A ROMANCE OF WAR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume VII, Issue 1911, 2 March 1870, Page 6

A ROMANCE OF WAR.

A besident of St. Louis writes to the Democrat of that city a singular story of the Battle of Chickamauga. it was suggested by witnessing the play of Enoch Arden. He says:—"A sergeant in my regiment was wounded at Chickamauga, and was reported dead. He wm seen to fall at the head of the detachment, and our lines being pushed back, the body was not recovered until next day. When the poor fellow was found he was so mutilated by being trampled on by the cavalry that his face could not be recognised. A comrade, however, found in !his 'breast pocket a miniature of his wife, and sent it to Jher with an account ot his death. It turned out that the body was not that of Tom C —, but a sergeant of another company. Tom desperately wounded, fell into the hands of the enemy and was sent to Andersonville, where the rebel surgeon cut off one of his arms and one of his legs, and in spite of his bad fare, he recovered in due time. I never knew why they kept Tom so long in prison, except it was for the purpose of exchanging him for a sound man. When poor Tom returned to his home in Pennsylvania, nobody in the village knew him. His wife had removed to Illinois with her parents more than a year previous. Without making himself known to any ot his old | acquaintances in the village, Tom started for Illinois to hunt for his wife. When he arrived in the [neighbourhood where she was living he learned that she was married to an old fri?nd of his, who had followed her from Pennsylvania,. His first impulse was to make [himself known to her and claim her as his own ; but when he saw the snug cabin in which she was living, and heard how kindly she was treated by her husband, lie changed his mind. ' Suppose Igo and claim her,' he said to himself, ' how can I snpport her ? What can I do for her, with only one arm and one log, and a body weakned by monthsof suffering at Andersonville? No; she is happy and contented, actf thinks me dead, and I will not destroj her happiness and become a burden to her.' Tom acted upon this resolutior, and worked his way to New York, where he set up a small business as a kerbstone merchant, selling nuts and cakeß, and soda water, and and getting along prosperously. He soon made money enough to buy a artificial leg, and after a while he got a patent arm made. He was a good business mau, and in the course of a year enlarged his stock in trade, and a regular retail grocery.. He made money fast, and became a prosperous merchant, respected by all who kpewhim. In his prosperity he never forgot his wife, nnd always cherished a hope that she should be resiored to him. He was a regular subscriber to the village paper published at the town near which his wife lived, !and read it with great interest. One day he saw an nccount of the death of the man who had married his wife. He lost no time in starting for Illinois. He found his wife in deep mourning for her late husband, and she had added another infantile link to the fnmily circle. Tom made himself known to her, and was rejoiced to find that she still loved him as foudly a-< ever. It was some time before he could 'co nvince her that he ?*as not the ghost returned from the other world. In order to make things sure the parson was called in, and Tom and his wife were marriel over again. They went to New York, where they are still living in a brownstone front, as happy a couple as you will find in Gotham."