The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-08-02
STRANGE DIsAPPEARANoEs.
The Soldier Who Passed Out OF h
Lines Was Lost-The Clerk Who
Disappeared for a Life Time.
Especial to The Messenger.)

in and around FSyetteV1lle (only a rev,
for there are not many of them now
anywhere). who to this day believe
that in some of the salt marshes on
the beach between Fort Fisher and
Wilmington lie the bones of a man
who turned away from the world, and
passed out of life and made no sign
A few years before the civil war
a young man came to Fayetteville and
entered the large mercantile house of
John d. Williams & Co., as ~bookkeep-
er. His name was 7. r. WardelL, Of
New York, evidently of good raising,
and somehow it came to be generally
understood that he was of a good
family of means. and that his coming
here to take his position was more
a matter of business training thar
salary. Wardell was unusually intel
ligent. seemingly well educated, wa.
of excellent address, and was socially
well received everywhere.
In 1851, at the breaking out of hos
tilities between the two sections of
the union, Wardell, though northern
born. with all his people on the other
side, eSpOuSed the cause of the south.
and became a private in the La Fay
cite Light Infantry, Company F., in
the First (Bethel) North Carolina
regiment, and after it's six months
service OF the Yorktown peninsula,
he enlisted in STAIRS light artillery.
Before Colonel (then Captain) Starr
succeeded in procuring his field pieces
from the ordnance department at
Richmond, his m was ordered
to Fort Fisher to serve as heavy al
49, h@.4 ~-
November, 1861, to the early tall of
1852, when they went to the field.
Wardell was a good soldier, taking
the good n the a with equal grace,
always cheerful. full of wit and mer-
riment, n maying warm friends. He
was unusually neat in his dress and
person.; and this. combined with his
skill as a penman and accountant,
procured for him the desirable posi-
ton of sergeant-major of the post
from the c~ommandant, who was the
lamented. warm-hearted Major John
j.. Hedrick, of Wilmington, the prede-
cessor of Colonel w. G.. Lamb, now of
Norfolk, Va.
The war was then only in it's 3rst
year. and had not got down to hard
PAN" Foxes of eatableS and rink
bles were easy of procurement from
Fayetteville; and, besides, Whining
ton was of ready access. Anyhow,
there was on one occasion an unusual
Mount of liquor among the men, and
Wardell had been drinking heavily for
a day or two. A fearful storm OF
rain and wind came up at night, rag
ing with violence for hours. and
threatening to sweep the wooden
quarters of the soldiers into the sea.
A little after midnight Wardell stag
sered into the guard-room, very
drunk. his handsome sergeant-major's
uniform drenched with rain and
splashed with mud. He talked wildly
and incoherently, saying that he had
been going the rounds of the sentry
for among his duties was that of Civ
ing out the countersign-lurched
unsteadiiy out and was engulfed in
the blackness Of the night. The next
morning Wardell had disappeared.
II and 1 o'clock Wardell a ap-
preached his post, given the counter
sign, and gone on up the beach,.
1t is proper to premise just here
that, outside of his own
where his real good qualities were
estimated at their true value, Wardell
waS not popular at Fort Fisher. In
the first place. he was a Yankee"
and then with strangers he had a
caustic tongue, which now and then
cut deep. Therefore, except for the
comrades of his own corps, the belief
was universal that he had deserted.
and. although a search was Instituted.
it was perfunctory. I was of the de-
tail sent up the beach, looking for
him or his body, n at one place
particularly we made very pressing
inquiries and a thorough search.
This was the home of a fisherman,
who had a very handsome young wife
and one child, and who was known
to have had a violent quarrel with
Wardell a short time before, even to
the extent of threatening his life
for the fisherman believed that he had
aus for deadly animosity against
this soldier of Fort Fisher.
Under this house Henry E. Cotton,
n of the searching party, found a
hickory club. and on it clotted blood.
Asked for an explanation of this, the
fisherman said that he had slaughter
ed a beef the day before, and hal
thrown the club under the house on
account of the blood on it. Captain
Starr, who placed no faith in the idea
of Wardelrs desertion. even had the
salt marshes dragged as we'll as posi-
bic. but, of course this could be My
very partially done. That was the
asst of it. 7. r.. Wardell has never
been heard of from that day to this
so far as 1 know.
There were several facts which
made the theory of desertion very
improbable. In the first place, War
dell was very drunk, really drunk
for he had been seen to take enough
whiskey to bring on a rebauch; and
he would hardly have chosen a
drunken spell to accomplish that for
which he required all his dexterity
and judgment. In the second place,
he could never have reached the
blockading fleet in such a storm as
ragged that night, for no boat could
have put off from shore. In the third
place, he had no money. for he had
borrowed half Of what little 1 had
only the day before and he could not
have made dis distant way overland
to the enemy's lines.
But the inconteStable proof that
Wardell did not desert. and that there
was a tragedy in his disappearance
was this: Some time after the close of
the civil war a well dressed stranger,
about forty years of age, arrived In