The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-01-01
The Man , s Store

in New Orleans, enlisted in the United States army in Washington's battery and fought bravely at Monterey, Buena Vista, Vera Cruz, Cerro Cordo, Contre- ras, Churubusco, Moline Del Key, at the storming of Chepultepec, at the capture of the capital, and with a victorious army marched in the city of the Monte zumas He served under General Worth and under General Winfield Scott.
 Having cast this lot in the sunny South land, and with a loyalty to his adopted section, the outcome of principle born of love, he was ready to give his life for her defense. When the cry Ito unite" and ito arms" went up from the Southland that tale of submission might not be told, Domenico Ghio volunteered at Tal- ladega, Ala, to fight for Dixie and was enlisted in Company B, commanded by Captain Shelley, in the Fifth Alabama and in the Rhodes brigade. He followed the Southern cross on many a hard fought battlefield. He saw the star of the Confectionery rise brightly at First Manassas. He followed bravely at Chickamauga, at Missionary Ridge and was wounded at the battle of Atlanta, and then the star melted away into the brightness of Heaven and the standard of the little republic was carried by an angel to the God of Truth, Chic was still ready to die for Southern principles.
 He came back to the broken fortunes of the South and has worked as a farm CT, struggling for his daily bread, and has contributed his humble part in mak- ing the South rise phoenix-like above the ravages of war and the ashes of desola- ton.
 Cannot Make a Living.
 Today Domenico Ghio lives about six miles from Lincoln, about twenty miles from Anniston, near the line separating Calhoun and Talladega counties He is little more than 90 years of age with dimmed eye, with bent form, with tot tering footsteps, and vet he serves ss tier of the Lincoln lodge A. F. M., po- stion he has faithfully filled for thirty three years. He may not be in actual want. but he has passed the age when he is able to make a living, he is looking west, saluting life of four score years and ten, his horse has been sold and he asks the stranger to share his buggy to the nearby town. While unworthy men are drawing pensions from tho United States government, old man Ghio lives in the solitude of the country, without aid from the land on whose alter he onered his life, his record unhonored and his courage unsung.
 Columbus the Genoese, discovered this land and died in humiliation and de- spondency unappreciated by his country men. and his remains now rest in the ca thedral of Havana, in Cuba. Ghio. the Genoese fought for the independence or '"rhe Lone Star State" following the Stars and Stripes to victory; he fought for Southern independence, following the Stars and Bars to defeat, with the pref- erence rather to be a mourned at the de- feat of right than to be king of carni- val of victorious might. He has lived to witness another war fought for the sake of humanity. to take the neel of the ty- rant from the neck of their vassal, ana to applaud as a patriotic citizen of reunited country, the independence of the island discovered by Columbus ana where rests the ashes of that determined man. Will Chic spend his last days in humiliation and despondency? VIII ms government reward him with pension money for his services? Will Alabama appreciate his simple life and heroic inn pulses? As he totters toward the grave will flowers for poor Ghio be reserved to decorate his coffin? Will the worus Of cheer be left unspoken and the hand or sympathy be left unclasped? When his soul does soar away into life and light eternal his body will mingle with Ala lama dust, and it will be strange co-in- cidence that after the lapse of more than four hundred years, the waters of the Gulf of Mexico will wash the shore where rests the remains of Columbo the Genoese the discoverer, and Ghio, the Genoese the defender.