Democratic Sentinel, Volume 5, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 December 1881 — “JASPER.” [ARTICLE]

“JASPER.”

[From the Delphi Times.]

ANOTHER VETERAN GONE. Gen- R- M. Milroy's War-Horse Dead. It becomes our duty with this edition of the Times to record the death, on the 2d inst., of the old war-horse, "Jasper,” familiar to the oeople of Carroll and apjoining counties as the horse presented to General R. H. Milroy by citizens of Jasper; county on the morning of the day of the firing upon Fort Sumpter. He is described by one who saw him then as a handsome. smooth-limbed colt, being about four years old. graceful and spirited in carriage and movement and of a clear gray color. General Milrpy used him in the servioe during the entire war, excepting only a short period in which, after a severe wound, he was furloughed home to rest and recruit. Back once more to the front with his devoted master to return again to his native county only with returning peace. During General Milroy's residence in Delphi, he kept and fondly cared forlthe battle-scarred veteran in his own family, but upon his departure to Washington Territory, Jasper was pensioned on the broad, green acres of the farm es Samuel Milrey, one mile east oj Delphi. In the service of his oountry Jasper received three bullet wounds, and to the day of his death carried a rebel bullet in his left shoulder. Prior to receiving his first wound the faithful animal, seeming to catch the spirit of his master, entered battle with a courage and a pride born of true intelliligence, heeding not the roar of mus ketry or the thunder of artillery; but wounded once, he often hesitated, and crouched and trembled in abject fear upon entering battle, and even In his latest years, when blind, and deaf to the report, the concussion from the firing of cannon produced an effect on the animal beautiful in its suggestion, but pitiful to see. With few exceptions, General Milroy rode Jasper in every battle in which the “bloody” Ninth Indiana engaged while at the front. He had the fondest attachment ment for the horse, and was ever as solicitous for its comfort as for his own. In 1876, while visiting here. General M. went to his brother’s farm to take a parting look at -the faithful old animal, then blind, weak and .emaciated with age. The horse seem*

ed to recognise the pr< scar e of bs former master, and while the latt> r stood with arms about the horse s neck, Jasper quietly and fondly rested his head on the shoulder of the old soldier. It is said a tear rolled down the furrowed cheek of General Milroy when the two veterans teparated, the one*sightless, the other taking a last look on a faithful friend—brute though he was. At the ripe old age Of twenty-four, blind, deaf, bullet ani battle-scarred and terribly emaciated, Jasper has gone, we trust to a home of eternal verdure, where “grim visaged war” ne’er shows her wrinkled front. Green be his grave and greener be his memory.