LITTLE GIFFEN.
The story of "Little Giffen" is said to be literally
true. His name was Isaac Giffen, and he was born
of humble parents in one of the hamlets of East
Tennessee. His father was a blacksmith. "Little
Giffen" was terribly wounded in one of the battles in
Tennessee, and, with other wounded, was carried far
South to be cared for. Dreadfully mutilated, and so
like a child in appearance as to seem to have been
"borne by the tide of war from the cradle to the jaws
of Death," he was taken from the hospital, in Columbus,
Georgia, to the home of Dr. Ticknor, the poet,
whose residence was a few miles south of the city.
He remained with the family about a year, but was
always anxious to return to the front, which he did in
time to be killed in one of the battles around Atlanta,
and it is supposed that he was buried in one of the
numerous graves in Oakland Cemetery, in that city,
where the dust of many a hero who "wore the gray"
rests within the shadow of the monument on which is
carved the pathetic legend: "To the Unknown Dead."
