Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1862-07-31
MEN WANTED.

The country to-day is in pressing need of
men stout in heart and strong in arm to sus-
tain the government and put down the rebel
lion. At no other period since the immediate
danger to our national capital was averted has
this need been so seriously felt. Men of char
acter are wanted both for officers and soldiers
men who will go to the war not "for the fun of
the thing" not for ambition for military dis
tinction, but because their country has need of
their services, because duty calls and honor
prompts obedience to that cali.
No greater injury has been done to the IN
ion cause than by Senator Wilson who, as
chairman of the Committee on military Affairs,
said in his place in the Senate and authoratively
that our armies were already to large and that
no more men should be raised. The Admins
tration acted upon this suggestion, enlisments
were stopped and the country rested upon this
as surance that we had men enough in the field
TO speedily put down the rebellion. During all
this time regiment after regiment of our troops
was detached to garrison towns and forts taken
from the enemy hundreds after hundreds were
falling in battle or into the hands of the rebels
and thousands after thousands evaporated
through discharges, furloughs or assertions.
While these things have been going on in the
Union army the rebels have been Increasing
their forces by voluntary enlistments and by
CONSUMPTION until they have, it is believed,
nearly or quite twice as many men in the field
as they had six months since On the other
hand our magnificent army of 600 men has
dwindled away until it is doubtful if more than
one half Of that number could to-day be
mustered for effective service. Our men are
gone and no one, not even their officers, knows
where. Instead of being in the field they are
scattered all over the country. In nearly every
town and village may be found able bodied men,
sporting their military dress and lettering about
haunts of dissipation, who should be in the
field with the regiments into which they enlis-
ted, serving their country according to their
agreement.
Near the close of Congress Senator Chandler
made speech, the spirit of which we cannot com
mend, but which contains some facts appropriate
to be considered and relevant to this discussion
The Senator, member of the Committee on
the Conduct of the War, had peculiar facilities
for learning the strength and disposition of our
forces, and in his speech he used these facts
and figures by special permission of the COM
mlttee of which he was member. Of course
they may be considered as accurate and reliable.
In his speech he read from the testimony of
John Tucker, Assistant Secretary of War,
showing that Gen. Mcclellan had sent to him
in the Peninsula, prior the 9th of April, l2O,-
600 men and that between that time and the
date OF the first engagement before Richmond
he was reinforced with 38 900 more men, max
ing in all l5s,OO0 men at his disposal. 1t is
not as yet fully known how many men Gen.
Mcclellan had in his army at the commence
ment of the six days fight before Richmond,
but we have seen no estimate that placed the
number higher than %, 600, while the estimates
generally agree that his force was between So
900 and 10000. Assuming that he had 5000
men under his command on the goth of June,
where are the other 60, 600 that had been sent
to him in the Peninsulap Here is loss in
about four months of more than two-ffhs of
" $40 o'' "'" "Vi' appointed dlulyt not OUOU
of whom fell in all the battles engagements,
and skirmishes between Lees Mills and Fair
Oaks inclusive What has become of these
10000 menP Have they died digging bitches
in the malaral swamps of the Chickahominv
or have they been furlough'd and discharged
Granting that these figures are substantially
correct, and we see no reason to doubt their
evidence, the Peninsula expedition of our army
can only be paralleed by the frightful Walch-
eren expedition of the British asmy in 1909.
As additional evidence of the great losses
from Deaths disease, desertions and the like
casualties, the condition of the 9TH Vermont
Regiment is a case in point. That regiment
left the State in September last with 1910 men.
Since then there has probably been recruited
into the regiment at least an additional hun
dred men. The first engagement of the regi-
ment with the enemy occurred on the lst Of
July last, and when it went into action it num-
bered less than 900 men, out of the 100 or
more who had belonged to it. We understand
that the other regiments of the Vermont Brig
ade were not much if any stronger at that time.
The causalties OF all kinds in the army of
the Western Department, numbering originally
from 10000 to 10000 men, since it went into