The Impostor

Jim Owens, a sergeant in the Union army, finds the body of a dead Confederate, whose resemblance to himself is so great that he is startled. He makes an examination of the man's clothes and finds a letter addressed to John Calhoun, 7th Regiment, Virginia Volunteers. The letter is from the man's mother, telling him that her world is very narrow now that she has lost her eyesight. Never having known a mother's love, Owens decides to impersonate Calhoun, feeling that the mother will not recognize that he is not her son, now that she is blind. He studies the handwriting of the letter Calhoun had started when he was called to battle, copies it and writes to the mother, telling her he is safe. Owens is detailed to carry important dispatches through the Confederate lines to General Butler, and is captured by the Confederates. He makes the explanation that he belongs to the 7th Regiment, Virginia Volunteers, and that he has been a prisoner in the Northern prison, and that he escaped by taking the clothes from the messenger who bore the dispatches. So great is the resemblance to Calhoun that the captain, when called, identifies him. Having been wounded, Calhoun is sent home on furlough. Again he passes close inspection and is welcomed by Mrs. Calhoun and her daughter, Betty, Owens finds himself falling in love with Betty and tells her the story. She begs him to keep up the deception as her mother is very low. Mrs. Calhoun dies and Owens, leaving a confession for Betty to give to her lawyer, starts to leave. Betty finds him and begs him to take her with him, as she knows a wicked man would not have confessed, and she has learned to love him.