The Forrest City times., 1902-05-30
MEANS A DEAD MAN
How the Name, ssPeterp. to Have That Significance .aa'
 the Army.

,,,aln. @ln garrison "a 5a life Peter Don.,.
 means q dead man-that is DSouglas not really, dead" observed oo.lcially, officer to Washington Star ~n army 1t had it's origin at For, ., ,eporter quarter of century or naSe nroes though there are number at ago, who knew the original .pete, = =. V,ncers a number more who knev ,1,e ,u quitt
 regard to his case. One of ,L ,dcSh officers of the artillery sery;oa 'eaa9s
 then a lieutenant. was sent fnog1E
 ernor's Island, in New Vol. IANs'
 to Fort Monroe with q dataat Hd'@
 19 soldiers. They came dorn. 'inen't
 and the first night out the soi5; " sea on to barrel of fine whistan ane.S got was in the hold. and by tbs s;s "hieh gimlet and some straws ,h o ot the 10 men were in very bgos; oss o' condition before midnight. On ,t. 'o4 ond night out some of them " the barrel again, and in I sbor. ,,
 they were again intoxicated Nu tIS buiioei was Peter Dougl,s.
 When the time came for them ,a, ''@@ at Fort Monroe Peter DoucIas...s@
 not be found. It was generally t...r
 he had fallen overheard. or wga'r s'
 toxicated, had jumped overbo.s
 Anyhow, the lieutenant turned ..
 but IS men. He reported Peter no,. las as having been drowned. and n.
 record was made accordingly. Ina. days afterward. when the shin ,l., brought the party down was unlo,a ing some freight at Charleston sr
 Peter Douglas crawled out of thabop looking somewhat the worse for h. experience. After bracing up, he m., aged to work his way up 10 Fort No,. roe. where he supposed he would ioi, his company, but on presenting him. self to the officer in command ther4b. was told that. as the record there had shown that Peter Douglass had be., drowned. they were required to ron. sider him dead. even if he was mi dead. Douglass admitted that he WAS pretty nearly dead. but that he had managed to pull through. Anyhow. .bs was not admitted to the quarters in the garrison, and was told that he had better move along; that he was out O, the army as surely as he had ever been in if. But Peter did not % far away. That evening he met some of l. I ( E.
 Governors island. and they celebrated his coming to life in a true soldierly manner. The celebration wound upin the guardhouse there. as did the cee. orators. The record of the guard. house the next morning showed that, though Peter Douglass had been re. ported dead q few days before. he was very much alive. Two days afterward the names of the four were sent to the officer in command as preliminary to having them court martialed and pun ished for disorderly conduct and other violations of the law of the garrison The officer, who was a strong advocate of the power of record. ruled. that, as Peter Douglass had never entered the garrison. he could not be court-mar- tialed. and that, in fact. Peter Doug. lass was dead beyond resurrection He was, therefore. turned out and again told to move on. but as he did not re- alize that he was dead he did not do so. He hung around the garrison for some time, but finally wandered away and got back to New York. Officially he has remained dead ever since. for the record has never been changed. The officers preferred to let him re- main dead and out of the army than to try to reform him by court-marhal' for he seemed to be beyond reform.