The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-12-07

the shattered wreck of what was once
John Fairfax fingered on the very
threshold of death in a Southern hos
pital
bullet had ploughed its way
through scalp and scull. and for a time
the issue was uncertain; but finally
the skill and care of surgeon and
nurse won the day, and he who had
once been John Fairfax arose and
went forth into a world Of strangers.
He knew no one. His own name
was gone from him. The past was
sealed. He knew that he must have
had name, and home, and friends;
but when he tried to recall them his
mind saw only A blank wall.
John Fairfax, known as John Doe,
of Nowhere, the name by which a
merry clerk had entered him on the
hospital records, carried musket ana
knapsack no longer. Physically he
was incapable of that, or at least the
army surgeons so considered him.
and he was told that he might GO
home.
Homer" said he, simply. my home
is with the army. / don't remember
ever being anywhere else than here.
and here I'll stay. II l can't handle
a gun let me drive one OF the wag-
anything 20 help along. I've got to
stay with the boys. l wouldn't know
where to go IL you turned me away"
And so, not being able to get rid of
him, john Doe was allowed to re-
main with the army. He had been re-
ported missing, and his name had
been dropped from the muster roll OF
the Pennsylvania regiment to when
he belonged when he went into the
fight at Shiloh, and he was now as
signed to a regiment from another
state.
His former comrades believed him
dead and dead he was, to all intents
and purposes, to them, to friends, kim
dred, and to all who had once known
him as John Fairfax.
The mind of John Doe was Of such
recent birth, so unframed in the ways
of the world that its owner soon be-
came the standing butt and Jest or
the camp. Subjected to constant ridf-
Guile, sent on all sorts of foolish and
impossible errands, tormented and
abused by the rough and unthinking,
John Doe submitted to 1t all with
patient forbearance that was pathetic
to witness.
That was John Doe during the
final day Of the terrible Battle of the
Wilderness, when a soldier, whose
canteen he had just filed with water,
dropped dead in the act of raising II
to his Eps-snot through the brain
The victim was Charley Gray, young
soldier who often had befriended poor
stricken John Doe when others were
trying to torment him; and when the
water-carrier saw his friend and pro-
tector shot down, almost at the very
instant he had handed him his can
teen. he dropped the water-paiI he was
carrying.
A. TAh. l. q
his dead friend his kindness all came
back to him with Photographic dis
tnctness Each word of this and
other confidential chats and the many
kindly little deeds OF which he had
been the recipient flashed swiftly
through his brain.
Then springing to his feet he
grasped the rifle which had fallen
from the hands OF his dead friend.
wrench belt filled with cartridges
from one OF the men lying about him.
hastily buckled 1t around his own
waist and plunged into the thickest
OF the fight.
And during the rest Of the battle
John Doe loaded and fired In frenzied
haste, sprang from tree TO tree as
the line advanced or retreated: and
fought like a hero, TIL the sun went
down.
Then throwing aside his musket.
he hung himself exhausted on The
ground, all the wrath and fire Of battle
gone from him. and slept soundiy TN
morning. Then he quietly resumed
sbis place ~ cook, water carrier ana
sefFitor IN general 20 Company II 81
the ~th Massachusetts Infantry.
the men made sport ~ John Doe
no longer, From the by~word ~ the
camp he had Grown 70 the hero. bat
CONTINUED 81 Page rmentr.sausn.