mysterious occurrences
which have ofttimes taken place during
a campaign and which might be put
down as cold blooded murders. 1t seems a
very unlikely thing that in the heat of a
hard fought conflict the origin of Il mans
death can be dctermincd-tha is to say,
whether he died by the hands of one of
his comrades or by those of the enemy;
consequently men with q grievance
against their officers have often made
use of such opportunities to wipe off old
scores and have gone undiscovered.
A notable instance of this occurred just
before the battle of Woerth i'll the Fran
co-Prussian war. A certain officer of con-
siderable repute had got himself gener-
ally disliked by his perseverance in bully
ing those under him. A few days before
this, the first great battle of the war,
when the French were nearing the border
in their hopeless endeavor to reach Ber-
lin, a rumor ran through the camp late
at night that the Prussians were ad-
vancing and would shortly be up. In
stantly pandemonium reigned, and scout
ing parties were sent out in all directions.
One of these was under the officer in
question, and when some way from camp
was fired upon, the bullet bringing him
down. The Frenchmcn, thinking they had
got into an ambush, retired, firing at an
invisible foe as they did so, but as no
counter shots were received they grew
courageous again and, after being re-en-
forced, advanced to the fatal spot. The
body of the officer was found but not so
that of his assailant, who had evidently
escaped unScathed.
On returning to the camp it was found
that no trace of the enemy had been dis
covered. In fact, at that time the Prus-
slams were far away from the spot on the
other side of the Woerth. Accordingly n
post mortem examination was held on the
officers body and French service bullet
extracted therefrom, but the murderer
was never detected, although he was
doubtless in the camp and had slipped
out unawares to commit the crime.
But this is only one Of the many TRACE
dies which took place during the war,
and it is said that at least per cent Of
the French officers killed fell by the
hands of their own men and n little over
half that number in the Prussian army.
In the former instance the crimes were
due for the most part to the national fail
ing of never forgetting grievance and in
the latter to the rigidity of discipline,
which sometimes amounts to bullying.
Even Marshal Bazaine was nearly muir
dered before he capitulated Mt Metz. He
was by no means popular man, and on
this account always stood in dread of the
assassin, and his fears were not lessened
when q plot was discovered to put poison
in his food, the scheme being Matched by
his own men. The offenders, or some
Of them, were promptly tried and shot
before many hours were over.
A rather sad case is recorded in con-
nection with the Italian disaster at ADO
wah. During the melee a man was seen
to shoot in the direction of his captain,
who at the same time fell MORALLY
wounded. When the battle was over, the
man was charged with the crime and,
after a scant trial, shot by his comrades,
despite his protests of innocence, one Of
the chief reasons for his condemnation
being that he was known to have n griev-
ance against the officer. Nevertheless
the affair was soon forgotten till some
nine months afterward, when a soldier
came forward from the same regiment,
self charged with the crime. He related
the facts in detail, giving his motive as
petty tyranny on the part of the officer
some years previously, when he, the
murderer, was recruit, and stated that
he would never have given himself up
had not another man died In his stead.
81, e, l.,
and he persisted in the prison yard at Ma
pies.
In 1890 three Spanish soldiers were OK
ecuted at Madrid for the alleged murder
of an officer during the hostilities in Gu
ba, although the evidence against them
was very ncager. Sufficient was it that
subsequent to the battle of San Juan the
officer was found dead some way from
the battlefield, with a Mauser bullet in
his brain, and the three men referred to
were seen in the vicinity at about the
time the affair must have taken place.
OF course, they may have been justly
condemned, as tragedies of this nature
We're especially frequent in the Spanish
army throughout the war, but at the
same time the authorities failed to take
into account that there were many so
called loyal" Cubans attached to the
Spanish forces and also present at San
Juan who had been given Mauscr rifles
and ammunition by their oppressors, but
whose dislike to Spanish officers was pro-
verbal.
Although such crimes are more COM
mon iii the majority of continental ar
mics than in our own, We must not i'm
agine that similar cases have never taken
place in which Tommy Atkins has partic-
ipatcd. In the Zulu war, just prior to
the battle of Ulundi, young lieutenant
in one of the line regiments was found
shot some way from camp, and after the
campaign a soldier ON his deathbed at
Davenport confessed to having been his
murderer.
Similarly, too, during the hostilities in
the Sudan in 1885 an officer of some re-
pute was found to have been mysterious
ly killed by an English bullet, and, al
though the affair was hushcd up and put
down to the dervishes, who were said
to have obtained some British rifles by
inexplicable means, it was subsequently
disclosed that, whereas they actually did
gain possession Of some of our rifles, they
obtained no ammunition with them. De-
spite this significant fact, however, the
Perpetrator Of the crime was never ar
rested.-London Tit-Bits.