Williston graphic. (Williston, Williams County, N.D.) 1895-1919, 1901-08-08
PADDY CRAFTS "PULL."
Wen BY Himself in Front Of Peters.
burg and Il Made Him
ssSOliA,n

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tearing down the old wooden shacks
which IL years ago sheltered the two
companies Of the Sixth infantry which
were Jumped" to Chicago at the time
Of the hanging of the anarchists. The
old guardhouse, Jail only in name, the
commissary building and the shaky
pine barracks have gone. There still
stands, however, though its doom is
sealed, the little one-story, two-room
structure which served as the quarters
of Capt. David L. Craft, Sixth United
States infantry. When the pigmy
building tumbles there will have dis
appeared everything on earth save an
insignificant little headstone in Q
Pennsylvania cemetery to remind one
that such person as David L. Craft
ever. lived. Remembrance of this plain,
blunt soldier should not be allowed to
die. The old description fits him we'll:
he was the bravest of the brave. The
wreath placed on his grave Memorial
day should be made of immortelies,
says the Chicago Record-Herald.
When the workmen finished putting
up the shacks at Fort Sheridan the
quartermaster looked over the little
building assigned to Capt. Craft and
said: HE can never get into it," The
captain weighed something more than
300 pounds, and as matter of fact he
fitted his quarters as plump hand
does = glove. Craft was never known
as anything else except paddy" to
the men of his regiment, save, Of
course, when they were addressing
him. Why this descendant of the Penn
sy1vania Dutch should have been
dubbed Paddy no one ever knew, but
to the men it was a name of endear-
ment. The physical infirmity of too
much solid flesh weighed more on the
captains mind than it did on his
framework of bones. He was only
brevet captain, and his fear was that
his burden of flesh would force him to
the retired list before he reached the
full rank of company commander.
Three times ''Paddy" was ordered be-
fore retiring board of surgeons for
examination, and three times he de-
feated the attempt to put him on the
shelf. When at drill every order of
,''double time" meant that Paddy, who
could not stand the pace, must fall out.
This in itself was a disqualification
for service, and the wonder grew
among those who did not know that
paddy" held his own on the active
list. An explanation can be found in
five lines of an old army record which
made Craft brevet captain for bit
of almost unparalleled heroism.
One day in front of Petersburg a
second lieutenant of the signal corps
was ordered to the top of a hill with
two eompanions to transmit flag
messages sent him by one general Of
icer to another in the valley beyond.
Craft was a giant. His herculean
frame was silhouetted against the
sky, and as his flags wig-wagged
back and forth the enemy in the
trenches caught sight of him full and
fair. A battery of artillery was
trained on the place held by the sig
nal men. It took but minute to get
the range. A shell struck within a
few yards of the fagmen. Another
came, and one of the little party was
dead and another was dying. Craft
alone stood uninjured. The signal
flag which fell from the hand of his
subordinate was held aloft in his own.