Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1913-06-05
KIRKPATRICK
MEETS|MAN IN GREY
WASHINGTON TIMES CARRIES
GOOD STORY OF SIXTH DIS.
TRlcT CONGRESSMAN.
LATHROP is WRITER
Former Ottumwan Writes of Meeting
Of Confederate Soldier and Iowa
Veteran on Memorial Day
After Fifty Years.

The first page of the Washington, D.
&C., Times of last Thursday contained
| a striking likeness of Congressman
SAINT Kirkpatrick of the sixth district,
with hand clasped in that of John M.
Hickey, a confederate soldier, who
fifty years ago Kirkpatrick befriended
on the battle field Of Corinth. The
story was written by Gordon Lathrop,
q former Ottumwan, who Is now the
congressman's private secretary
Congressman Sanford Kirkpatrick
of Iowa, who is nearly blind, and John
Hickey, $50 Fourteenth street, who is
terribly lame, have ,clasped hands for
the first time in nearly fifty years
isince the morning of the bloody battle
LOT Corinth, when Kirkpatrick, federal
lsoldier, played the good Samaritan to
tiIickey, wounded confederate.
I The congressmans recollection OF
Norm. backed up by the story Of
tHickey's wounded leg, was the COM
fmon ground on which the two met
later all the years.
Hickey never forgot the kindness OF
the man in blue, who, pausing from
the victorious onslaught Of federals in
Ipursuit of the flying rebels, did him a
Thurman kindness He told the story to
Congressman Kirkpatrick during a
[call In connection with the bill by
(which Mr.. Kirkpatrick seeks to provide
funds for sending district soldiers to
1.-The Gettysburg encampment.
Congressman Himself 10 Hero.
The congressman then learned that
he was the hero that Hickey pictured
In his story of the bloody Corinth field.
John Hickey had told Of the great
battle of Corinth: how the starving
fcohfederate troops impatiently awaited
the command to charge the entrenched
lfederals, who stood between them and
| the little town of Corinth, where I'M
limited rations were stored; how the
first days terrific charges brought
them right to the edge Of the town;
how the morning of the second day
broke with fog so dense that further
attack was impossible until about 10
o'clock. when the wind rose and swept
away the fog, disclosing the intrenched
union soldiers grimly waiting the at
tack.
Then he told of the mad charge Of
! the second day; of the exultation of
the first advantage gained when the
federal troops were forced back
further and further; then of the heart
breaking retreat that marked the dis
solution of all their plans, when the
federal troops, REINFORCED and re-
Organized poured such a destructive
fire into the confederate flank that to
stand were certain death.
Cheers Wounded Confederate.
John Hickey was not one Of those |
,re4reating from the victorious federals.
He lay with bulletrpierced thigh |
directly in the path Of the onrushing !
union army Infantry, cavalry, and
ARTILLERY were rushing toward him. He |
managed to crawl behind a tree stump |
s1ust in time and the flying army
PASSED him, thinking him dead, but
lone man stopped before him and asked |
him il he needed any aid
This man was clothed in blue and |
upon his uniform was the insignia of |
che Second Iowa infantry. He stopped |
before John Hickey, and gave him such |
aid as he could, talking cheerfully to !
him the while. The suffering man in |
| gray never forgot the kindness Of the
union soldier on that bloody battle
Il field.
/ CONGRESSMAN Kirkpatrick's vision is |
10 faulty that he can recognize his
friends only by becoming familiar with |
Stheir forms. He could not have dis |
Etinguished the features of John Hickey !
even if those features had not changed |