The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1902-03-27
THE MYSTERY OF MAJOR cLrTz.

Last week colonel of infantry who
has been fighting in the rice fields Of the
| Philippines for two or three years reach
ed Chicago. He met a man in the Pal
Iner House as grizzled and veteran as
himself. The colonel looked at the man
moment actually aghast. and then.
with words that came out in the disorder
o. route step, gasped: John.
heard you were dead. 1 would as soon
have thought OF meeting Clitz."
The two had been subalterns in Clitz' 5
regiment during the civil war and after.
and had loved him. Il was perhaps the
flashing thought Of an anniversary 1t
hand that sent the returned soldier :
thought 10 Major Clitz when in the re-
tunda Of the Palmer House he met the
former comrade, who he had heard was
dead The army archives bear no stranger
records than that Of this case Of General
Henry B. Clitz-he was only major.
however when he won distinction by his
gallantry- 1t is fourteen years ago now
that Major Clitz was lost Fourteen
years, but a lost man may be found after
fourteen years.
Major Henry B. Clitz, Twelfth infantry.
| Z >. A, was once dead and buried. was
alive again. was lost and-the other word
| that should naturally fit here is either
yet to be supplied or forever is TO re-
| main unwritten There are scores OF sol
| diers today. old soldiers-but once a SOL
| der always soldier-who. in the mem
DRY Of what happened after Gaines Mills
think that one day they may yet again
this side of the grave clasp the hand Of
Comrade Clitz.
Henry 3. Clitz, Of Michigan, entered
! West Point in the year 1S41. gradua ting
| four years later He was a schoolmate
Of Grant, Mcclellan, Sheridan and Burn
| side. Clitz went into the Mexican war
and won praise on the field and a brevet
| oy.l
at CerrO Gordo. Ciitz was fighter. He
! proved this fact every time he had a
chance, and during his forty-five years
Of service he had chances galore.
When the civil war had been on for a
time Clitz found himself major OF the
/ Twelfth Regulars lie was transferred TO
/ that outfit from the Third, another fight
4 ing regiment. II came along toward the
| time of Mechanicsville and Gaines Mills.
! The Twelfth and the Fourteenth were
/ lying pretty close together. When the
| Gaines Mills battle was on and wars
hurricane was at its height the Twelfth
and the Fourteenth were given position
10 hold. The two regiments were attack
ed by absolutely overwhelming numbers,
but the numbers weren't Overwhelming
for a long time. There wasn't any re-
treat in the makeup of those two regi-
ments of regular infantry The wave OF
| battle simply had TO come down on them
and engulf them. Afterward, when Gen
eral Sykes wrote a report about the
Twelfth and the Fourteenth and the fight
| that they put up, he said the ranks OF
the Twelfth were "decimated." General
Sykes had probably never studied En-
glish Lessons for English People" Tn
less things have changed decimated
means the cutting out of one in ten. This
is the way the Twelfth was "decimated."
1t went into the fight with 40 men; came
out with 200.
They say Major CIitz fought that day
as he did at Cerro Gordo, only little
moro so. The regulars lived strenuously
for an hour or two. Finally some of the
men saw Major Clitz go down. 4 big
wall Of gray was falling on them Just
then, and many others went down too.
Well, the fight was over, and afterward.
when some order came out Of the chaotic
bell, this report was turned in by General
Sykes: The Twelfth and Fourteenth were
attacked by Overwhelming numbers. The
ranks of the Twelfth were decimated
and Major Clitz severely If not fatally in
jured. Around his fate. still shrouded in
mystery, hangs the painful apprehension
that a career SO noble, so soldierly, so
brave, has terminated on that field whose |
honor he so calamity upheld"
1t was known that Major CIitz had been
badly wounded Men near him when he
went down were able 10 tell that much /
Some time after the fight non-commis- |
stoned officer of engineers who once had |
served under Major Clitz reported Off |
cially that with burial party he had |
found the majors body and had inferred |
1t on the field, marking the resting place |
with board inscribed with the majors |
name, rank and regiment
Major Chtz went on the list Of the dead /
and what was left of his regiment mourn
ed him as few soldiers are mourned. He /
had habit of showing them the way in /
TO Il fight and forgetting and making
them forget that there was any rear way i
out Of it.
Suitable orders were issued Iamenting
the death of this hero of Cerro and Gordo
and Gaines Mills. but before the period
Of the real mourning was over though
the official kind had been over for
months. the dead came to life again
Major Clitz had been srot through both |
legs and in one or two other places, but
because he was a major and showed a
few signs Of life the Confederates made a
prisoner Of him and sent him TO Libby |
Who it was that the corporal Of engineers
ana his party buried nobody knows TO this
day.
Major Clitz was psroled. When he went
back into the service again and when the
war was over he put ia twenty years
campaigning on the plains. In 1885 he
retired after nearly half a century of
service, and went 10 live in Detroit Mich
Two years later his old command with
" hich he had stood in the bullet storm
az Gaines Mills, passed through Detroit
on its way % take station at the posts
On the great lakes There were not many
hen in the Twelfth who were in il in the
Did days but 1t was the same outfit with
he same old tattered regimental banners.
Major chen General Ciitz met the com
nand, and old memories stirred him 10
ears. The Twelfth cheered its old officer
and then Detroit was left behind
Was Il the stirring OF old memories. or
what was *? His old comrades in arms I ,
had been gone but little while when /
Major Clitz went to the railroad station
TOm which the train bearing the sol
Tiers pulled cut. and there purchased a I :
abroad ticket for a lake city switch held
garrison Of }-uited States troops From 7 .
he hour OF the purchase 81 that ticket ,
20 one has been found. soldier or civilian.
o say that he has ever seen Major Henry !
3 Cltz- The army records give in detail {
he story Of his gallaRtry IL battle, and {
L the end OF The shining record are these 2
words. -Mysteriously disappeared il The ,
ear 1855. Edward p. Clark
Offer 20 Buy Towers
(From the Washington starr d
Ever since the prince departed The at ?
. u