Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1907-04-25
SOLDIERS AT HOME.
THEY TELL SON. TERESTING
ANECDOTES OF THE WAR.
How the Boys of Both Armies WhiIed
Away Life in COMPROMISING Ex-
periences, Tiresorne Marches-TnriI-
ling Scenes on the Battlefield.

After the great French victory of
Austerlitz, Napoleon's troop found,
while pursuing the enemy, boy 2 or
years old, lost or deserted by his pa
rents. The child was brought before
Gen. Bernadotte, who ordered that dill
gent search should be made among the
neighboring villages and farm houses
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
wanderers, and soon the little fellow
became the pet of the army. Napoleon,
resting for the first time in days, at the
castle Of Baron Won Kaunitz, heard of
the boy, and commanded that he should
be brought before him. The result was
that the great Emperor practically
| adopted johann; for the child was
just able to lisp that his name was Jo-
ham, 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, Gen. 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 eventual
| ly 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 Auster-
| litZ.
Such discoveries of babies amid the
| scenes of war and death are by no
means uncommon. During the Amer
lean civil war a notable instance oc-
Cured. A baby, beautifully dressed,
was found by the Confederate troops
| in the debatable 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 had belonged. Eventually a
| Confederate soldier obtained leave to
adopt the girl-for a girl it happened
| to be-and at the earliest opportunity
| she was sent, by means of a mule
| transport corps, to his wife's home, in
| Georgia. After the war, advertise
| ments were inserted in northern and
| southern newspapers regarding the
| child, but nobody came forward to
claim her. She grew up into a hand
some and clever woman and, few
years ago, married Thomas E. Watson,
| of Georgia, who was the Populist can
| didate for the Vice 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 Col. Tarleton, nor
could it's identity be discovered. 1t was
brought up by a family named Gibbs,
and rose to fame as Lieut.. Col. Pen
wick.
A baby was found on the battlefield
of Waterloo, but in this case the childs
father and mother were known. The
mother had died a few days before in
| Brussels, while the father, a soldier of
| the S7th Cameron Highlanders, fell in
the great fight Little Donald Gamer
on managed to escape from the trans
port wagon, where he had been slowed,
and had strayed into serious danger
| before he was noticed and caught by
an officer in an Irish regiment Wheth-
er the terrors of Waterloo made 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 tile London & Northwest
ern railroad, and died member of the
Peace Society, in Birmingham
Two years ago a Russian officer of
good family was married in st. Peters
burg to a young lady whose parents
nobody knew, but who had no less
than 900 foster fathers. Her foster
fathers were the soldiers of a regi-
ment which had found her as a baby
lying, Abandoned by her relatives, on
the road from Plevna to Constantine
pie The soldiers put together a hand
some purse for the young brides dow
| nv