The Batesburg advocate. [volume] (Batesburg, S.C.) 1901-1911, 1908-10-09
"A Life Hung on
a Thread.

}. Il
ING IN the -th cavalry at western
post. We had man i'm the ranks who
had been brought up by refined and
Wea'tu9 parents but who was a per
tect deNh. Egbert Carol was the
name ne enlisted under. and believe
II was his real name. The only trou-
be with him was that he was too full
OF hghl One would suppose that II
soldier can't have too much fight In
him. and so he can't when there is nm
enemy 10 contend with. but when there
!Snt he Is liable TO turn upon his
friends Carrol was IN Captain Cava-
naShS company, man full of Irish
blood. ana that means full of Irish
tight We called him the "biack gol
of war" The result was that when
Carrot committed some slight indiscre-
tion his captain. to speak figurat!vely,
put the screws on" This made Car
rol rcbellions. With the result of more
discipline. till 1t last he mutined and
| struck his captain. He was put in the
! guadhousc to await trial, but one dark
night he escaped and disappeared.
1t was not long after this that we
he'd a 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 lighting under so saw.
age leader. 1t was only n question
Of time with them. however, for we
outnumbcred them and were better
armed and equipped. We took lot
of prisoners, among them their leader.
Who should lie be but Egbert Carol,
OF course there was but one fate for
him y court martial was convened;
be was tried and sentenced To bc shot.
The proceedings were forwarded to
hinGton, where they were approved
/ by the president. The day having been
liked, there was nothing TO do but wait
for ii TO come round ana carry out the
sentence. But there was some sylupa.
tiny for the condemned man. First the
commauGant of the post believed there
was not only stuff in him for q soldier
but 4 leader, which had been turned
away 10y his captain. who had never
earned 10 control himself, to say moth
! ing OF controlling others Then the
4 women Of the post all took TO him be.
cause he was gentleman born The
men Of his company partially excused
MN because many of them had suf-
tered rs he had from their captains
ungovornahIe temper. Lastly and most
important his family Interested them
selves TO secure Il pardon
/ One day The colonel commanding a
/ post some 2GO miles eastward of the
one where Carol WAS held prisoner
received ~ order ronrieviug the rome
g2de selecting Il good rider, the colo
/ nel gave him the Presidents order and
told him ~ ride with It posthuste. But
. Dr. the army there are many officers
! who would scorn 10 communicate The
/ contents Of an order 70 private The
colonel was one OF these lie sen, his
! messenger away without any knowl.
/ edge that q life hung on fits prompt de
. livery. Two days after the messenger
/ departed be returned to the man who
sent him, confessing that he had stop
ped 10y the way to drink with some
soldiers ana had lost the order. He
had returned for duplicate
The colonel blanched You scoun-
drel' he roared. You carried Car
rolls icqrievc. No power can repair
the damage YOU have done. Before an
Other message can be sent he VIII have
been executed"
Now, il happened that | had been
sent with party to relieve the garri-
son Of the ,.9tiOu where the messenger
had stopped and 1t was with some of
our mcn th"' the messenger drank and
lost his order He did not miss il ;iD
ne mad eft the sutton and ridden some
distance Then he returned. hunted
nigh and low for It aud. not finding IL
returned for its duplicate.
The day after the loss of the order
went 10 inspect gang OF men who
were doing some work v9as I'm Charge
of While walking along the road
saw dog chasing Il DIT of white pa
per which Tie breeze whirled before
him. KS the paper was blown past
me picked 1t up, held It over the do,
and let it 70 again in the wind The
dog caught 1t and brought it to me for
more play. 1t was then that I saw the
word Washington" printed on it.
read 1t ana knew that it was Carrots
rcpricye.
Within ten minutes was mounted
on the best horse at the station and
riding to save IL life SO much time
had been Isst in its transmission that
| knew it was an even chance whether
! arrived in time or not. rode NV
horse to finish in few hours. sccur
cd another exhausted him in about the
same time ana repeated the process as
often as | could find horses.
knew The l1V fbot CCrrgI ,t-,., .,