Show I 1 women in wartime with drum beat stir ana bugle urge the men have marched away but the women 0 the women As the daybreak chill and gray the women a the city gates for them no bugles play for them no surge of patriot wrath no gladsome shock of gaeel but the aged rand the invalid the helpless child appeal and patience patience patience still one may feel at night the torturing dreams of harm the real fears by day with tasks of hand that cannot keep the ravening thought at cooking cleaning sweeping sewing in the heaviest hour to pray 0 battles of the silences of hearthstone heart and toll of these no veteran tales are told no bloodstain blots the soil the battles of the women fought in anguish and in moll war cuts a knot who would suspect E F seaman the jolly seaman with his fund of funny stories his sparkling wit and his keen appreciation of humor to have been one of the principal figures n one of the moat pathetic occur bences of tha whole war of the rebel liona mr seaman occupies a position of great trust and responsibility with the black diamond steel works of park bros co of pittsburg A shade of sadness falls over his laugh ing countenance when be recalls the events connected with the salem raid one of the most trying periods of a trying four years the advance guard in command of quartermaster seaman had come upon a dancing party in a cabin in the mountains between sweet sulphur springs and new castle after ly surrounding the house with his squad mr seaman opened the door and demanded the surrender of the men within there were about twenty of them all confederate soldiers orders were given for the prisoners to fall into line and except one tall finely formed young man all obeyed he stood with his hand resting on the shoulder of a girl in white both seemed dazed by the turn of events the girl was the first to recover her self possession turning to mr sea man she said you 11 let george stay with me won t you sira we have just been married mr seaman explained as gently as possible the exigencies of war that as a man he sympathized with her but as a soldier his duty was to take her husband along he assured her that as a union prisoner her husband should be treated with all kindness and probably in two or three months he would be exchanged and come back to her clinging wildly around her bus band s neck she burst nto lable sobs As he pressed her to his bosom many of the soldiers whose hearts had become hardened to pa scenes found occasion to draw their sleeves across their ees ii a few moments she gained some control of hereld he relf and loosing her arms she raised her face to her husband s and said good bye george good bye the young man kissed her passion I 1 abely and signified his readiness accompany the union troops eyes of the young bride followed wistfully to the door that was last time she ever saw him on earth he was accidentally drowned crossing jackson river in 1884 mr seaman revisited portion of west virginia by inquiries he was able to locate bride of twenty years before after some search he found her she of course neer suspected his iden city as twenty years had worked great changes mr seaman being an adroit con easily led the conversa alon back to the war in telling of it he says she conversed pleasantly until that subject was mentioned when her man ner became more quiet and her gaze drifted from near objects to the long blue horizon down the mountain as it to discover something lost I 1 soon left and have never seen her since pittsburg dispatch black ballot meant death on almost any saturday or court flay there can be seen on the streets of says the correspondent of the richmond times dispatch two farmers simple and retiring in their tastes and habits who were called upon to undergo as try ing an ordeal during the war between the states as any soldier on either side of that memorable struggle the old confess are joseph head rick a farmer who lives on and owns a comfortable country estate lying on the waters of stony fork nine miles west of wytheville Wyth eville and jackson grubb likewise the possessor of a goodly country home a few miles south of town they like thousands of other yo ing mountaineers of southwest virginia answered promptly to virginias call for volunteers in 61 and later became members of the sixty third virginia regiment which was afterward assign ed to and became a part of gen palmer s brigade in gen hood s army and while in that command they were captured by some of gen W sher mans men at midway station nine miles west of branchville in south carolina that was on the ath day of february 1865 some days after their capture a federal soldier was found dead in the swamps not far from orangeburg Orang eburg in that state there were marks upon his person which indicated that he had ben beaten to death with clubs A hasty conference of the federal officers was held and they determined upon retaliation so of the confederate prisoners in their charge were marched out and joseph head rick and jackson grubb were with them three federal officers accompanied them and without any explanation prisoners of war were lined up the three federal officers took 1 alon at a bhart distance one of holding above his head a cigar box while the two others acted as guards the confederate soldiers were then to one by one between the guards and past the one holding the cigar box and draw a slip of paper then tor tre first time deai dawn upon the i prisoners riso ners what was being exacted of them rhe ordeal of that moti nt can bet ter be imagined than told the tear ful agony and strain wh eh ninety nine of the soldiers endured was soon over with for the orders were soon executed and tha die was cast jackson grubb was fortunate in that he was among the first to draw and brew a white ballot which evenou ly home and loved ones in again joseph headrick was not quite so late to draw seventy but he drew a white thone who paid the awful penalty was eighty one to draw As soon as he drew the black ballot he was halted told to step aside and the drawing ceased he was at once marched off to gen sherman s head quarters and in an hour or so after ward gunshots were heard and the fullest terms of war retaliation had been met and satisfied when ir headrick recalled the events of that moment tears came into ils eyes and he said that he had often faced cannon loaded with all of the deadly of war that tor four days and nights he had been exposed to the shot and shell of ft federals beffre nashville but that none of them was as trying aschen he faced that cigar box with its ballots on that spring rooming in in 1865 honor soldiers widows A monument to the union soldiers widows was and dedicated by the department of illinois women s relief corps in elmwood cemetery bunday april 24 at 2 30 p m the memorial has been presented by mrs esther elmira springer in me morlain to her daughter silvia springer do ion who died about a year ago premonitions of death speaking of that winter campaign in east tennessee said the doctor it must not be assumed that the sea soldiers 0 the army ot the cumberland or tho army of the ien bessee were not equal to the occasion most of them marched from the bat tie field of missionary ridge with as little preparation as they would have made for a ono day s scouting elpe dialon some of the divisions after the relief of knoxville drifted bach toward supplies at chattanooga but sheridan s division and others remained to watch longstreet ong street in our division sheridan s there was much suffering but officers and men were resourceful and disposed to make the best of a situation when it was decided to start the abandoned grist mills hundreds ot men were sent into the fields to gather corn and the mills were kept going steadily turning out cornmeal tor the men of the several brigades it was a trying time however and a time for premonitions I 1 never took much stock in the latter but one case has haunt ed me for forty years one day the brigade was sent out to make a feint it was known that there was no enemy in force in front but the men were instructed to act as it there was a division there they were to feign an attack to compel a move of the enemy in that direction but no one expected a fight As the regiment moved forward in line the lieutenant of one of the companies took a memorandum book from one pocket and his watch from another and handing them to the captain asked him in case he was killed to send them to his father the cap tain said holy brooke man wr are not going into a fight this Is all sham and there Is no danger and returned the book and watch the lieutenant ran acroca to the captain and again Insl stel he should take the book saying that he had a bieling that he was to be killed the captain took the book and in five minutes the lieutenant fell dead from one ot the few shots fired by the fleeing rebel pickets chicago inter ocean women s relief corps I 1 isabeth A turner chairman ot the thomen s relief corps committee oa accommodations for visitors during the national convention to be omenea it boston aug 15 has issued a circular letter to department presidents of WHO for among he corps in which she says we are low prepared to furnish the best possible comfort and accommodations for he women s relief corps and all who may accompany them to do this satisfactorily it Is positively necessary we should know how many to provide or therefore an early reply to this lr cular will be |