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Suicide of a Woman in Soldier's Uniform.
In some manner which yet remains to be explained, a young woman, about nineteen years of age, arrived at Cairo several days ago, with the 14th Iowa, dressed in soldier's uniform, and serving Capt. Crane of Company H, in the capacity of servant. — She deported herself as a male, attended theatre, and answered as promptly to the sobriquet of Charley as if it were really her name. On Saturday she attended the theatre, and took a seat among her fellow soldiers, but her disguise could not conceal her sex from the searching eye of the Provost Marshal. Her feminine form and womanly ways were such, in his estimation, as the sterner sex never wore or employed, and straightway he caused her to be arrested. Capt. Crane saved her from incarceration in the guard house, by promising that she should adopt proper apparel and be herself again. The secret leaked out, and, during Sunday, the boys in camp became deeply interested. They gathered about the Captain's quarters to see her, and to exchange congectures, and learn if possible, the wherefores connected with the presence of their remarkable companion. The Colonel, receiving an intimation of the affair, at once determined to investigate it, and dispatched his adjutant to push suitable inquiries. The woman, discovering that her secret was out, and that her presence in such a garb was the theme of a thousand tongues, determined to put an end to her own existence, and that immediately. — Accordingly she took up the Captain's revolver, stepped from his room, and placing the muzzle to her heart, fired and hit the corpse upon the open parade ground, without a groan or an exclamation. The ball entered the breast between the fourth and fifth ribs, passed through the body and lodged under the skin close to the right side of the spine, where it was found by the surgeon who held the post mortem examination.
Coroner Corcoran held the inquest, but could learn nothing respecting the young woman's name, family or singular conduct. The tragedy occurred about half past eight o'clock on Sunday.