The Dawson news. (Dawson, Ga.) 1889-current, 1912-02-24
RNSAFTER47yEARS
-, UANDERER COMES BACK
- SAVANNAH TO FIND HIS
WIFE MARRIED.

49,, IN Daughters Home Does Not
enook to Him. Taken Prisoner
Sort North in 1865 by Sher-
mans Army.
SAVANNAH, Ga.-Torn from wife
daughter, and home and friends,
the rigors of that war which in
DAVIS of '65 had made wilder
Oss of Georgia from the mountains
q rho sea, and exiled from Savannah
the order of General Sherman
at no more provisions would be
Arved the refugees from the desc
to interior, who had made this
~ their haven, P j. Thompson, af-
r forty-seven years absence, has
burned to find his wife married
pain, and his daughter, who was
Dur wears old when he saw her last,
bcredulous as to his identity.
Mr.. Thompson spent yesterday in
Asvannah at the home of his sister,
trs L. A. Shuman. Sunday was
snent at Blichton at the home Of his
laughter, who has grown to woman
hood and married in the years that
ave transformed her father from a
aturdy veteran of 81 to bent and
kroken wanderer of IS. The daugh-
ler is Mrs. Berry Jones.
Daughter Now Married Woman.
While Mr.. Thompson talked to his
laughter and recalled to her the
Fecollections of her childhood days,
Ind with the assistance of a picture
aiken before he went away, convinc-
sd her that he was her father, the
mother, who now bears the name
Il Davis, shamed at the extraordi-
harry situation in which she found
herself, busted herself about the 9TH
% portions of the house and gave
er husband only 1eeting glances.
When the war broke out Mr..
Thompson, not yet of age, enlisted
or six months, and on the expira-
ion of the enlistment went into a
cavalry troop. The beginning of '65
bound him in the hospital in Savan-
nah, and convalescing he secured
eaVe to visit his family at Penn
broke. While there Sherman swept
Down the state and the confederate
soldier took refuge in the swamps.
Driven from hiding by hunger he
made his way across the Ogeechee
fiver bridge and fell into the hands
pf federal outpost which sent him
o Savannah.
Sent North by Sherman.
He was detained here and furnish
fd with rations for time, but the
prder that no more provisions would
Pc served, together with the offer of
transportation north, gave him and
Fhe others of his class no alternative
put to accept the offer. He was sent
py ship to New York, and from there
wandered west to Cincinnati.
He wandered over large part of
me middle west and finally, in 1889,
*ound himself the proprietor of a
crossroads store near Mound City,
NanSas, cherishing the hopes of a
competency and some day returning
70 Georgia with means to search for
IS people and upon which to live
fne remainder of his days.
But at night a cyclone swept away
is store while he covered in a cy-
Fione cellar. When he emerged next
RnOrning nothing remained of his
H possessions but an old tub, which
Rione had withstood the wind and
emalned to mock him in his loss.
Wiped Out by Fire.
ne moved to Kentucky and max
ls MS headquarters at Mount Ster-
i"s again began to build up his shat.
gu fortunes. He became the pro-
'IeOor OF a general store, with hopes
ene"ed Of the means upon which tc
cure But two years ago fire swept
MS away and he became a wandere1
sam he sold fruit trees through