The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1907-12-19

OLD SOLDIERS TALK OVER ARMY
EXPERIENCES.
The Blue and the Gray Review Incl
dents of the Late War. and I'm
Graphic and Inte-estiug Manner
Tell of Camp, March and Battle.

After the great French victory of
Austerlitz. Napoleon's troop found, while
pursuing the enemy, q boy or years
old. lost or deserted by his parents.
TIE child was brought before General
Bernadotte, who ordered that diligent
search should be made among the
neighboring Villages and farmhouses
for some trace of its parents.
No relatives coming forward to claim
this waif of war, however. Bernadotte
placed him in charge of one of his vi
vanGiers, and soon the little fellow be-
came the pet of the army. Napoleon.
resting for the first time in days, ut
the castle of Baron Won KaunitZ. heard
Of the boy, and commanded that he
should be brought before him. The re-
suit was that the great emperor prac-
tically adopted Johann -; for the
child was just able to lisp that his
name was Johann. without casting any
further light upon his Identity
Napoleon conferred upon him the full
name of Jean de Laguerre. or John of
the War;" and Jean was sent To Paris
to be educated. When the emperor was
exiled to Elba. General Bernadotte
who had in the meantime been elected
King of Sweden, brought Jean de La
guerre to Stockholm and gave him a
commission in the army. He event
ually became Swedish Minister to Ger
many and a Count of Sweden. The
family which he founded is still well
known in Scandinavia. but Jean de La
guerre never succeeded in discovering
who his parents were or how he came
to be left behind on the field of Austen
litz.
Such discoveries of babies amid the
scenes of war and death are by no
means uncommon. During the Ameri-
can civil war a notable instance oc-
CURED. A baby, beautifully dressed.
was found by the Confederate troops
in the debatabIe region along the Po-
tomac during the heat of the strife.
There was nothing to identify the in
FAINT or to tell the side to which its
parents lad belonged. Eventually a
Confederate soldier obtained leave to
adopt ri'c girl-for girl it happened
to be- the earliest opportunity
she " " means of a mule trans
port Coz. his wife's home. in Geor-
gia. After the war, advertisements
were inserted in northern and south
ern newspapers regarding the child,
but nobody came forward to claim her.
She grew up into a handsome and
clever woman and, few years ago,
married Thomas f. Watson, of Geor-
gia, who was the populist candidate for
the yice-presidency in the last election.
Mrs. Watson believes that her parents
were Confederate sympathizers and
that they persisted during the war.
In the revolution a somewhat similar
incident occurred. A baby was found
by the British under Colonel Tarleton,
nor could its IDENTITY be discovered. 1t
was brought up by a family named
Gibbs, and rose to fame as Lieutenant
Colonel Penwick.
A baby was found on the battle-f field
Of Waterloo, but in this Cav the child's
father and mother were known. The
mother had died few days before in
Brussels, while the father, a soldier of
the Eishty-Seventh Cameron High
landers, fell in the great fight. Little
Donald Cameron managed to escape
from the transport wagon, where he
had been slowed, and had strayed in
TO serious danger before he. was no
ticed and caught by an officer in an
Irish regiment
Whether the terrorsof Waterloomade
an evil impression upon little Donald
or not, he steadfastly refused to enlist,
although his ancestors for generations
had been soldiers. Instead, he became
guard, on the London and North
western railroad, and died member
of the Peace Society, in Birmingham.
last summer.
Two years ago Russian officer of
good family was married in st. Peters
burg to young lady whose parents no
body knew. but who had no less than
900 foster fathers. Her foster fathers
were the soldiers of regiment which
had found her as a baby lying, aban-
doned by her relatives, on the road
rom Plevna to COIstantinople. The
soldiers put together a handsome purse
for the young brides dowry.
To come down to our own times. n
little Afridi baby was found by the
British troops in Northern India, after
a skIrmish will. the hill tribes. The
British did not wish to leave the little
fellow on the field of battle, and took
him with them on the march. Later
on, when returning, they left it on the
exact spot where 1t had been original
ly found. They were rewarded for
their pains. After an hour or two had
passed by, band of Afridis descended
from the hills and carried the baby
away Probably the dusky urchin, in
view of his strange experience, will be
greatly looked up to by his tribesmen
and become q great leader and a thorn
in the side of his British preservers.-
Chicago Inter Ocean.