The weekly pioneer and Democrat. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. Territory) 1855-1865, 1864-05-13
Military SlOthfulness.

Major General Dana has been assigned to the
Northwest, as an Inspector General, with spe-
cial directions to get veterans and absentees to
the front with the utmost possible dispatch.
He is to commence his work in Ohio.
Among the news items we find the
above. 1t has more significance than many
may at first be inclined to believe. 1t
shows that our Northern troops have
Jagged behind, and that the Government
has in this way implicitly acknowledged
that fact, about which every sincere, hon
est patriot has been for the last year so in
quisitive and anxious. We have said be-
fore that there were thousands upon thou
sands of Northern troops in regular and
full military organization-doing nothing
not even drilling but having good
time generally, in gay festivities and
snowy street parades; while the only real
military token that strikes the ear Of civil
life is the tocsin of the the tattoo and the
somewhat irregular rereiNe for the rising
of the sun!
The great fact is not yet disclosed to the
public which has heretofore caused the
government to sleep, as we think, over the
error involved in this thing. 1t will be
asked in history why every little town in
the North was garrisoned with their hun
dreds of Provost Marshal guards, while
every breath of news from the South
shows that the rebels are massing and
hurrying forward their myrmidons to a
point where the echo OF their cannon may
be almost heard in the marble halls of our
national legislature.
We believe that every one of the gallant
men who have joined the army with
the exceptions Which the fallibility of hui
man nature will account for) purposed to
do something for the great cause of their
country. We know as Minnesotians that
our citizens who have volunteered in this
cause hoped to do something beside garri-
soning forts and wearing blue clothes with
brass buttons at the expense of the general
government. The history and glorious ex-
ample of the heroic First, and Second, and
Third, and Fourth, and Fifth, is the index
of what Minnesota troops intended to do,
and would do, if they were only given
chance. .s
Why, then, we ask, is the Sixth Regi-
ment still kept here in obscure inactivity?
Why are not all cur able-bodied, stout
hearted Minnesotians who are in the SER
vice (and not otherwise actively and use
fully engaged) sent to the front, where
honors and true military services await
them, and where the true soldiers boon is
before them-"to rush to glory or the
grave"?
As far as the Indians are concerned, the
necessity of any more troops than are now
in effect on the frontier to cope with these
savages, is about similar necessity to that
of 81 third wheel to cart" We cannot
believe that the scattered tribes of desti-
tute, half-starved, unarmed Indians need
any force against them to either subdue or
scatter them (Which latter is the general
result of Indian wars) than the forces un-
der Gen. SuLLY and the cavalry Of HATCH
and BRACKxrr. But if Gen. Pope is to
control the matter, the people may set it
down as a fact that there will be great
deal more folly than military success in the
campaign; and if the whole military
affairs Of the country are to be draggled
along as they have been for some time
past, we may look for the end of our trou-
bles many times before we see it.
Of