The Savannah morning news., 1900-06-17
SLAIN BY THEIR OWN SOLDIERS.
Officers Who Die in Battle From
Bullets Fired From Rear.
From London Tit-Bits.

From London Tit-Bits.
Tragic indeed is every incident connect
ed with the battlefield. but more so are
some of the mysterious occurrences which
have ofttimes taken place during cam
paign, and which might be put down as
cold-blooded murders. 1t seems very
unlikely thing that in the heat of a hard
fought conflict the origin of mans death
can be determined-that is to say, wheth-
er he died by the hands of one of his
comrades or by those of the enemy con-
sequenuy men with a grievance against
their officers have often made use of such
| opportunities TO wipe off old scores and
have gone undiscovered.
notable instance Of this occurred just
before the battle of Woerth, in 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 near the border in their
/ hopeless endeavor TO reach Berlin a
rumor ran through the camp late at night
that the Prussians were advancing and
would shortly be up. Instantly pande-
mOnium reigned and scouting parties
were sent out in all directions. One of
| these was under the officer in question
and when some way from camp he was
fired upon, the bullet bringing him down.
/ The Frenchmen, thinking they had got
! into an ambush. retired. firing at an in
/ visible foe as they did so, but as no
/ counter-shots were received they grew
| coura geous again and, after being rem
/ forced, advanced to the fatal spot. The
! body of the officer was found, but not
! so that of his assailant, who had evil
| IDENTIFY escaped unscathed.
| On returning to the camp it was found
! that no trace of the enemy had been dis
| covered; in fact, al that time the Prus-
| slams were far away from the spot on the
| other side Of Woerth. Accordingly a post
norton examination was held on the Off
GERS body and a French service bullet
! was 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 many tragedies
which took place during the war, and 1t
/ is said that at least 2 per cent. of the
! French officers killed fell by the hands
| Of their own men, and little over half
! that number in the Prussian army. In the
| former instance the crimes were due for
! the most part to the national feeling of
| never forgetting grievance, and in the
latter TO, the rgidity of discipline, which
| some times amounts to bullying,
| Even Marshal Bazaine was nearly muir
| dered before he capitulated at Metz. He
! was by no means a popular man, and on
this account always stood in dread of the
| assassin, and his fears were not lessened
| when a 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 be-
fore many hours were over.
A rather sad case is forwarded in con-
nection with the Italian disaster at
Adowa. of few years ago. During the
| melee a man was seen TO shoot in the di-
rection 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 in
nocence, one of the chief means for his
condemnati ton being that he was known to
have grievance against the officer. New
ertheless the affair was soon forgotten till
some nine months efterward, when a SOL
der came forward from the same regiment
self7charged with the crime. He related
the facts in detail, giving his motive as
petty tyranny on the part of the officer
some years previous, when he, the muir
derer. was a recruit, and stated that he
would never have given himself up had
not another man died in his stead Need
less to say, this did not excuse him, and
he persisted in the prison yard of Naples
Not many months ago tire Spanish SOL
ders were executed a Madrid for TIE al
legged murder of an officer during the hos
tilities in Cuba, although the evidence
against them was meager. Sufficient was
ii 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 con-
demned, as tragedies of this nature were
especially frequent in the Spanish ormy
throughout the war, but at the same time
the authorities failed 10 take into account
that there were many so-c1led loyal
Cubans attached 10 the Spanish forces
and also present at San Juan who had
been given Mauser rifles and ammuniion
by their oppressors. but whose dislike to
Spanish officers was proverbial
Although such crimes are more common
in the ma jority of continental armies than
in our own, we must not imagine that
similar cases have never taken place in
which Tommy Atkins has participated.
In the Zulu war, just prior 10 the battle
of Ulundl a 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 mu derer
Similarly, too, during the hostilities in
the Soudan 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 huShed up and put
down 10 the dervshes, who were said 10
have obtained some British rides by mex
plicable means, it was subsequently dis ]
closed 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.
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The Higher Education.
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