The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1868-11-05
i EE'S NERSERAREES.
BY JOHN ESTEN COOKE.

''>N ''eo a tISCc Oh nuuOr, was
1t not, reader And the name had
somewhat curious origin. Victor Hugo's
work, Les -Hisera6IeS, had been translated
and published by a house in Richmond
the soldiers, in the great dearth of reading
matter, had seized upon it; and thus. by
strange chance, the tragic story of the
great French writer had become known to
the soldiers in the trenches Everywhere
you might see the gaunt figures in their
tattered jackets, bending over the dingy
pamphlets, ''Fautaine," "Cosette," ssMa-
RUS" or "St. Denis, and the woes of
''Jean VaJean," the galley slave, found
| an echo in the hearts of these brave SOL
dlers, immured in the trenches and fettered
by duty TO their muskets or their cannon.
Singular fortune of "a writer Happy NJ.
Hugo Your fancies crossed the ocean,
| and, translated into another tongue, whiled
away the dreary hours of the old soldiers
of Lee, at Petersburg!
Thus, that history of ''The Wretched'
was the pabulum of the South in 1864 :;
and as the French title had been retained
on the backs of the pamphlets, the soldiers,
little familiar with the Gallo prouuncia~
tion, called the book 'Lees MiserabesL'
Then another step was taken. 1t was no
longer the book, but themselves whom
they referred to by that name. The old
veterans of the army thenceforth laughed
at their miseries. and dubbed themselves
grimly, ''Lee's Miserables :"
The sohriquet was gloomy, and there
was something tragic in the employment
OF 1t; bnt it was applicable. Like most
popular terms, it expressed the exact
thought in the mind of every oue-ccined
the situation into phrase
Truly, they were ''Ihe Wretched, =
the soldiers Of the army of Northern Vir-
ginia, in the fall and winter of 1851
They had a quarter Of pound of rancid
"Nassau bacon"-from New England
for daily rations of meat The handful
of -four, or corn-meal, which they receiy-
ed, was musty. Coffee and sugar were
doled out as a luxury, now and then only;
and the microscopic ration became lest
TO those who looked at it. a little
''grease' and corn bread-the grease ran
cid, and the bread mus:y-these were the
food of the army.
Their clothes, blankets, and shoes were
no better-even worse Only at long in
tervals could the Government issue new
ones TO them. Thus the army was in tat
ters. The old clothes hung on the men
Ike scarecrows. Their gray jackets were
in rags, and did not keep out the chilly
wind sweeping over the frozen felds.-
Their old blankets were in shreds, and
gave them little warmth when they wrap
ped themselves up in them, shivering in
the long cold nights. The old shoes,
patched and yawning, bad served in many
a march and battle-and now allowed the
naked sole to touch the hard and frosty
ground.
Happy the man with new blanket! -
Proud the possessor Of whole rounda~
bout! What millionaire or favorile child
of fortune passes yonder-the owner Of an
unpatched pair of shoes?
Such were the rations and clothing of
the army at that epoch rancid grease,
musty meal, tattered jackets, and worn~
out shoes. And these were the fortunate
ones Whole divisions often went with
out bread even, for two whole days
Thousand had no jackets, no blankets,
and no shoes. Gaunt forms, in ragged
old shirts and torn pantaloons only,
clutched the musket. At night they hud-
died together for warmth by the fire in
the trenches. When they charged, their
naked feet left blood marks on the abatis
through which they went at the enemy
Tat is not an exaggerauon, reader
These facts arc of record
And that was a part only. 1t was not
only famine and hardship which they un-
Il A,,t H.
mortal tedium-of the trenches. All
the trenches Those words summed up
- whole volume of suffering. No longer
fighting in open field, no longer winter
quarters, with power TO range; no longer
freedom, fresh air, healthful movement
the trenches
Here, cocped up and hampered at every
turn, they fought through all those long
months of the dark autumn and winter of
1864. They were no longer men, but
machines loading and firing the musket
and the cannon. Burrowing in their
holes, and subterranean covered-ways,
they crouched in the darkness, rose at
the sound of coming battle, manned the
breastworks, or trained the cannon-day
after day, week after week, month after
month, they were there in the trenches at
their grim work and some fiat of Des-
tiny seemed to have chained them there to
battle forever At midnight, as at noon,
they were at their posts. In the dark.
ness, dusky figures could be seen swing
ing the sponge-staf, swabbing the cannon,
driving home the charge. In the star-
light, the moonlight, or the gloom lit by
by the red glare, those figures, resembling
phantoms, were seen marshaaiiied behind the
hre,asstworks to rerrel the coming assault.
Silence had fed from the trenches-the
crash Of musketry and the below of artil-
lery had replaced it. That seemed never
TO cease. The men were rocked 10 sleep
by it. They slept on in the dark trenches,
though the mortaF-thells rose, described