The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1863-05-08
THE CONDUCT OF THE WAR.
How Soldiers obtain LiquOr..keOels
I'm Possession Of Federal COun-
tersigns.
GENERAL BUTLER ON HIS SUPERSE-
DURE BY BANKS.

WASHINGTON, April 27.-Advance copies
of the three volumes of the report and evil
dence taken before the Committee on the
Conduct of the War have just been fur
nished to the various correspondents ofthe
press.
These volumes make in the aggregate
nineteen hundred and twenty eight large
octave pages.
The first volume, bound, will be deliv-
cred to the House to-day, and the remain
ing volumes in short time.
Only fifteen working days have elapsed
since the copy was furnished to the Super
intendent OF the Public Printing. This,
added to the immense current work exc.
cuted for all the departments meantime,
will give some idea of the facility with
which work is performed in the govern
ment printing office.
The third volume embraces the testi-
mony taken upon the following subjects !:
Hatteras inlet expedition, Port Royal eX-
petition, Burnside expedition, Fort Donel-
son, &C., capture of New Orleans, invasion
of New Mexico, AccOmac expedition, bat
tie of Winchester, March 20, 1862; Moni-
tor and Merrimac, protecting rebel prop
erty, rebel barbarities, wounded from
Front Royal, Virginia, convalescent camp,
Alexandria, Virginia, trade y military
districts, communicating countersigns, re-
turning slaves, &c.
GENERAL BUTLER ON LIQUOR.
1t appears from a cursory glance az the
document, that Major General Benjamin
f. Butler was asked whether Intoxicating
liquors are used in the army.
TO this General Butler replied as fol-
lows:
They are, TO most wOtul extent.
As an illustration General Butler said
We used to send picket guard up Il mile
and a half from Fortress Monroe. The men
would leave perfectly sober, yet every night
when they came back we would have trouble
with them on account OF their being drunk.
Where they got their liquor from we could not
tell. Night after night we instituted a vigOr-
Gus examination, but it was always the same.
The men were examined over and over again:
their canteens were inspected and yet we could
find no liquor about them.
At last it was Observed that they seemed to
hold their guns up very straight, and upon an
examination being made it was found that ev-
cry gun-barrel was filled with whiSkey-and
it is not always the soldiers who do this.
| ordered Il search of the Adams Express
Company, and examined the packages sent to
the soldiers by their friends, and in one day l
have taken ore hundred and fifty different
packages of liquor from the trunks boxes and
packages sent TO the soldiers bv their sympa-
thising friends at home.
General Butler says he took measures
to suppress this abuse
LIQUOR IN BLENKER's DIVISION.
Captain William, Brigade COmmissary
in General Blenkers division, said, in All
81, L,
ETY., etc:
| think there must be in that division not
less than fifteen. and probably rs many as
twenty-five establishments where they sell IL
quor. lager beer especially, and they all have
whiskey, that they sell privately at the same
stands. But lager beer is the principal article
they deal in-that they deal out in great abun-
dance. 1t is all over the division. | do not
think there is a tent in the division but what
has more or less of it. All the suffers keep it,
and all the stands are crowded all the while.
think it safe to say that you can go there
any day in the week and find on an average five
hundred men i'm that division who you would
say were unfit for duty-drunk enough to put
the whole division to flight on the field Of bat
tie.
know of no remedy in the world that you
can devise, except to cut OFF liquor from officers
and all or to break up the division, separate
the brigadeS, and put them in other divisions
with good commanders.
If you were to separate them and put them
in other divisions with good commanders
good sober officers, think they would make
good soldiers. The soldiers are all Germans
do not think there are one hundred Ameri-
cans in the whole divisions.
The above are two of the most remark
able cases of excessive drinking; but it
would be unfair to judge, by them, the
morals of the army. Since the testimony
was taken, more than Il year ago, the
liquor supplies have, to a very considera-
bic extent been abridged.
GENERALS BUTLER AND BANKS.
1t appears by the testimony of Major
General Butler february 2, 1869 that
eleven days before Major General Banks
left New York, it was known in New Or
leans that the former was to be superced-
ed by him, and bet of zone hundred to
ten dollars" was made in secesh club
rOom," that within twenty days General
Butler would be relieved by General
Banks.
General Weitzel's scouts brought in the
same news from Teche, and ''drunken
broker" whom General Butler had put on
Ship Island for three months, and who had
served out his time there, came to General
Oueplcy ITS cttlly tiiu DOdSUeU
of the fact of q General Butler being SUI
perceded by General Banks"
Question by the Coosnsitee to Gen. Butler-Have
you any means Of knowing the cause of your
removal!
AnsUer-I have no knowledge. have asked
everybody have seen in Washington what
was removed for and nobody has been able TO
tell me.
Federal. COUNTERSIGN KNOWN TO THE RE-
BELS.
Lieut.. Col Frank S. Fiske, of the Sec
ond New Hampshire Regiment, testified
that he was informed by staff officer,
about the Sth of February, 1862, that the
enemy had cried out the countersign
across the Potomac river before our pick
cts had received it. The cOuntersign was
"Chippeway." This was the day when
the Pensacola was expected down. The
supposed reason given for it was that it
might have been taken from the telegraph
wire.
The information was telegraphed down to
our division, that the Pensacola would come
down that night" What the rebels cried out
was THE Pensacola is coming down tonight,
;,,,, cbac namu her we are ready for her