Los Angeles herald., 1909-10-17
LOVE LETTERS
LOST 43 YEARS
ARE RETURNED
PICKED UP ON BATTLEFIELD
AT GETTYSBURG
SIGNATURE OF "BERTHA" is
ONLY cLEW
]. H. McCutcheon Of Los Angeles
Makes Widow of E. E. Moore,
Wisconsin Volunteers, Happy
by Noble Act
Especial to The Herald.l

ROCK ISLAND, ILL.,, Oct. 16.-After
having been lost forty-three years, the
love letters which Mrs. Frank Young
wrote to her soldier-sweetheart during
the Civil war were returned to her to-
day through the agency of J. II. Nc
Cutcheon, an ex-Confederate soldier
living in Los Angeles. Incidentally
the return of the missing epistles ends
a search for the rightful owner begun
when the war closed and continued
with more or less vigor ever since. The
story behind the return of the letters
is filed with romance and proves that
although Blue and Gray fought each
other with all the passion of belief IN
a cause there were some among the
fighters who had the nobility of true
manhood within their breasts.
When the bloody battle of Gettys-
burg was being fought and when the
Union troops were being moved down
like wheat in the harvest, the Con-
federates charged upon Gettysburg
station, a position held by the enemy
During the charge Private McCutcheon
stumbled upon an inert and apparently
lifeless body, beside which lay a port
folio. That was the first day of the
battle of Gettysburg, July l, 1863.
FlCkcu w WdllSh
Thinking that the portfolio might
contain valuable dispatches or infor-
nation which might be of use to the
Confederate forces, Private McCutch-
con picked up the wallet and placed
it in his pocket for further examina-
tion.
McCutcheon was attached to Com
pany H of the Fifth Virginia infantry
one of the divisions kept constantly on
the move during the battle of Gettys-
burg and for many days after. Fol-
lowing the battle McCutcheon's com
pany was sent hurriedly TO position
far removed from where he had found
the wallet, and it had almost become
forgotten in the stress of the times.
McCutcheon made investigation of
the wallets contents and discovered
it to contain numerous letters, most
of them love letters, signed Bertha.
The letters were addressed to Dear
Ed" but the envelopes were missing.
After learning the character of the
letters McCutcheon vowed that he
would some day return them to tue
writer, and as soon as the war closed
began his search.
It SO happened that Private 2. E.
Moore of Company B, Second Wiscon-
sin, owner of the letters, was not dead
when the wallet was taken from his
side and that he recovered after long
term in the hospital. He was dis
charged later and went back to his
home in Wisconsin and eventually
married the Bertha" who had writ
ten the letters found by McCutcheon
Married Second Time
Seven years ago Moore died and
Mrs. Moore married Frank Young.
The couple moved to Rock Island and
have since resided here.
During the many years which have
intervened McCutcheon has tried to
get some trace of soldier killed at
Gettysburg who had a sweetheart
named Bertha. About two months ago
McCutcheon happened to meet some
veterans who were in the same com
pany with Moore. To them the story
of the disappearance of the letters
was familiar, it having been told many
a, time over the camp fires. When Nc
Cutcheon related his portion of the
story they furnished the missing in
formation, telling him just where and
how he could find Bertha" McCutch-
con at once communicated with her,
and upon receiving a reply that she
was the writer of the love letters he
sent the epistles inclosed in the wallet
as he had found them by express. Mrs.
Young tonight sat perusing the letters
with tears coursing down her cheeks,
stopping now and then to thank Pri-
vate McCutcheon and to live over
again some of the scenes of the days
when she had written the time-worn
na