Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-04-08
LErrERs FRom rHE wAE.
Br BENJAMIN ?. TAYLOR.
En Route for ChattanOOga snd Knoxville.
Especial Correspondence to the Chicago Evening
Journal

Ap LCDIa
Again in the region where bsyOnets
sprout as dense as the springing corn in
Junei again fastening toward that rugged
iron Veneering called the Front-a sylla-
bic more often written and more seldom
understood, perhaps, amid the homes OF
peace, than any other world again re-
sumo the dull role Of '1ooker on" And
yet, when think of how many thousands
Of eyes you ask me to see; eyes flashing
with 60 much Of the intellect, besuty,
loyalty, Of the Northwest, my dull work
brightens into something precious, and
my pencil seems q grsnder implement
than before. The God Of Battles grant no
words Of mine may ever cloud those eyes
with the tidings Of Federal defeat
It happened to me, ss your readers hard
Iy need be told, to follow, for time, the
fortunes of the Army Of the Cumberland
not 10 grasp q musket, but to WELD g
meaner weapon and trife with q pen.
And yet they must believe that some stray
nerve Of mine felt down its way ct last,
to that pencils point, and almost before
Enev it was writing my heart out in I'D.
miration and love for the fortitude and
vslor Of those Federsl journeymen Of ours,
splendid in doing, and grand in suffering;
q love and faith as warm and bright be-
meath the clouds Of Chickamsuga, IS when
our host moved up, before my eyes, amid
the thunderings and lightnings and thick
darkness Of Lookout, that Mount Sinai Of
the new world, or surged sublimely over
the fiery crest Of Mission Ridge. The
camps Of that dear old Army Of the Cum
berland, swelled, indeed, by tens Of thou
sands, feck the landscape beyond the
mountains, and surely the fascination is
not strange that now draws me after 1t, TO
share again its fortune or its fate.
Banging and changing down the road
from Jacksonville to Louisville, with q
blue elbow thrust in each zide and q mus
ket muzzel Just under your left ear, is no
bad beginning for an abundant entrance
into grand war department; and, cough
ed over the Ohio by an asthmstio ferry
boat you ara borne at once, into Louisville
and new world. A city under military
rule is 8 good deal like Avernus or a
mouse-trsp, since it is wonderfully easy
to get in, but quite another thing to get
out. So you must needs wait a day at
Louisville, while the contents Of your
snugly-packed trunk are tumbled up like
the bed Of the sluggsrd, by a man with
blue elbows, in search Of something con-
traband Of war, and while the Provost
Marshal decides whether it is your room
or your company they most want at the
Front.
Nashville pulsates like a heart with
regiments moving TO the Front. Depots
are congested, trains show blue like full
veins, sidewalks are azure, hotels cerulesn
but not heavenly. Such is the movement
of troops that the railroad is unequal to
the work Of transportation, and regiments
vile for Chattanooga. You see linked in
the same train, cars lsbled "Memphis,"
Charleston" uNeW Orleans" 'Indisnsp-
oils" "Gslens and Chicago" "Miehigan
perfect pentecost Of rail-
roads. If everything in Nashville is blue
outside, at least il must be lined with green.
Great t,green-bscks" Wither away on every
hand Of the slightest touch, into tawny
Of postal currency. You can
buy more discomfort for four dollars day
in Nashville than in any other city out Of
Dixie. They strip you Of every green
thing, as a schoel-msster strips birchen
rod, for purposes Of Endorsement. Tsrry
ong, and you will look as If the locusts
lad been at you; and saw in the eGiV5
II noteI, conspieuously displayed, for
list ct guests who had left with !
,ut turning gresH-to wit; without paying |
heir bills. This novel bulletin contained.
am sorry to say, the names of few Off
,ers Of the Federal army.
By the calendar it is Spring, but the
,roSd fields Of Kentucky and Tennessee
re as gray as Illinois, the trees shiver in
heir nskedness and fires glow cheerfully
q the CRATES. Here aud there in shelter
places, you may see an ambitious shrub
q blossom, or flower showing colors,
ut the gates Of April are not yet set wide.
he breadths Of dull dead wheat in South
m Indiana that meet your eye, as you
ass, ssdden the ride, and in many por-
ions Of Kentucky the farmers are already
1rning under their last hope Of wheaton
'af, with the piow.
With but few exceptions, the health of
le army in this Department is vigorous,
nd men were never more thoroughly sea-
,ned for the work of aotive campaign.
think they have grown rougher and
ugher since l last saw them. but in the
" Of battle they will be found where the
orm beats widest, standing steady and
ue. And must say one thing just here,
Id beg your readers to give it the
eight it may deserve. Some Of them
I'VE had occasion to censure the rude
nduct Of soldiers at home, and they have [
me it in unmessured terms. Wo-
en- have been annoyed and men insulted,
the streets and on the cars Of the North,
: 3 soldier now and then, who had "put
i enemy in his mouth to steal away his
aims" and while there is no palliation :
r it, beg those men and women to re-
ember that in the dark day, and in the I
slant FrOrt that very soldier has rolled
ok the surges Of war, that they come not
gh their dwellings; that he win dare all,
dure all, do all for country and for God.
re ever clown in the cars 2 Is he =
de Of speech All, see hin as he moves
t in the skirmish line, ss gsily as her ]
before the king. AS graceful as ApOl-
then; not rude then; his breast be-
cen you and death. All, see him, as,
lit into the solid wall Of blue, he cleaves
: hattie as ship Of the line cuts the G
,sted ses. Firm, calm, strong, steady
ed, true-hesrted-see him then, and for
It sake, forgive his rude deed and rough a
I'd. Forgiven You will do more; you q
Il forget, and you will glorify him.
d save the Soldiers Of the Republic =
Democratic Version of the Coles County
massaere.
MATFooN AnriI