Appeal from the Circuit Court of Cook county; the Hon. E. S. Williams, Judge, presiding.

This was a suit originally brought before a justice of the peace in Cook county, by William R. Hoodless against Rosell M. Hough, to recover damages resulting from the destruction of a building in the possession of the plaintiff, and owned by him, by a body of soldiers acting under the orders of the defendant as their commanding officer.

The summons was in the statutory form, requiring the defendant to answer the complaint of the plaintiff, “ for a failure to pay a certain sum not exceeding one hundred dollars.”

The cause was removed into the Circuit Court by appeal, where it came on for trial before the court without the intervention of a jury.

The plaintiff having proved that he was the owner and in possession of the premises at the time the alleged injury was committed, and that they were outside of the military lines of Camp Douglas, proceeded to show the circumstances under which the house was destroyed, by the following testimony :

Horace Warren testified that he knew the property in question. The house was not completed, but was worth from $100 to $200, in the condition in which he saw it; that it was 500 or 600 feet west of the western boundary of Camp Douglas, and outside of the line where martial law had been declared, and could have been moved- easily on rollers. A diagram was then shown to the witness, and under objection on the part of the defendant, he was allowed to testify that it was a fair representation of the camp and its vicinity; that the property was all open except plaintiff’s residence, and two acres between the same and Camp Douglas; that it was open prairie all around there; that regiments were accustomed to parade on ten acres south of and adjoining said house, though they sometimes went north.

On cross-examination, he testified that some of the troops were encamped outside Camp Douglas, before the erection of said building; that there was a line of sentinels around the camp in the street; that the camp did not extend any further than the board fence around the same, as he understood; that martial law was declared, and stakes were driven to show within what limits the same would prevail; that the line of stakes was 150 to 200 feet east of this building; that it was a cheap balloon frame building; that he had seen the troops in a number of instances pass in the vicinity of that ground when on dress parade, for about three months before the building was torn down; that he saw the building for three or four days, and perhaps a week; that he saw the plaintiff draw the lumber there; that the lot had been fenoed before, but was vacant that season.

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