The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1906-08-01
A GEORGIA EN0CH
ARDEN HAS
RETURNED
Comes Back to Find Wife Of
Youth a Widow Of
Another.
AGED CONFEDERATE VETERAN
WHO IT WAS BELIEVED HAD
DIED AT cHIcAhHAUGA, Is JUST
RELEASED FROM A NORTHERN
PRISON.
iPRII SON..

Georgia has just developed an Enoch
Arden In the person OF an aged Con-
federate veteran who returned last
week after an absence Of 80 years and
joined the wife Of his youth-now the
widow of another. The Atlanta News
tells the story as follows:
The Lost Returns.
People at the terminal station
Thursday noticed an aged man, feeble
in body, gray, hesitating in walk and
manner, leave a north Georgia train.
He passed through the city, staring
at the busy streets and tall skyscrap-
ers in perfect wonderment. He
seemed afraid, amazed, out OF place,
mystif1ed.
On inquiry it was found that the
aged passenger had but few days
ago came from a living death. He
had just completed term of thirty
nine years service in northern pen
itentiary. He was on his way to Car
tersville, where he went to find the
wife he left over forty years ago, to
90 and fight for his country, wife
who had taken him to be dead, and
had married again and considered her.
self now second widow.
Anderson Pittman.
The aged man was Anderson Pitt
man, formerly of Habersham county,
this state. In 1863. then a young man,
he kissed his young wife goodbye, ard
Joining a local company went away
to fight the battles Of the south. For
months regular letters reached the
young woman from her fond husband.
Finally, one day, they ceased to az
rive. The battle of Chickamauga had
been fought a few days before, and
Pittman's regiment had been one
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 lon'ged. Her widows
weeds were donned in sadness, and
the years rolled by. The husband
came not nor wrote.
One day a neighbor wooed and won
her. Surely Anderson was dead, she
thought, and married again. She lived
happily several years and one day her
new husband was killed by a man who
accused him Of informing the author!-
ties of his illicit distilling operations.
Taken Prisoner.
But Anderson was not dead. He
was among those taken prisoner by
the northern hordes, and was sent
away to a northern dollhouse Of con-
fnement One day near the time when
he should have been exchanged he
resented the m streatment of pris-
on officer and killed him.
He was taken away into civil
court and tried. Little wonder is
there when the prejud ces of the time
are considered that he ever escaped
with his life. But life confinement
was his portion.
To the penitentiary he was sent to
serve his sentence. The right Of COM
munication with loved ones and
friends was denied.
Thirty-nine long years he spent be-
hind prison bars, knowing nothing Of
the mighty progress his section had
made in the meantime.
One day, like the Father of the
Marselsea Of old. his release came,
A6 lOuuu uulSCil OuL III d COlu,
strange world, with most of his life
behind him.
His thoughts turned homeward, and
back to the Hills of Habersham and
to the Valleys of Hall he came. He
arrived there few days ago, the mod
ern type of Rip Van Wrinkle, startling
all the natives, few of whom remem-
bered him.
He found that his wife was in Car
tersville, and an old friend of his for
mer captain assisted him in reaching
that place.
There, it Is stated, he found his wife
connected with the family of Gene al
Granger. She didn't know him,
though he called her by the name of
old, but in tone softened by the en-
forced lisp of prison life. However,
she recognized him by wart on the
forehead, and the two who had part
ed in the halcyon days of youth, met
in the autumn of old age, and will
spend the remainder of their lives
as God first intended they should, man
and wife
Ia