Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1905-08-17

Seems to have bout as many friends
among the rebs as he has on u side
of the line." had the division COM
mander remarked of Benton, though in
a moment of exaggerated biliousness.
the day after the retreat from the
southern shore. Fred's new general
had come in for a rasping from the
corps commander, because the lead
ing brigade took the wrong road In
the rain and darkness, and so delayed
matters over an hour. 1t happened
that Benton had guided the division
to its first position on the field; that
he had been sent to find Gen. Frank
lin; that when he returned with Q
message from the latter officer, the
division was in motion, and the COM
mander had ridden off TO speak with
Gibbon or somebody else, and Benton
followed, of course, in search of his
chief, instead of staying with the head
of column. Finding himself rebuked,
the general reprimanded Benton in the
presence and hearing of officers and
men. Benton's heart and temper being
both sore and tried, he had replied
with much spirit. if not subordination,
to the effect that the message he was
charged to deliver admitted of no de-
lay; that if the general had been where
he belonged there would have been no
delay; and that sooner than submit
to such injustice he would ask to be
relieved from staff duty forthwith, and
wrote that very night to his old friend
and general, then a member of an i'm
portant military tribunal at Washing
ton, begging his advice and interven-
ton, and telling him, of course, the
story of poor Ladue.
But, being coupled with another, that
story was now almost an old one at the
capital, for thither had the poor lad
been sent and Jennings with him;
Paul looking, indeed, more dead than
alive" for a strange, eventful history
had been his ever since the dreadful
morning north of Sharpsburg that
stretched him senseless in front of Glib
bon's furious guns. KILLED" said La
mai and other officers who saw him
borne away in a blanket. "Mortally
wounded" said the hospital attendants
who first ministered to him, back of
the bunker church, where reigned
confusion ~inexpressible owing to the
appalling number of those needing
surgical aid. How he got there or be-
yond, Paul never knew until long
thereafter. Tender-hearted Virginians
had concealed him until he was well
enough to move about. Odd as it may
seem, the most practicable way for
southern soldier to go from the Poto-
mac to his own people was by way of
the north. Through the kind Virgin
ians, civilian clothing was bought for
their interesting captive, and by mid
November Paul was safely under the
roof of a well-to-do and most active
southern sympathizer in Baltimore.
These were details which Ladue
could not reveal at the time. He had
revived sufficiently to recognize Benton
and TO speak feebly a few moments;
but that very night, in the fog and
darkness, was begun the building of
the bridges, the crossing of the left
grand division, and Fred could only
leave his poor friend with the sur
geons and hasten back to his duty.
Four days later, when he would have
ridden to the hospital camp in search
OF him, it was too late. Urgent orders
had come from Stanton himself, the
great and growing war secretary, to
send the prisoner patient thither as
soon as he could be moved. Jennings
had already gone under strong guard,
and all Benton could learn at the mo-
ment was that there had been a break
from prison camp; that, aided by resi-
dents of Baltimore and of Charles
county, some confederate officers had
escaped to the Potomac; and, while
some of the party had succeeded in
crossing, one boat had been fired on
and swamped. Two of the officers
had been captured, one being poor
Paul, who had been nearly drowned,
and was found in a isherman's hut not
far from Matthias Point. Two of the
party were still at large. Arrests of
suspected civilians had been made,
both in Washington and Baltimore,
and certain secret service officials had
been summarily discharged by order
of the secretary, as being unworthy
to hold positions of such trust and
responsibility.
Stanton is a terror" said Fred's
informant, a staff officer just from
Washington. God help the man that
has to bump up against Stanton just
now!"
1t was now some &c hours after
F'red's serious difference with his di.
vision commander. He had sent an
urgent appeal to his old general to be
set free from further contact with these
things he almost loathed. He looked
for answer within the week, and, TAX
ing advantage Of the permission, cold
ly accorded him by the chief of staff,
to be absent w night, he had gone,
heavy-hearted, to his old friends of the
Iron Brigade, and sought at their hands
the sympathy and consolation to be
expected of men who had themselves
felt that the official atmosphere was
frigid where once it had been so fair.
And it was here, on Thursday morning,
while breakfasting with the genial
commander of the Black Hats and lis
tening to his philosophic advice to
take things coolly" and that "all
would come right" he was surprised by
n coming Of a cavalry orderly
splashed with mud, who bore a missive
addressed by the Acknowledgement Of
the division and marked Immediate
With a word of apology to Col. Fair
child and his officers, Benton tore II
omen and two nanprc fall oltt Oue