AN INCIDENT OF THE CIVIL WAR " Captain R. B. Nisbet, from his wife, M. A. Nisbet, Eatonton, On returning to Georgia, Dr. White referred the matter to Mr. Clark Howell, editor of The Constitution, who immediately opened correspondence with President Atherton, and offered the columns of his paper for any statement he might make in regard to these articles, hoping that in this way he might find the owner. Before answering this letter, President Atherton was called to Washing ton, D. C., and there, by a queer coincidence, met Captain Evan Howell, a member of the commission appointed by the President, to investigate the conduct of the late war. He related to Captain Howell the same facts stated to Dr. White. Captain Howell told him that he knew, quite intimately, Colonel Rube Nisbet, of Eatonton, Ga., and thought it very likely that he was the person sought. On returning to his home Dr. Atherton wrote the fol lowing letter to Colonel Nisbet: CAPTAIN R. B. NISBET, Eatonton, Ga. Dear Sir: When your troops left Newberne, N. C., in the early part of March, 1862, they• were in so great a hurry that they left a great many articles behind them which, ordinarily, they would have been glad to take along. They left a whole encampment of tents standing, one of which I occupied for some time afterwards, and they left a large number of trunks filled with apparel and other personal property belonging to officers of the troops and res idents of the city, who were also in a hurry to get away. Soon after, I came into possession of a trunk which had been rifled by negroes of most of its contents, but I found remaining in it a pistol, which was afterwards stolen from me, and a Bible, with two or three other articles which I have retained ever since, in the hope that I might some time be able to restore them to the hands of the original owner. The Bible is inscribed: " Captain R. B. Nisbet, from his wife, M. A. Nisbet, Eatonton, Ga." In a recent conversation with Captain Evan Howell, of your state, he told me that you were in the Confederate service during the war, and that he thought it more likely than not that you were the owner of the articles, whom I had so long hoped to find. I now write to ask if this impression is correct. In that case, I STATE COLT,EGE, CENTER CO., PA., DECEMBER 28, 1898.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers