The Hattiesburg news. (Hattiesburg, Miss.) 1908-1917, 1908-06-11
A Life Hung on
J a Thread.


lighting was the chief occupation of
our then diminutive army, was serv- Il
ing In the --th cavalry at. western
post. We had a man in the ranks who 4
had been brought up by refined and
wealthy parents. but who was per
feet devil. Egbert Carol was the
name he enlisted under, and believe
1t was his real name. The only trou-
Bile with him was that he was too full /
of fight One would suppose that
soldier can't have too much fight in |
him, and so he can't when there is an
enemy to contend with, but when there
isn't he is liable to turn upon his
friends Carol was In Captain Cava- /
nagh's company, man full Of Irish |
blood, and that means full of Irish
fight We called him the "black god |
of war" The result was that when
Carol committed some slight indiscre-
ton his captain, to speak figuratively. |
'put the screws on" This made Car
rol rebelions. with the result of more
discipline. till at last he mutinied aud
struck his captain. He was put ia the
guardhouse to await trial. but one dark
night he escaped and disappeared
1t was not long after this that we
had brush with the Indians. We
were getting the better of them when
one of their number led them on a
savage charge which for time broke
through our lines. | never saw such
savage Indian fighting under so saw
age a leader. 1t was only a question
of time with them. however. for we
outnumbered them and were better
armed and equipped We took lot
of prisoners, among them their leader.
Who should he be but Egbert Carol!
Of course there was but one fate for
him. A court martial was convened;
he was tried and sentenced to be shot.
| The proceedings were forwarded to
Washington, where they were approved
by the president. The day having been
fixed, there was nothing to do but wait
for it to come round and carry out the
sentence. But there was some sympa-
thy for the condemned man. First, the
commandant of the post believed there
was not only stuff in him for soldier,
but leader. which had been turned
away by his captain. who had never
learned to control himself, to say moth
ing of controlling others. Then the
women of the post all took to him be-
cause he was a gentleman born. The
men of his company partially excused
him because many of them had suf-
fered as he had from their captains
ungovernable temper. Lastly and most
important, his family interested them
selves to secure a pardon.
One day the colonel commanding a
post some 200 miles eastward of the
4 one where Carol was held prisoner
received an order reprieving the rene
gade. Selecting a good rider. the colo
mel gave him the presidents order and
told him to ride with it posthaste. But
in the army there are many officers
who would scorn to communicate the
contents of an order to a private. The
colonel was one of these. He sent his
messenger away without any knowl-
: edge that life hung on its prompt de-
livery. Two days after the messenger
departed he returned to the man who
sent him, confessing that he had stop
ped by the way to drink with some
soldiers and had lost the order. He
had returned for duplicate.
The colonel blanched. you scoun-
drelr' he reared. "You carried Car
| rolls reprieve. No power can repair
the damage you have done. Before an
other message can be sent he will have
been executed"
Now. it happened that l had beer
sent with party to relieve the garri
! son of the station where the messenger
had stopped. and 1t was with some Of
our men that the messenger drank an6
lost his order. He did not miss 1t til
he had left the station and ridden some
i distance. Then he returned, hunted
high and low for it and, not finding it
: returned for its duplicate.
The day after the loss of the order
went to inspect a gang of men VIII,
were doingssome work was In charg,
of. While walking along the road
saw-a dog chasing bit Of white pa
per which the breeze whirled befor
' him. AS the paper was blown pas
me / picked 1t up. held 1t over the do
/ and let it go again In the wind. Tn
! uOS Caught IL anu DrOuSut ~ " ut AZ
! more play. 1t was then that ! saw tn
word Washington printed on it.
read 1t and knew that 1t was Carroll
reprieve.
'e Within ten minutes | was moupte
is on the best horse at the station an
IN riding to, save life. So much tim
" had been lost in its transmission tha
- knew it was an even chance whethe
arrived in time or not. | rode m
y horse to finish in few hours, secul
ed another, exhausted him In about til
: same time and repeated the process o
often as could find horses.
IN knew the day that Carol was
ID be executed. but not the hour. 1t
h singular that "a soldier will drive II
70 men under him up to be shot down III
!. mercifully. but when nnder other CT