Year: 1870




Married Twice and Shot Dead al


Parade. ae-=


West Point Correspondence N. Y. Herald.


In company with an officer 1 took 6
farewell stroll to-day in the cemetery
where, so many of the graduates o.
West Point sleep the sleep that knows
no waking. We walked from tomb tC
tomb, reading the inscriptions that ]
have read time and time again, and
| finally sat down on a little mound O1
earth to rest under the shade of huge
tree. Z" Do you see that spot there ?''
inquired my companion, as he pointed
with his cane. to "A part of the ground
over which the grass had not as yet
| well grown. That was intended fol
the last resting place of a graduate OF
! '6S, but revelation that was made af-
| ter his death prevented the body from
being brought here. Would you like
to hear the story ?n expressed my
willingness, and the story was told 1t
was in substance as follows:


A WEST POINT APPOINTMENT.


In the early summer of 1854, there
was a cadet vacancy in one of the New
YOrd city Congressional Districts
When the War Department informed
the Congressman of the district Of the
vacancy, and that it should be filled
before the following September, that
| gentleman took it into his head to de-
part from the ways of his predecessors,
and give the appointment to whatever
scholar in the Free Academy e, SYl-e
had passed through the Academy, who
would pass the best examination. A
day was appointed for the test, and the
successful competitor, few days after
ward, was sent to West Point. He
was found fully competent, and at once
took high position in the class. He
looked rather more manly than the
rest of his class-in fact, older than
most boys who were at the time adj
mitted under tWenty-One--but no sus-
piciOn that he was really older than he
had represented himself to be, ever en-
tered the minds of the faculty. Three
years passed by, and he became Sc
cOnd class man. During that time he
made the acquaintance of a young la
dy risiding on Fifth avenue. She was
young, beautiful, of good family, and
had plenty of money, and this cOmbi-
nation of attractions fascinated the ca
det. He used to pay her frequent visits
at the hotel when she came up here to
remain during the June "gala days, y
and after she had left for New York he
kept up the pleasant intimacy by fire.
quent correspondence. In the matter
of this correspondence he seemed to be
very anxious that the letters should not
miscarry, and under the pretence that
he believed the pOstOffice folks here had
habit of opening cadets letters, he of
ten had them sent over the river to be
posted from GarrisOn's Landing. Mean
while heastudied hard and still main
tanned bod position in his class. He
finally became a first class man in '67.
He was busily engaged in his room one
day, after he had become a first class
man, in " boring" when the officer of
the day entered and told him the SUI
perintendent wanted to see him at his
office. He Immediately repaired to the
office, and after the usual salutatiOns
had been interchanged between him
and his superior, the superintendent
took from a bundle of papers on his
desk, q letter, which he read to him.
It was addressed to the superintendent,
and charged that the cadet W


a MARRIED. MAN


before he had entered the institution,
and that his wife was still living. The
letter was not signed. What have


got to say to that, sir2'' asked the


intendent, laying down the letter.


cadet had not cIS nged counten-
lring the reading of the note, and


he. question was put to him he
df 10 hisfull height, and,
w Indignation over
81 he replied, That is
q NOUS communication, and
shos st have received a gentIeman's
attention, sir. Every word of it is
false. The writer is evidently some
enemy of mine who seeks in this way
to injure me-" Then the interview
ended, and the superintendent threw
the letter into the waste~basket. The
cadet went back to his room and re-
sumed his studies. The night that fol-
lowed the day of this interview was a
bitter cold one. It was dark as pitch,
and the snow fell heavily. A keen
nor easter swept over the post, and the
sentinel in the woods near the barracks
drew his eloShRpaore closely about him
as gust afteF-E-4Sled with shrek
down from sthe mountain tops. He
had been on guard many NIGHTS before,
when the cold had made hisS chat
ter and his limbs ache with i IS,
but the like of this night he has


witnessed before. Thus he thOught(
| he laid his rifle against a tree an~
stopped to gather handful of snow to
rub his half frozen face with. AS he
| did so q keener blast of wind than ever
! tore through the leafless trees, making
| the old branches cTeak and grOan as il
ready to break. In q second he was
| bolt upright, with his rifle tightly
ciutched in his hand. His face was
pale as death, and the rifle shook with
in his grasp, but not from cold. He
bent his head forward as if to peeI
through the darkness and the binding
sleet. The wind had lulIed for Sc
cond, and nothing but the low wall Of
storm in The distant wood awOke the
! stiffness of the IA still he stood
with his rifle tFeAg4~1n his hands
The wind again swept down from the
InOuntain-tOp, and, as it struck the
trees near him, Whizzed by again with
g screech; but}far above it there came
a shrek of q human voice so terrible
so shriIl, so fearful to be heard in thai
lonely place, that the sentinel invOlun
tarily took a step backward as if eX'
pecting -ez ars--


SOME UNEARTHLY THING
so swoop down upon him. Tt was thi:
tame shrek that had startled him. He
had mistrJIsted his hearing before, bu
now he was certain that the cry thai
rang out upon the wind a minute or 81
previous was not of his imagining
Clutching his rifle in his right hand ht
] felt his way carefully though the un.
hterbrush with which the woods were
I strewn, and slowly advanced in the di
rection whence the cries had come
/ Every gust of wind brought the Shrek
more and more piercing, to him, anC
1 made him stride on all the more quick