The Wyandot pioneer. (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1853-1868, 1868-12-10
The Manned Brigade.

OO where gu VIII Ill dll IulS lituu-
you will find the members of the
Manned Brigade. The blue has
faded from their dress, and the brass
letters have dropped from their caps,
but there is no mistaking that they
have been soldiers. They have no
need to refer to muster rolls or to
exhibit parchment discharges, to
prove they were in the army. Fifty
thousand strong is the Manned
Brigade! They march in our streets,
not with the precision of yore, but
as undaunted still. Brave men
Their limbs are scattered over a
dozen States. They moulder and
whiten on the same fields with the
bodies Of the patriot slain-and the
hands of the dead may grasp the
dead hands of the living, though the
latter be a thousand miles from the
throbbing hearts that once warmed
them with their blood. Fifty thou
sand men who have laid some one of
their limbs upon their country's al
tar as sacrifices to Liberty move
daily among us. Were they to pass
through this city in regiments, for
a whole day from any given point
could our eyes rest upon the col
umns Of the Manned Brigade. A
thousand tattered battle bags would
wave above them, held by one armed
heroes and many thousand footless
legs would be keeping step to the
music of the Union. Let us no. for
get the one armed and one legged
soldiers who form an army four
times as large as the old army of the
United States, and fully as large as
the present. They need not be
gathered together and passed in re
view before the people in whose be-
half they have suffered and suffer
still, to assert the fact of their be-
ing.
The Government has recognized
them, and given them, as far as they
have made application, pensions and
artificial limbs. But let the people
be careful that they do not forget
them. The battle these poor fel-
lows are now fighting is harder to
win and fraught with more danger
than many battles of the rebellion.
Thousands Of stalwart men, lion
hearted and steel l-nerved, who storm
ed Mission Ridge, or bore down up
on the columns Of Lee without fear,
to day stand appalled, before the
dread squadrons of Winters caval-
ry. A pension is but meagre-a
very meagre support, and an artifi-
cial limb a poor-a very poor sub
stitute. Let any able bodied man,
with family to take care of, ask
himsef for what annuity he would
swap an arm or leg. That is the
way to test the validity of the claim
the MANNED Brigade has upon our
consideration.
There are many places these he
roic men can fill as well as anybody.
Those who have but one arm can
make good bookkeepers; those who
have but one leg can make good
salesman; while neither can plow,
nor SOW, nor reap to advantage.
Away to the fields and the work
shops, you lilly fingered, pale faced,
dwadling dandy behind the dry
goods counter, aud give your place
to a disabled defender of your coun-
try in exchange for a more robust
frame and a more certain future
competency. All ye producers
who have perfect limbs, and who
took good care all through the war
to keep them so, who are now occu-
pying paying positions which the
lame soldier can fill as well, pre-
pare to vacate in his favor. Make
way, say we, for the Manned Bri-
gade !-Chicayo Post.