The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1863-02-20
Whas the Yankee Soldiers Say and
Think.


The Providence r. ~ Post prints ex-
tracts from several letters written by SOL
diers now in the army OF the Potomac.
which are very significant. One writer,
who has been connected with the army
almost from it's organization, and who
has never uttered a word of complaint
until now, writes:
DEAR C-s am sick of this war-so
sick that do not care upon what terms
it is settled. | have seen thousands Of
men lying mangled on fifteen or sixteen
different battleields-al for nothing
Wives, sisters, mothers, and children
losing their husbands, brothers, sons, and
fathers-all for nothing. For here we
have been fighting for over year and a
half and we have not gained one point.
We have lived, and are nows living. on
nine or ten crackers, a piece:oE raw pork,
and some miserable copperas water, called
coffee, per day, all to fill the pockets of a
lot OF thieves, who are trying TO make all
they can out of the people and The Gov,
eminent The soldiers are al scourag-
ed' and VIII not fight as thes ald once
on the -Penlnsula-1.z1Aiis-z5s zs.ssr- frs-l.
Washington is the nigge1,%ttfe nigger,
the -- black, filthy 1igger. One mig
ger is thought more of than twenty
white men who have left home and all
that Is worth living for, to come and lay
down their lives, if need be, to save their
country, while the leaders are dong their
utmost to ruin it. 1t is not because we
can't beat the rebels. that the war is not
over by this time; for we can beat them.
But it is because the Government is too
busy thinking of the niger to see that
the men are where they ought to be when
they are wanted You must not set me
down as growler. | have good reason
for my growing. Almost every man in
the army thinks as / do. If Job had
served in the army of the Potomac, he
would have sinned, and most fearfully
too.
The following extract is from letter
written near Falmouth, by member of
one of the regiments raised in 1862
The writer has been known for several
years in the village of Woonsocket, Mas
sachusetts, as an active republican poll
tician, and was vote distributor at the
polls at the last town-meeting which he
attended:
Had / known as much of the man
agement of things six months ago as |
know now, fifty yoke of oxen could not
have drawn me out here. 1t is all a id
political humbug, and got up to make
offices for lazy otfice-seekers. [ wish the
leaders were as far the other side Of par
gatory as they are this side. 1t has turn
ed out to be an abolition war, and ninety
nine soldiers out of hundred say that
if the abolitionists are going to carry on
the war, they will have to get a new ar
my. They say they came ont here to
fight for the Union, and not for pack
of id niggers. These niggers are lazy
and dirty; they will lie and steal; and
they are saucy where they dare to be-
, If soldier touches an officer aisger, he
will get court martialed and lose a
months pay. A niger is thought more
of by the government than the soldiers
are. They get as much, or more to eat,
get as much pay, and don't t.haVe to fight
any. A curse on such things! l hope
something will turn up before to morrow
night that will settle this war. We got
whipped at Fredericksburg, and we shall
get whipped every time we fight in Vir-
giniaI / don't think the North is right
any more than the South"