Show A CASE 1 l 1 As tiie of a a soldier mind remains a biank or eight tear A very romantic story has just been brought to light through the medium of tho pension bureau says tho philadel phia record on the ast 1st of september 1863 there enlisted at tsan the fifteenth ohio volunteer infantry a fc lender blue eyed youth of twenty named hugh thompson ai the battle of chickamauga thompson was wounded by a case shot and left for dying on the field he never rejoined his regiment and it was generally supposed that he was numbered among the unknown dead the next scene in this strange history opens on a snowy country road in northern illinois ne artho village of cleveland in the winter of 1870 night was coming on as a small sized but sturdily built traveler breasted his way against tho keen winds that swept ane bleak prairie he was comfortably dressed in a good working suit with a pair of new boots on his feet and a coonskin cap on his head he carried an old fashioned oilcloth oil cloth valise and appeared to be looking for a place to stay over night and there on the lonely road in the darkening t of that freezing febuary evening in the year of grace 1870 hugh thompson the wounded soldier of chickamauga came to himself as ho expressed it it was just as if at that moment ho had awakened from a dreamless sleep of seven years but his memory was gone totally and absolutely his other faculties were keen enough but ho could fotr recall his own name where he had been his family or his home his entire past up to that moment was simply a blank the only thing that connected him with a former existence was an idea that he was looking fora mr baker who needed men to work this turned out to be correct he found him and was given employment in a coal mine gradually his mind came back to him and he remembered the scenes of his boyhood the case was so remarkable that it was taken up by the local papers and the story at last tell into the hands of thompsons Thomp sons father their relationship was easily established through all his wanderings and this sounds ike a sun day school tale but the incident is legally proved and forms part of the evidence of his identity ho carried a little testament given to him by a sister with an inscription in rhyme when he enlisted the sister still living rec edit at once when he exhibited it upon his return his efforts have so far failed to recall to him any thing that occurred from the time that ho tumbled over on the bloody field of chickamauga Chioka mauga until the strange awakening of his dormant faculties in 1870 |