Page:The woman in battle .djvu/381

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
A TERRIBLE BLOW.
337


and I feared the consequences should he persist in carrying out his resolve.

He did persist, however, in spite of all I could say; and so, when I found that further argument would be useless, I prepared his baggage, and bade him a sorrowful adieu. Alas! the adieu was a final one, for I never saw him afterwards; and within three short weeks of my marriage, I was a widow again!

Death of my Husband.

Before reaching his command, Captain De Caulp was taken sick again; and before I obtained any information of his condition, he had died in a Federal hospital in Chattanooga. This was a terrible blow to me, for I tenderly loved my husband, and was greatly beloved by him. Our short married life was a very happy one, and its sudden ending brought to nought all the pleasant plans I had formed for the future, and left me nothing to do but to launch once more on a life of adventure, and to devote my energies to the advancement of the Confederate cause.

Captain De Caulp was a native of Edinburgh, Scotland. His father was of French descent, and his mother was a Derbyshire woman. He was very highly educated, having studied in England and France with the intention of becoming a physician. His fondness for roaming, however, induced him to abandon this design; and in 1857 he and his brother came to this country, and travelled over the greater part of it until 1859. In the last-named year he joined the United States army, but on the breaking out of the war, he came South, and offered his services to the Confederacy. From first to last he fought nobly for the cause which he espoused, and he died in the firm belief that the Southern States would ultimately gain their independence.

Few more honorable, or truer, or braver, men than Captain De Caulp have ever lived. He was tall in stature, with a very imposing presence. His hair was auburn, and he had a large, full, dark, hazel eye. He was a very powerful man, but as gentle as a child, and exceedingly affable in his disposition, and remarkably prepossessing in his manners. At the time of his death he was about twenty-nine years of age. I made an endeavor to procure his body for the purpose of sending it to his relatives in Scotland, in accordance with his last request; but, owing to the exigencies of the military situation, the