Shrouded Veterans: Destitute Cavalryman Plagiarizes Mark Twain
In Tom Hood’s Comic Annual for 1874, George Russell Wadleigh, an ex-Civil War New Jersey cavalry lieutenant living in London, published “A Yankee Story” based on the fictional character Jim Wolf. Down on his luck and penniless, the American veteran had previously borrowed money from Mark Twain — who was lecturing at the time at Queen’s Concert Rooms — to feed his starving and sick wife and child.
“I did everything I could think of to cheer him up and entertain him and make him feel at home and comfortable,” Twain later recalled. “I spun many yarns; among others the tale of ‘Jim Wolf and the Cats.’”
Twain helped Wadleigh by selling his short story to publisher Tom Hood. However, it turned out that Wadleigh hadn’t authored the story — Twain had. The destitute soldier had jotted down Twain’s story, “Jim Wolf and the Cats,” verbatim and sold it for three guineas under the title “A Yankee Story.” Twain unknowingly passed off his own plagiarized work to Hood.
George Russell Wadleigh, born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1845, was mustered into service as a second lieutenant in the 3rd New Jersey Cavalry on January 25, 1864. Four months later, during the fighting at Spotsylvania Court House in May, he suffered gunshot wounds to his right arm and leg, as well as a saber wound to the head. Likely due to the severity of his injuries, Wadleigh resigned his commission on May 26. Despite only reaching the rank of second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, he later went by “Major” Wadleigh.
In 1870, Wadleigh arrived in France and fought in the Franco-Prussian War. Searching for another military assignment, he traveled to Egypt in hopes of securing a commission in Khedive Ismail’s army.
There, he befriended the U.S. consul general to Egypt, George H. Butler, who had also served in the Civil War as a first lieutenant and was the nephew of Benjamin Butler. Despite his reputation as a hothead and a drinker, Butler had been appointed to the diplomatic post through his uncle’s influence.
While awaiting his military commission, Butler made Wadleigh his private secretary.
Before giving his final approval, Khedive Ismail consulted his chief of staff, Charles P. Stone — a former U.S. brigadier general during the Civil War — about Wadleigh’s character and background.
As one newspaper put it, Stone “spoiled Wadleigh’s prospects of admission into the Egyptian service by speaking of him as a drunken and dissolute character.” At odds with Butler, Stone had no intention of advocating for one of his cronies.
When Wadleigh learned of Stone’s disparaging remarks, he challenged him to mortal combat.
“You claim to be a soldier, but I believe you to be more willing with your pen than your sword. If you are not, my address is the Hôtel d’Europe,” Wadleigh wrote to Stone on June 6, 1872.
After several weeks without a reply, Wadleigh shared his original letter to Stone with the local newspapers, along with a second letter intended to “expose General Stone to the public contempt which he so justly merits.”
Although Stone remained publicly silent, he referred to Wadleigh as a “pimp” in a letter to General William T. Sherman.
On July 11, William Campbell, William W. Loring, and Frank Reynolds — ex-Confederates in Egyptian service — finished their meal at the Hôtel d’Europe, while Butler, Wadleigh, and assistant A.D. Strologo sat at a nearby table.
As the ex-Confederate officers got up to leave, they acknowledged Butler but ignored Wadleigh and Strologo. Butler, who detested Campbell, called him a “dog.” Campbell recoiled and attempted to strike Butler with his cane, prompting Butler to grab a chair to defend himself.
Men in both groups drew their weapons. Campbell pulled out a small pistol, but it misfired. Wadleigh’s, however, did not — he shot Campbell in the leg.
Loring and Reynolds carried their wounded comrade from the hotel as Butler urged, “Give it to him Wadleigh!”
Fortunately, Campbell’s wound was not fatal. However, Butler’s antics created a scandal, leading President Ulysses S. Grant to remove him from his post.
Butler, accompanied by Wadleigh, left Egypt on a mail steamer bound for Europe several days later. In the spring of 1873, the two crossed the Franco-Spanish border in hopes of supporting the Carlist movement.
Butler allegedly brought an enormous flask, fittingly christened the “Devastation,” filled with two quarts of powerful cognac that had to be routinely refilled. General Antonio Dorregaray received them at his headquarters in Abárzuza and permitted them to join as observers.
They came under heavy fire at the Battle of Eraul on May 5. Later, at Peñacerrada, when Republican troops surprised the Carlists, they narrowly escaped capture but lost all their luggage and their sumpter mule.
Undeterred, they retreated to France, promising to return soon.
Wadleigh and Butler eventually went their separate ways, with Wadleigh settling in England. For a number of years, he was employed as the financial editor of the London Sunday Times.
By 1881, he was living with his wife’s parents in southwest London. She died in 1888, leaving him to support four orphans: two boys and two girls.
In 1889, the U.S. government granted him a meager military pension. He returned to the United States at least twice, gaining admission to branches of the National Asylum for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Wood (Milwaukee), Wisconsin, and Hampton, Virginia, from October 1889 to at least December 1890, before eventually returning to England.
On December 13, 1892, Wadleigh died at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital — a facility dedicated to serving impoverished patients — at the age of 47 from endocarditis and meningitis. He was buried at the City of London Cemetery.
The section where Wadleigh was originally buried has since been leveled, cleared, and repurposed, now forming part of the cemetery’s Garden of Rest.
While it was not possible to install a government-issued veteran headstone in this location, the cemetery staff approved a black and gold heritage plaque listing his name and date of death, which will be installed in the near future. They also plan to include this enigmatic soldier’s profile in the City of London Cemetery Heritage Trail literature.
Shrouded Veterans is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to rescuing the neglected graves of 19th-century veterans, primarily Mexican War (1846-48) and Civil War (1861-65) soldiers, by identifying, marking, and restoring them. You can view more completed grave projects at facebook/shroudedvetgraves.com.
