The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1903-01-29
TWO KENTUCKIANS.
the Other Took Up the Cause
of the Union.

'Some years ago." said the gem
eral, according to the Chicago Inter
Ocean, Il went down into Virginia
on a matter of Importance to the
government, and in the course of
events called on Gen. Benjamin StoG-
dert Ewell, then president of William
and Mary college. Ewell had been
opposed to secession in 1861, but
went with his state and fought 10
the end. After the war he advocated
the election of Gen. Grant to the
presidency, and he and his brother,
captured in the last year of the war
by Gen. Sheridan, were highly re-
garded by Grant.
'Ewell had been president of Will
liam and Mary college before the
war, and took up the work again at
the close of the war. l was sure of
a welcome from Ewell, but when L
saw that the faculty was largely
composed of wounded confederate
officers l was in doubt as to their
feeling toward me. When we met at
dinner, Ewell introduced me to the
professors as friend from Pennsyl-
vania, and one of the professors said
cheerfully: Il am very glad to see
you, sir. | am part Pennsylvania
myself. l left the whole of one leg
at Gettysburg This was an ice
breaker, and there was no trouble
after that"
The case of the Ewell brothers,"
said Comrade \. c. Dodds, was un-
usual. They were on the same side.
and both won distinction. In good
many cases, however, brothers in
Virginia and Kentucky were on oppo-
site sides. In fact, the families in
the border states had stranger eX-
periences than those further south
or further north. There was one
family living on a small farm in Ken
lucky in which one of the sons and
the father sympathized with the
south, while mother and the other
son as strongly sympathized with the
north. In the spring of 1868 the
southern sympathizer and number
of his young friends decided to go
south and enlist.
"They were to start for Tennessee
on Sunday morning. He said nothing
to his parents until after he had
eaten his breakfast that morning,
when he told them of his plans. H.;
brother, the northern sympathizer,
jumped to his feet and said: If
you go to the confederate army l
will go to the union army After
some heated discussion, but without
any further preparation, the broth
ers said good-by to their parents,
one starting north and the other
south. They went away on hot i'm
pulse, leaving the father and mother
in great distress of mind, the more
so because the mother sympathiled
with one son and the father with the
other.
In one of the battles of 1863 the
southern sympathizer was taken
prisoner and sent to Camp Douglas,
in Chicago. The morning after his
arrival he was in the barracks wash
room getting ready for breakfast.
when looking into a small pocket
mirror while he combed his hair, he
saw some one pass behind him, and
in the momentary reflection in the
mirror the face seemed familiar. He
turned quickly and stood face to face
with his brother, who was one of the
union solssers doing guard duty at
the camp. AS prisoner and guard,
the brothers, strangely enough, be-
came friends.
In September, 1864, while Grants
army was operating in front of
Petersburg, Va, colored regiment
on duty in the rifle pits took num-
Der of confederate prisoners, all IF
ArEn11n nr.lnrol Il d