Jasper County Democrat, Volume 14, Number 60, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 November 1911 — AN EPISODE OF WARTIME DAYS [ARTICLE]

AN EPISODE OF WARTIME DAYS

Treachery Fails to Separate Husband and Wife.

On the James river some miles below Richmond is a plantation manor bouse that was built in 1660. About the middle of the last century the owner of the estate was a widow, Mrs. Margaret Ritchie, who bad splendid twin daughters, Barbara and Elizabeth. Mrs. Ritchie was very wealthy and. very ambitious. She took her daughters to Europe with a view to their marrying noblemen. A German baron proposed for Barbara and was accepted by the mother, who did not consult her daughter in the matter, intending,, if necessary, to enforce obedience. The mother did not know that Barbara had a love affair with a lieutenant in the United States army, Theodore Benton, a fine young fellow, but without a cent in the world except his pay. On her return home Barbara met Lieutenant Benton at one of tbe houses facing tbe capitol over which soon was to float the Confederate flag. Already there were mutterings of the great struggle to come. Benton was a northern man, and both knew that this would be an additional reason why Mrs. Ritchie would never consent to their marriage. Barbara told her lover of the contract her mother had entered into in her behalf abroad. Benton urged her to marry him at once without her mother’s consent, but she dared not. Soon after, while Benton and Barbara were still in Richmond, came the news of the firing on Fort Sumter. Benton hastened to find Barbara, told her that he must at once make his way north and again urged her to marry him. She consented, a clergyman wan called, and the two were made man and wife. Benton reached Washington safely. Barbara went home to her mother and broke the news of her marriage.

The next summer those at the Ritchieplantation listened every day for a week to the distant boom of cannon in the battles about Richmond. Then thesounds, like a storm that had come, roared from the top of Malvern hill, but a short distance away. Evening had come and with it only the cracking of rifles on the picket line when a young officer rode up to the plantation, announced himself as Lieutenant Theodore Benton and, upon being told that the family were there, demanded tosee his wife. Mrs. Ritchie came into the drawing room and received him with a haughty manner by no means softened by the fact that he was an invader of her state and her plantation. She told him that Barbara was ill find that she did not wish to see him. When the war ended she would apply for an annulment of the marriage. Benton flatly refused to believe the statement. Since he was with an army Mrs. Ritchie could not have him ejected. She thereupon resorted to strategy. “If my daughter comes into this room and confirms what I have said, will you believe her?” “I will”

I Half an hour later a young girl stood upon the threshold, pale apparently : with Illness. Benton, seeing what appeared to be the shadow of his wife, 1 stepped forward. The girl motioned ' him back. '"Theodore,” she said. “I did wrongin marrying you without my mother’s consent Go away. I wish never to ' see you again.” Benton staggered from the house, mounted his horse and rode away. Two years later Grant laid a pontoon bridge across the James, advanced to Petersburg and besieged the place. During the passage of the Union troops across the river an officer rode up to the Ritchie plantation and without dismounting handed a a negro a note addressed to Mrs. Theodore Benton. It read: Are you of the same mind as in the summer of 1862? If bo, I will go away, and when you wish an annulment of our marriage I will not oppose it. THEODORE. In a few minutes Barbara appeared at the door and between hysterical tears and laughter held out her arms. Benton sprang from his horse to her embrace. The first piece of news the husband received was that Mrs. Ritchie had died; the second was an explanation of the reununciation which had occurred when Benton had been there before. Mrs. Ritchie was a woman who when her mind was made up would stop at no means which, she regarded legitimate to accomplish her object She considered that her daughter had been stolen from her. Therefore she had a right to repossess herself of her own property. She would not lie. She had asked Benton. “If my daughter comes into this room and confirms what I have said, will you believe her?” Then she ordered Elizabeth to personate her sister. Elizabeth, without strength of character to resist her mother, had done as she was told. Barbara on the arrival of her husband bad been locked in her room and had not known of the outrage that had been committed until after her mother’s death, when her sister confessed and begged forgiveness. Barbara, when she learned how shf> had been misrepresented to her husband; was in agony. Shefrad resolved to go north in search of him when the Union troops appeared. Benton sent a note to his commanding officer announcing that he had found a loving wife and asking for a leave. It was granted, and that night the wedding was celebrated.