The weekly Ottumwa courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1857-1872, 1869-01-21
Let Us Have Peace.

What's the matter ut Des Moines?
Some body has Sc, up man of straw
and is fighting it valiantly. He dis
covers shmchow or somewhere fend
between OK officers aud ex privates,
and he shouts valiantly for shoulder
straps to clear the track, and swears
that the cx-private is the coming
man. Now, after that Des Moines
chap gets over his slight attack of
lunacy, caused by Post Office or
something else on the brain, he will
discover that his fright and his fight
have been with wind mill. The
only Lee county Office held by u Re-
publican is held by private soldier.
In no county that we know have the
claims of the private soldier been ig-
norcd.
We notice this matter because this
Shoulder Strap Us. the Footrank cry
is a paltry dodge, unworthy Of any
generous mind. 1t is trying to make
strife where no strife exists. The
grand army of the Union was neccs~
sarily composed Of officers and SOL
diers, and where each done equally
well, each deserves and receives equal
honor from the country. All could
not be officers; tho officers for the
greater part were chosen by the suf.
frage Of their brethren in the ranks.
BY the fortunes of war and his own
soldierly record, the Private soldier
was constantly changing from the
ranks to the officers place. In cam
paign and on battle field each with.
out the other was incapable. The
brave men needed the brave and eff
ticient officers; the officer without his
brave men would have been as moth.
ing. Both were parts ola glorious
whole and together made tho bright
history of the Union arms in the
late war. Companions in the same
enterprise, each necessary to the 9th
er, parts of the same unit of material
strength, exposed to like death, pour
ing kindred blood on battle>felds.
inseparable in danger, in surferings,
in achievements, and in glory, it is,
we repeat, paltry dodge,-an un-
worthy demagogic dodge, to try now
to make strife between officers and
men. 1t is evidently an entirely out.
side party who is trying it-oae who
has been never been private or Off
Ger. All about us are men who went
in as privates, by their tried valor in
battle, by their unflinching soldier
integrity, by the suffrages of their
comrades they became officers; has
their valor become disgrace, their
soldicrly record u thing to be punish
cd because they became officers?
Shall the soldier boys who went un-
Ter Sherman in his march to the sea,
sharing with him the glories Of that
grandest campaign in history-shall
these soldier boys now turn against
old Tecumseh because he wears shout.
der-straps? Shall the soldier boys
whom Grant led to victories East
and West, who share his glory and
whose valor made bis fame, grow
envious of his laurels and his fame,
because he is General? No, wed-
ded in history, in the same insepara-
bic spiendor of soldicrly achievement
are officers and men. The country
they saved honors each alike. And
it is only demagogucry that will now
try to make strife between them, OF
try to make the hero that fought in
the ranks, envious of the comrade
hero who was his officer. The fact
is that this ostentation of espousing
the cause OF the private soldier
against his officers, is suppositious
strife and Is mere officiousness. There
is no occasion for it. Every officer
who is any account, recognizes that
whatever measure of merit is his, is
indissolubly connected with the men
he commanded. What ever of glory
is his, is theirs also. They won the
battles, and theofficerrecognized it. We
don't think there is an officer in the
country who is any account that
doesn't make the recognition. On
every battle. field from Donelson to
Appomattox whatever the strength
of treason was toilcd and and broken,
our private soldiers were the Union
strength that accomplished it. And
not one of the soldier heroes, of any
Of those lights is cnvious of the fame,
or would tarnish Il plume Of his faith
full officer who stood by him in the
fight. Mcpherson fell and Reynolds
guarded the dead body of his general;
both are heroes in their country's
estimation, and we don't envy the
man who could try to make that
soldier taithless to his dead chief be-
cause that chief wore shoulder straps.
Every private soldier in the land un-
derstands the paltrincss of his dodge.
He is not a machine but man; he
puts himself upon his merits, he
doesn't need anybody's sympathy or
officious patronage; he knows that
his country honors him; that what he
can meritoriously claim his country
will gladly grant, and that there is
strife between HIM and The man
whose fortune it was to be his officer
in the common dangers, privations
and responsibilities Of camp and
campaign. We deprccate any init.
nation that there is an antagonism
between the two; we deprecate more
heartily the effort to beget one when
none exists. We don't need to make
ony proclamation here OF our friend.
illness to the soldier, our recognition
Of the country's Indebtedness to him;
we shall stand by him and his inter
ert in word and decd. But we write
this for justice, a justice that no man
will more readily recognize than the
private soldier.-Gate city,
The Vivandiere.
Havipfr lapriyaJ tha Ern,n., 1n,,