Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1901-01-31
A SOLDIERS VISION {
COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY c. ,. LEWIS.
BY M. Quad.


For a period of three weeks along
the front of our brigade a picket had
been murdered on his post every night
The from. was mile long, with the
posts within ten rods Of each other,
and n bushwhacker had crept up on
the lone picket with all the craft of an
Apache and stabbed him to death. The
one assassin had killed % men before
any great stir was made about it. The
brigade was being equipped for the
spring campaign, many changes were
taking place among the officers, and
the murder of a few pickets did not
count for much in the general confu
sion. All that was done when the mat
ter was finally taken hold of was to
put two. three and four men on post
in place of one ana 10 send out small
scouting parties to look for needle in
a haystack, rs it were.
That all these murders had been
committed by one single hand no one
doubted. 4 knife had been used tn
every instance. The murderer had crept
up in the darkness, leaving n trail be
hind him in some cases. In no case
had he struck over two blows, and the
surgeons said that he had always used
the same knife. Sometimes his victim
had made a brief struggle or cried ont
or fired his musket and sometimes had
lived Il few hours after the attack. If
you wonder that a soldier on picket
could thus be craftily approached and
done to death. let me tell you that m
only few cases were the posts in the
open They were under the trees, in
the midst of a wood. on the edge Of old
fields grown up to briers and weeds,
alor gside Of Il creek, the babbling Of
which would drown all other noises. A
man was posted there to stand still
not % walk TO and fro. He might have
participated in half a dozen battles and
made record for bravery. but Within
half an hour after being left alone on
the post his nerves were more or less
unstrung. The very darkness and lone
illness would do that. He might finally
lean his back against tree or sit
down, and he might keep eyes and
ears on the strain. and yet he could be
approached,
On the night that the order was is
sued to double the men on the posts I
was i'll in my tent with Il sore throat
and fever. My tent mates were on
guard or detail, and | realized that l
was light headed. | could not fall into
n sound sleep, but | doZed at intervals
and the noises of the camp were con-
fused with queer dreams. or sud
den this confusion cleared away, and ]
had what you call either a dream or u
vision. l saw man in the uniform OF
a federal captain, mounted on dark
bay horse ride up to a farmhouse.
The face and form of rider and horse
were as plain to me as If had seen
them in my normal state of health at
MONDAY. The captain was a man Of
about 80, blue eyed, with brown hair.
brown muStache and n front tooth
filed with gold. At the corner Of the
inflicted years before.
AS the officer descended from the
saddle and hitched his horse to the
fence | saw woman's face at the win
dow for a moment The same face was
seen again for moment as she opened
the door for the captain She was a
tall, dark haired woman, and the face
bore q smile. II seemed to me that |
stood and watched the horse for the
next quarter of an hour. The animal
cAewed at the fence rail. broke down
a small bush with his hind feet and
paved deep hole in the earth in his
impatience.
As uddgnly as tie vision came it was
blotted out, but ii returned again. This
time the captain was mounted and il
was night. 1t was the same horse and
he wanted to speed too fast and was
pulled in. ! could not make out how
followed ON. but follow l did and we
had just descended n hin and were
crossing creek by n plank bridge
when there came n red fash. followed
by the report Of a tirearm. and the cap
t7in threw up his arms aud lurched to
the right and fell out Of the saddle.
The BOISE spsauE to The left oil the
bridge which had no railing. landed in
the creek and went OF among the I'm
lerbrush. ! saw that tho officer WIS
NNlAS HEuEStu dloA- Win MS t0Ot III
the stirrup. also saw the man who
had fired the shot lie was tall. gaunt
faced, with long black bair and gilt.
.ering black eyes. and dressed in the
rough clothes " 8 farmer He looked
he typical hushwhacker. He at once
started after the horse. and as he
capped from tho end Of the bridge to
he earth below be struck in soft soil
and pitched forward on his face.