| Show A STRANGE CASE A the result of a wound a soldiers mind a blank for kight years A very romantic story has just been brought to light through the medium of the pension bureau says tho philadelphia record on the ast 1st of september 1863 there enlisted at van wert 0 in the fifteenth ohio volunteer infantry a slender blue eyed youth of twenty named hugh thompson at the battle of chickamauga thompson was wounded by a case shot and left for dying on the field ho 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 near the village of cleveland in the winter of 1870 night was coming on as a small sized but sturdily built traveler breasted his way against tha keen winds that swept the bleak prairie he was comfortably dressed in a good working suit with a pair of now boots on his feet and a coon abkin 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 twilight ot that freezing febuary evening in the year of grace 1870 hugh thompson the wounded soldier of chickamauga came to himself as he expressed it it was just as if at that moment he had awakened from a dreamless sleep of seven years but his memory was gone totally and absolutely his other faculties were keen enough but he could not recall his own name where chehad been his family or bis homo 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 tor a sir baker who needed men to work this turned out to be correct ho 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 it was taken up by the local papers and the story at last fell into the hands of thompsons Thomp sons father their relationship was easily established through all bis wanderings and this sounds like 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 s ster still living recognized it at when he exhibited it upon his return all his efforts have so far failed to recall to him any thing that occurred from the time that he tumbled over on the bloody field of chickamauga until the strange awakening of his dormant faculties in 1870 |
