Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1863-02-25
OUR ARMY CORRESPONDENCE.
From the Sd Wisconsin.


The Virginia Mld-Hoso Regiments are Re
duced-Foar hundred Volunteers left-What
the Third has bee, doing of lafe-Errrors of
! the Ne,ospapers- The Old Regiments Sound to
the Core-The "a en- of the Big Bounty Epoch
furnish the Deserters-Ihe Army disgusted
tcih Northern Croakers.
Correspondence of the State journal.
OAxP OF sD REGIMENT WISCONSIN, vo1urr.ERs,
Near Stafford Court House, Va, Feb. H. 1862. I
The Third Wisconsin still lives; that is
to cay. if being cast away in an ocean of
| mud-not the rich dark mould of prairie
land, reeking with agricultural wealth
and life-giving fertility, but the barren
sposh from which the leech of slavery has
drained whatsoever is favorable to the
growth of vegetable things-if this can
be called living without any indecent
stretch of significance, then we still live.
A parcel earned geoloeist might classi-
fy Us with the fossil remains of another
stratum, and claim Us as evidence of an
earlier order of beings but with some
slight mental and physical reservations
we persistently claim to still live. By
dint of six mule teams and an incessant
semi raft navigation of corduroy roads
all afloat like the affairs of the nation
we manage to subsist; and with little
help from the papers and other works of
fiction, more amusing and less mischevious
than the general run of war news, our
consciousness doesn't struggle very far in
rear of the,great column en- route of the
present race and age.
Our regiments existence is qualified by
another consideration. We have now to-
gether about two-fifths of the bodies and
souls that went originally to the making
up of our corps. On paper we number
644 at this writing. Four hundred pres
ent, all told, is our fighting weight. For
the remainder, call the rolls of hospital or
peer into the faces of mud cased teams
tiers, wagoners, etc. OF all ranks-thin-
ming visitations, "detached service" is
one that comes oftenest and always goes
off with booty. Something over 1875 have
been discharged during the past year for
disability, some 80 have died of diseases,
in battle and of wounds, and to complete
the depletion, the War Department last
fall let loose among Us cOrmOrant gang
of recruiting officers of the regular army,
who in short metre wiped out IS names
from our muster rolls and would have
gobbled up the balance had not their
merciless game been stopped.
But the few that are left are, as | said,
every ounce fighting weight-the nerve
that privation and peril has made steady
and strong-the muscle that Tugs without
murmur the greats shoulder CALLING KNAPP
sack, one days rations in belly, three in
haversack, the double supply Of cartridges
which plods cheerfully through mud
that has neither bottom nor end marches
when need be on half ratlons and under
double burdens; the enduring frame tina:
sleeps in mud, rain and cold stands the
life wearing picket night and day in
weather that is nasty conglomeration of
all climes and seasons; and so we say
with honest, veteran pride that the gaunt-
framed Old Third Wisconsin-tough and
spare as an Arab-still lives
The 18th Army Corps, to which We be-
long, and which, while commanded by
Banks made for him his military fame,
was after the battle of Antietam turned
into the Army of the Potomac as corps
of all work, SO to speak. When the Grand
Army left the Upper Potomac we were
left behind and put to the task of fortfy-
ing Harper's Ferry, defending Maryland,
and standing all the picket and camp di-
arrhea that mortals could endure. No
sooner had the corps feled the trees of
hundreds of acres, dotted the heights of
Loudoun and Maryland with forts, and
| linked them together with long lines of
| breastworks, and built their rude shan
| ties for shelter, than orders to join Burn
side started US from the post made impreg-
nable by our toll. Pushing down nearly
to Burnside, the repulse at Fredericksburg
changed the plan; we were about faced
and went back to "cover Washington"
| Stuart's Cavalry lurking around US, and
dartlng, through our lines kept Us as good
as under arms most of the time, till
the last movement was projected, then
we were ordered to join the main army
once more. The march from Fairfax was
made in rainy weather-the other corps
here sunk fast in the mud and we came
wallowing down only to sink beside them
and here we remain sin statu quo," which
being interpreted means stuck in the mud.
| Our condition is the most active OF all in.
1 activities, as any home grumbler can find
by taking his post In quagmire and at
tempting to maintain his level
| All this is hard enough to bear. 1t is
weary WdllluS W 11o SOluleT rs well as the
| country. The constant vigilance required
when before the enemy renders inaction
anything but idleness. The chronic aspect
of the war is painful enough to him who
sees the future sprinkled with blood and
dotted with graves, and feels that many
battle fields are between him and his
home. This is dispiriting enough, but the
hue and cry of the press, proclaiming
through the land that the Army of the Po-
tomac as demoralised, insu5ordinate and
disdDected, this is the bitterest pill of all
Branded day by day as great immobile
mass of Incidence that ought to be broken
up and scattered, the Army has grown
heart-sick, and it may truly be said that
| the press is responsible for all the despond.
ency the Army feels. The press has crea-
| ted it, and nursed it.
True, the Army felt indignant when Nc
| Clellsn was snatched from them, in an
| hour when they were all confidence in
him and victory. They bore it as the SOL
| der should. Their hearts swelled with
| indignant sorrow at the carnage at Fred
| ericksburg. so fearful and useless. But
they have been shamefuly misrepresented,
! they are sound to the core. The old
troops are tull of the old fire. The hired