The evening Argus. [volume] (Rock Island, Ill.) 1861-1871, 1862-03-10
THE ROLLA HOME GUARDS,

1.-THE ROLLA HOME GUARDS
The 18th regiment Of Illinois volunteers
has been kept at Rolla SO long that it has
become byword among all the soldiers who
call it the "Rolla Home Guards" 1t has
been subject of great complaint among the
members of the regiment that they are not
permitted to see some active duty. To be
kept at Rolla during the whole war, simply
+ give Col. Wyman chance to make money
by confscating the property Of the poor peo
pie of Missouri and bidding it in himself, n
mere nominal prices, is extremely Calling to
the soldiers. Complaints Of this sort have
been very frequent, during tho last six
months. Many letters have been written to
us on the subject for publication, but we have
not published them because we hoped the reg
iment would soon be on active duty, md then
the complaints would cease. We know that
some of the boys were disappointed because
we did not give publicity to these complaints,
but we wished to avoid finding fault, if pos
siblo. But the matter keeps pressing upon
US.
We recently received u letter from high
ly respectfully gentleman in this county, en-.
closing to us letter he had received from
a member Of the 18th regiment This gentle
man writes us that he thinks the boys have
been badly used, and he hopes we will give
their complaints an airing, whether it does
any good or not. lie says the writer Of th'
letter is we'll known to him, and is perfect
ly truthful and honest man. We make the
following extracts from the ROla letter viz
" Ii seems to Us that We are bound to guard
this post during the war. We now 60 by the
name Of the ROlla Home Guards The pri.
Yates are very anxious to leave for some act
i've duty, but strdp.R'eH are IN no hurry; they
don't care hop long he udr iaStS prooidcd
they get good pay and no fighting. | don't
mean to say that all the officers are Of that
stamp the officers Of our company, and the
lieutenant colonel, are exceptions they are
patriotic men, and are willing to fight for the
union, gold or no gold. As for our colonel,
ii. Is. Wyman) now acting brigadier, we can
not say much in his behalf. There was time
when he was the idol Of tho boys, but all their
love for him has turned to hatred. When
they elected him they thought he was the
right stripe-but they are sadly disappoint
ed. Here we are, IN an cnemys country, faI
from home and from everything dear to us
submitting to hardships and privations, fol
the sake of our country, and yet we are de-
ceired and cheated boM by oar state and on,
officers. We received one suit Of condemned
army clothing, from the state of Illinois,
which our coionel tOld as ras a present from,
our state, and when we refused to accept the
poor trash, he told US it would be an insult to
the state for us to refuse to take the clothes.
He said we should have nothing to pay for
the articles, as they were present from the
state--so we took them. Now we are inform.
ed that the state has a large bill against our
reg ment for these clothes, and a portion OF
our pay was stopped, last pay day. for this
purpose. OF course our wages will be nearly
swallowed up, by this process If We were
required to fight for nothing it would bt
much more agreeable to U.S. than it is to b
our oacn state They pretend to be patriotic
but all their patriotism lies in their pockets
which are we'll lined with the yellow dust.
Captain }. NJ. Beardslcy got up board OF
inspection, made up from other regiments, no,
interested, and this board appraised our "Ill
inois Greys," and appraised them as follows
viz: overcoat, $3.50; dress coat, So, so; pants
$3.50; drawers, rs cents; two shirts, 50 so;
hat GO cents: socks, 40 cents-in all $l4 so.
We are nor reqnired to pay $50 each for the
poor trash wh,ch was paimed on to us as Il
present, and afterwards appraised at Sl4,
This reg imeut under such treatments fast
losing its patriotism. There Is very little
here to interest any one. There's plenty Of
bad whisky at an enormously high price
but the higher the better, perhaps for the
soldiers will use the less OF it. Our officers
are pretty busy, court martialing the boys.
but nothing else Of any interest occurs here
except the grabbing of the farmers stock and
selling it. Uncle Sam gets precious little
from these sales-they are managedv very sum.
marily, and some Spectator gets the animals
for mere nothing"
This letter entirely accords with what we
had previously been informed by returned
members of the regiment. Wyman, the colo
nel' Is said to have been heavily in debt when
ne was elected colonel and his property heav-
lymortgaged. lie is reported to have made
money enough by these confscauOns to pay
his debts and considerable more. The nro.
cess is very summary and very simple one.
The colonel takes the property of any man,
no matter who, and sells it at auction under
the confscation act. No trial is had to rrovo
that the man is disloyal. If the coonelw wants
his property he seizes it, and as no one would
bid against him, he gets it for mere nomi.
nal sum. The people are thus stripped of all
their property-many of them deservedly so,
too, and many wrongfully. But its coufsca
ton, in this way, does the United States nc
good, for specializing officers, or their friend.
get it for mere nothing, whereas, it ought &
sell for its full value, and thus help pay the
expenses of the war
The national flag now waves triumphantly
II Al Al