The Marlboro democrat. [volume] (Bennettsville, S.C.) 1882-1908, 1906-08-10
CLAIMS THE BRIDE
OF HIS yoTr8 ARTHa FoArx
YEARS EPAR ATIuN.
A War Story That Reads Like i,
Was Taken Out Of q
Netory Book.

A special from Atlanta to the
Augusta Chronicle says people at the
terminal station Thursday noticed ar
aged man, feeble In body. gray, hesi
tating In walk and manner, leave q
north G orgia train. He passed
through the city, staring at the bus,
streets and tall skysorapers In perfect
wonderment. H., seemed afraid,
ami z,d, out Of place, mysttfiod. On
ir quiry 1t VAS found that the aged
passenger had but. a few days ago
came from o living death. He hat
Just complete, d q term Of thirty nint
years. service In a northern peniteD
tiary. He was on his way to Carriers
Vile, where he went to find the wifi,
he ltfJ over forty years ago, to 60 ant
fight for his country; a wife who hat
taken him to be dead, and had mar
q second widow.
The aged man was Anderson Pitt
man, formerly of Habersham county,
this State. In 1858 then a younl
man, he kissed his young wife good
bye, and, J lining a local company,
vent away to fight the battles Of TIE
South. For months regular letter.
reached the young woman from her
fond husband. Finally, one day, they
ceased to arrive.
The battle Of Ohickamauga had
been fought q few days before, and
Pittman's regiment had been ono
against which Sherman had thrown
his brigades Many brave Southern
ers were left on the field. But that
Is history. Pittman's wife believed
that he had died with others. But
she waited, and grieved and longed
Her Widows weeds were doom ed III
sadness, and the years rolled by. Tie
husband came not nor wrote.
One day a neighhor wooed and won
her. Surely Anderson was dead, she
thought, and married again. She
lived happily several years and one
day her new husband, q man by the
name of Whitton, was killed by o
man who accused him of Informing
the authorities of his Illicit distillinQ
operations.
But Andersen was not dead. H.,
was among those taken prisoner b,
the northern bordes, and was sem
sway to q northern hell house of con
hncment. One day near the time
whsn he should have been exchanged
he resented the mistreatment Of q
prison tfioer and killed him.
sHe was taken away into civil court
and tried. Little wonder Ia there
when the %prejudices Of the time Rre
considered that he ever escaped with
his life. But life confinement. was
his portion. To a penitentiary he
was sent to serve his sentence. The
right Of communication with loved
ones and friends was denied.
Thirty. nine long years be spent be
hind prison bars, knowing nothing OF
the mighty progress his section had
made In the meantime. One day,
like the Feahrt of the Marshelsea OF
old, his release came, and he found
himself out In a cold, strange world,
with most Of his life behind him.
Ills thoughts turned homeward,
and back to the "Rills OF Habershafn
and to the Valleys of Hail. he came.
He arrived there o few DAYS ago, the
modern type Of Rip Van Wrinkle
startling all the natives, few of whom
remembered him. III uad that his
wife was In Cartersville, and an OLD
friend of his former captain assisted
him In reaching that place.
There, it Is stated, he found his
wife connected with the family OF
General Granger. She didn't know
MIN, though he called her by the
name Of old, but in tone sofGened by
the enforced lisp Of prison life. How
ever. she recognized him by . wart on
the FOREHEAD, and the two who ha6
parted In the halcyon days Of youth
met in the autumn OF old age, ano
will spend the remainder Of thei,
lives as God first intended they should,
mai and wife. And here let us draw
the curtain.