Show CIVIL WAR e ARDEN SEES HIS TWO CHILDREN AGAIN I My y wife wile ww WOY weve rr mourning for r l. l tin years and at end of ofin third t year 1 c back ir t I II to V i write her an anask ask we resume 7 I M 7 I eme Ilis 3 M. M I JOAQUIN Texas Aug 4 f NEA NEAThe NEAThe The The gray-clad gray line emerged from the tangle of brush and young trees paused for a moment as If if to gather all Its strength an and charged hotly up the slope The air was split with the shrill rebel yell In ma answer from the hillcrest hill bill hillcrest crest opposite came a thunderous roar of artillery fire The gray lin faltered closed its ranks and came cameon on on- again The he great battle of was on Tragedy hovered over th green slope at nightfall And And- amid the confusion of i the battle field where the screaming shrapnel wiped out whole companies and mens men's names were less than a puff of star dust dustin dustin 1 in the outer darkness the fate cf f the individual soldier did id not count REPORTED TED AS SLAIN So that is why young John JohnA A. A PInkard private in the army of the South got lost lost lost-lost lost from his company company company com com- pany lost from the sight of men that knew him lost from everything that had made life dear to him Pinkard who dragged himself off ff the field and fell In with the first bunch buich of troopers he met was ire ire- reported ported as dead And so but so-but but let him tell teU It ft Pinkard now nov is 95 a retired retiree minister minister min mm- ister a quiet old man who is waiting waiting waiting wait wait- ing in this quiet Texas village for forthe forthe forthe the lees of life lite to run out When I enlisted 1 had a wife and a child by a former marriage he says sas During the first firt year o othe of ot the war another child was born My Ml wife and f family stayed with her parents Now when I left leU we had taken a wounded soldier to our house to to-re- to re recover recover re- re cover and he stayed there during my absence After Chickamauga news came came to to my family that I had been killed It mt was three years before I could return Tome flome When I got back at la last t I found preparations for a wedding in ress My wife believing me dead had worn mourning for two y years ars arsand and and then she had learned to love the young oung man left behind four years before I pave gave ave her her choice She chose him Ii Well WeIl Well the the old man bent hid head a a. little We talked it o over er and I arranged for her to have haye a divorce She kept the girls and I took a atraIn atrain atrain train to get as far tar from away way irom that hat town town Cross Cross Plains Tenn Tennas as as I J could I ne never neer er went backI back I came cam to Texas and eventually marri married d. d Then I learned t th t t my w wife had never never married this young chap A few day dayI before the wedding wedding wedding wed wed- ding he sickened and died Then later she married another man ASKED TO RESUME I The years ears passed Finally I I learned through h a Brother that this I husband had died My second d wife also was dead So I decided to write to her and ask that we resume as best we could what had been broken oft off She never answered red I never attempted attempt d to communicate communicate cate with riy f them g in Then this year m my two daughters daughters daugh daugh- both grown old ld and nd prosperous prosper ous came to visit me They stayed a whole week When I last saw them they were both under under- 10 years 10 ye years rs of at age Now one is 67 and the other Is 64 Their mother is well weIl they say And I I. I 11 Well I 1 have no regrets I have seen my two babies again The daughters are Mrs EU Ella Lee Pinson and Mrs J J. J M. M Roen Pinkard's Pinkard's Pinkard's Pink Pink- ards ard's former wife Is now Mrs C C. C G. G Elmore Elmor |