New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1908-09-02
Aged Veteran Officially Dead
for FOTty-six Years.
GREETS HIS OLD COMRADES
Soldier of First Minnesota Be-
Iieved to Have Been Killed
at Antietam.

After hiding his identity for forty
six years and declared officially dead
| William Cogger, residing at present
on the White Earth Indian reserva-
| ton, appeared in Minneapolis and
proved to the satisfaction of the pen
sion department that he was not only
| William Champion of the Twenty-frst
Pennsylvania volunteer cavalry, the
name he had taken after the battle OF
Antietam Sept. II, 1862, but also Will
lam Cogger of Company H of the First
! Minnesota, who, according to the rec
ords of the war department, was killed
during the Antietam battle.
Prior to the battle of Antietam Cog
ger had been on bad terms with the
captain of his Minnesota regiment, en-
! tirely on personal grievances. After
that memorable battle Cogger awoke
on the field slightly injured and with
the dead and dying strewn about him.
His nerves were at high tension
and he thought over past affairs. He
knew his captain would be waiting for
him, but to go back meant more trou-
BILE. Aimlessly he wandered away and
went to farmhouse, where he
changed his uniform for civilian suit
and then went northward into Penn
| sylvania. 1t was there that he adopt
ed the name of William Champion,
| the last name being that of half
brother residing in England, and then
| started to work in a mill
Re-Enlists in the Army.
His thoughts, however, wandered
| back to the field of battle and his am
| bftion soon led him back. Within ten
months after he had left the battle
field of Antietam he was member of
the Pennsylvania cavalry, with which
he served until February, 1854, when
he was honorably discharged.
| After the war he still chung to the
name lately adopted and drifted into
Ohio, Michigan and finally landed at
Houston, MINI. In 1857 he went to
knoka, where he had two brothers,
John and Charles, living. There he
took up his former name of Cogger
and visited the brothers, though not
revealing the fact that he was Will
lam Cogger, supposed to have been
killed at Antietam. That William Cog
ger was dead IN the minds of all his
relatives and friends and William
thought 1t best that he remained so.
Wednesday he appeared in the fed
eral building at Minneapolis from his
White Earth home and there met
| Charles ShattO in the Office of Rich.
ard Lowe of the United States pen
sion bureau. Shatto was a messmate
of Cogger's in the old First Mime
sofa. In the usual greeting between
two veterans Shatyo was about tc
speak when Cogger stepped up to him
with an uutstretched hand and said
You look all right except that you've
got new teeth.
Fut few explanations were needed
and after forty-six years William Cog
/ ger gave the first hint of his real iden
tity. A reunion of old comrades Their
commenced and 1T is probable tha,
| Cogger will continue shaking hands
with his friends who long have Thoughts
| him dead and to whom he appears as
| though cut of grave
ST. Paul Banks Closed
The State Bank of st. Paul and ths
; Citizens Savings bank of the same
city have been ehDsed by Public Elk
aminer Schaefer because OF a refusa
on the part Of the st. Paul Clearins
House association to clear for them
/ They may open again in few days
Mr.. Schaefer said that Minneapolis
men were negotiating for the stock @
the two institutions and might be sue
/ cessful in securing control of them