Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1853-1862, 1861-05-30
DisaffectiOn Among the Federal Troops.
Yankee Jobbing and SwIndiing.
The following statement is from the Baltimo

| The following statement is from the Baltimore
J Seldh, of the 10Th inst:
This morning we were visited by three members
] Of Col. Schwarzwaelder's Fifth New York Regi
I IRent, GERMANY who are stationed at the Capitol
| Ia Washington. They state that they were called
! upon IN New York by their commander, and urged
volunteer for thirty days. for the defence of the
Capital, being assured of good pay and bonus of
$50 each, and that their families should be ell pro-
vIded for in their absence Arriving at Annapolis
( they were stationed as a guard the road to
Washington where for ten days they subsisted al
most entirely crackers, and since their arrival
| IN Washington they lave suffered much from the
short allowance and bad quality for their pro-
visions The whole regiment, to great extent, are
bordering on state of munity and only held in
check by the threats of punishment the part of
the officers The thirty days for which they enlist
! ed expired yesterday and on Saturday they were
paraded to be sworn in for three months more.
the Government might need their services, when
one hundred and fifty refused to take the
oath. These were set upon by the others,
by order of the officers, and stripped of
their uniforms, which were their private property
and very roughly treated. To save themselves
from outrage, all except twenty-five among whom
were many officers, consented to take the oath
Those who refused were violently driven from the
camp almost nsked-not a cent paid them for their
services and having spent all the money they had
in staving of starvation, they were compelled to
beg bread and clothing and started on foot for this
city, on their way home. and they promise that no
more of their German friends shall like them, be
enlisted in support of Lincoln through such decep.
ton. One of those who called upon US appeared to
be quite an intelligent, respectable man, a physi-
clan, and assured that dissatisfaction exists
among all the troops in Washington and that it re-
quires the greatest watchfulness to prevent their
desertion in large bodies, while order for them
to leave Washington to march South, would prepa-
bly, lead to an open mutiny.
A Washington correspondent of the Harrisburg
pa Patriot of a late date makes the following
statement:
There are a great many Pennsylvania troops in
the city. They are known as THE ragged army of
Pennsylvania" 1t is disgrace to great State
that her volunteers are So poorly equipped. There
is something wrong at headquarters The Legisla-
ture appropriated $500 0O0-the provisions furnish
ed at the State camps have not cost fifth of that
amount.
The transportation of the troops to this city has
cost nothing, their expenses being paid by the Ma
tiOnal Government Pennsylvania has not bought
one dollars worth OF arms, and certainly not fifty
thousand dollars worth of uulforms; yet the au-
thoritles williamsburg say that the whole appro-
priatlon has been exhausted. PennSylvanians here
have doubt but that it has all been spent but not
in making the troops comfortable Not the one
hundredth part of the PennsylvanIans in Washing
ton will reenst after the expiration of the three
months term. Many of the are ashamed to
show themselves in their rags. They do not expect
to be clothed unless the National Government will
uniform them.
The Philadelphia Inquirer has the following para
graph sonfirmatory of the above:
For week two past complaints of all sorts
of abuses in furnishing supplies to the troops of the
State have been frequent and emphatic. Some such
things to be expected and in general allega-
tons of the kind referred to have been passed over
with but brief comment. Within few days, how
ever the subject has assumed aspect to command
serious attention The whole atmosphere is
vocal with pharppa of aVOritpiam iohhipo
abuses and corruption. What has heretofore been
vague rumor is reduced to demonstrated fact, at
least, so far abuses of sacred trust are con-
cerned. There is not the slightest room for doubt
that the State has been defrauded and the poor sol
ders grossly plundered; and in the public indigna-
tion which justly attaches to these agents and par
ticpators in such scandalous wrongs we hear per-
sons freely censured, from the lowest subordinate
to those highest in authority-from the middle-men
who figure strongly in this business clear up to
the Governor of the State himself.
dispatch from Philadelphia, dated the 3d. |
says:
Recent exposures made by the independent portion of
the press of this city egarding the evident pecula
tons perpetrated in furnishing the army supplies of
this State by the contractors and those in power
have led TO investigation by the United States
Grand Jury. Two blankets were taken before them
to-day-one hmsy article weighing one pound and
six ounces, the same as has been generally supplied
to the Pennsylvania troops at a cost of So 6O the
other was a Massachusetts troop blanket thick |
warm and closely woven, weighing seven pounds.
So shameful has been the treatment of many of
the three months volunteers that Of them will
certainly return home as their terms expire
unless the State authorities show better disposi-
ton to protect them from SPECTATORS and fears are
of their demonstration This state of
affairs is deplorabe, especially from the fact
that Pennsylvania has been most liberal in her war
appropriations.
1t appears from the bills presented that cassinette
pants supplied to the volunteers. many of which
wear out in two days week. cost the State s.;
Ind blouses made of shoddy, with pants. $40. As
he subject has now been agitated and the public
ceiling enlisted, there prospects of speedy re-
orm.
The New York Day Book says: /,
The National Zouaves under command of Col Z
LcUhesney, of Illinois, who have been for some /
ne quartered at Sandy Hook have had anything
tut pleasant military experiences far. The con-
tion of the members has been wretched in the ex-
reme without tents, with scarcity of food, and b
hat tainted, &c. Several of the companies have C
een in state of mutiny, and a number of the men E
ave deserted by the way of Shrewsbury. On their t
rriyal at Sandy Hook they were kept without food
or fortyeight hours, and then received ration 0
onsisting of coarse pilot bread and musty cheese
he provisions having been furnished in New York.