Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1917-06-13
A Civil War
Romance
Story For Memorial
Day
BY F. A. Mitchell

We used to think the war between
the states was the biggest fight the
world had ever seen, and until the pan
European fight came, involving the
whole civilized world, it was. The war
Of 81 Is now so far behind us that it
ranks in period with the war with
Mexico, and comparatively few living
took any part In It,
Then, too, the southern and northern
people have been mingling for the fifty
or sixty years since the war. Some
northerners have gone south, and a
great many southerners have come
north. ran across a story of the
great contention the other day, hearing
it on northern territory. The hero and
the heroine were septuagenarians but
they showed me photographs Of them
selves that took me back to the days
Of their youth as effectively as if saw
them when they first met. This is the
story:
In the spring Of 1862 division Of
the Federal army advanced through
Bowling Green, KY, to Nashville and
thence to Murfreesboro. At the latter
point the army waited while the rail
road that had been broken up by the
Confederates was being repaired. Dur
ing the execution Of this work the
army, with the exception of those en-
gagged in the work, was idle, and, since
there was no enemy near, the soldiers
were allowed good deal of freedom.
One day Johnny Wardeld, young
ster who had enlisted In the Federal
army on the day he was eighteen years
old, concluded that he would go out
foraging for delicacies, the paymaster
having been around. The spring was
coming on, and Johnny enjoyed tramp
ing independently with no file closer to
tread on his heels and no officer to yell
orders at him. The air was balmy,
and the sun shone bright. Johnny bent
his steps southwark partly from curl
osfty and partly because there were no
Confederate forces In the vicinity, and
w W 40 40 004V IL VAO uAcCL4Ou 6S I'LL.
other, though he was safe nowhere be-
yond the Federal lines from those indie
pendent mounted troops called parti-
sans or from the guerrillas, who robbed
friend and foe alike.
Johnny stopped at several farmhouses
for the purpose Of purchasing eggs,
butter, milk and other delicacies, but
the women to whom he applied pre-
ferred to keep their supplies, when
they had them, to themselves and re-
fused to sell. So Johnny went on
southwark, rejoicing in the warm April
sunshine, listening to the singing birds
and the hum of insects, till he arrived
at one Of those double houses so COM
mon in the south, with an opening, a
porch, between them. Looking over a
rail fence that separated the house
from the road, he saw a girl working
a churn on the porch. She looked to
be about fifteen years old, wore her
dress not far below the knees, and her
hair, held back by semicircular comb,
was cut square around her neck.
MAY have drink of buttermilk ?''
asked Johnny.
The girl made no reply, but, taking
a tin dipper hanging to a nail, lifted
the cover Of the churn, filed the dip
per with buttermilk and handed it to
him. He drank it off and, taking from
his pocket some paper war currency
issued by the United States govern
ment in lieu Of silver, offered it to the
girl. But she said a drink Of butter
milk was not worth paying for and de-
clined to receive the shinplaster.
Liking the looks of the girl, Johnny
climbed the fence and went with her
to the house. Seating himself in q
rocking chair on the porch, he took out
his pipe, filed it and sat smoking con-
tentedly. He soon learned from her
that he had struck a Union family,
and the Unionists Of the south were
very bitter against their Confederate
neighbors. Johnny was given what
ever Of food there was in the house
and was not permitted to pay for any
thing.
''see hyar, my boy" said the mother
Of the girl, faint yo' takin' a risk
comm down hyar alone? Morgan
passed along the road airly this
mornin'." John Morgan was the cele-
brated Confederate partisan leader)
Johnny said he hadn't thought much
about the risk. He had scarcely spo-
ken the words when distant tread Of
horses hoofs was heard coming up the
road. The girl looked at Johnny and
turned pale. Her mother beckoned
him, and he ran into the house and was
secreted In the cellar. Morgan and his
men passed the house without stop
ping and rode on to make one Of those
dashes against the Union pickets which
were common practice with them.
John did not risk return to camp
for several days, during which he was
sheltered and fed by his hosts, the Tor
bert family, and when he did venture
out on the road he was thinking more
Of Emily Torbert, with whom he had
been companionable, than of his safe
ty. When he got back to his command
he found it had been supposed he had
been captured by the men who had