Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1867-04-12
THE DERELICTION OF MANY OF
THE LATE OFFICERS OF
OUR ARMY.

There is nothing so embarrassing and an
hoylng In this life of business as to be un-
der the necessity of attempting to transact
business with men who are deaf to all your
= appeals and treat your requests with, silent
contempt, or who, if they are moved to re-
spond to your demands, have been so dere-
lleto duty as never to have made any rec
ord OF the facts desired, and consequently
are wholly unable to supply the much desi-
red information. This is an every day oc-
currence in the prosecution of claims of wild
ows aud mothers for pensions.
kind and excellent husband, the best of
athers, patriotic to the last breath though
spoor, could not leave his beloved family, for
Mhom he was the best of providers, until
he was drafted into the service; perhaps he
doubted whether his health was such as to
permit him to endure the hardships of the
held, but he promptly reported hasty ex-
animation by Board of Enrolment and he
Mas ordered to don the national uniform and
was hurried forward to the scene of activity
F1fore Petersburg or elsewhere. The
Change, the active life, the anxiety, the
pver-exertiOn, develope dormant disease,
he is ordered to the rear, put into an ambu-
lalce and expires OH the way to the hospi-
tT The bereayed widow and orphans real
re ethe terrible reality that their hope, their
all, has been torn from them, and for the
first timein life they behold wan, ghastly
a want approaching their humble threshold.
x few dollars back pay are secured promptly
through that efficient officer, Hon. E. B.
French, I'd Auditor of the Treasury. At
the same time an application is made to that
superlative of Circumlocution offices,
the Pension Office, for Pension Months
roll away before any action is communica-
ted to the applicant. In the meantime the
few dollars of back pay are consumed and
debt is incurred to provide the necessaries
, of life. The once happy family is broken
up. the widow must labor to provide susie
nance for her babe; her debtors become i'm
Fortunate and doubt whether she will ever
getla Pension, and distress the already mis-
egabie widow and her wretched little ones
ON every hand. Death is coveted as a re-
lieffrom the pangs and woes of this ungen-
crous life AT last she is, perhaps, assured
that all the testimony necessary to the sue
cessful prosecution of her case is made
Hope takes the place Of despair In the
midst of her anticlpations comes a demand
Tor the evidence of some commissioned off |
7scer having personal kno,oledge of the time
: when, the place where and the circum-
|. stances under which the disease was con-
tracted. A year or eighteen months
have rolled away. The officers have
been discharged and gone to the four quar-
-ttocFspf the globe. The Adjutant Generali is
applied to, he may know their post Office ad
dress, or he may not but grant it that he
does they are written to and weeks and
months again roll away before any reply is
received, if any is received; orperhaps, af
ter several communications they deign to
reply that they know nothing, verify. This
is uniformity the case in four applications
out of five, and in nineteen cases out Of
twenty in the applications of drafted men.
The above is onlyone many cases.
The Government for the purpose of pro- |
tecting itself against few frauds has allow
ed the adoption of rules so stringent in the
Pension Office that there is not county in |
the loyal States, but has at least dozen
such cases pending, and we can point to
twenty in the county of Bedford alone Is
sit not horrible to contemplate the misery
and wretchedness which is thus entailed by |
! the tlereliction of those whose duty it was
TO possess such information and to i'm
part it promptly. We hope every officer
who may read this article, if he has any
such requests made to him, will see to it at
once that ii is promptly answered, and with
the best information in his possession, as
upon his immediate response may depend
the happiness or wretchedness of some no
bic woman and her haplessinfants.