The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-22
A SUBJECT FOR GENERAL SHERMAN
AND FOR CONGRESS-,
From the N. Y. Sun.

From the N. Y. Sun.
We sincerely hope that one of the first sub
jects taken up by Congress at it's approaching
session will be an inquiry into the condition
and treatment of the enlisted men of our
little army, and the manner in which recruit
ing for it is conducted. That something is
radically wrong somewhere is but too appa-
rent from the frightful number of desertions
occurring throughout the army; and though it
has been said that in his forthcoming annual
report General Sherman will confine himself
to simple statement of facts, without making
any suggestions, we trust he will at least give
such emphasis to this matter as will secure
for it the attention it deserves.
Soldiers, as class, are disinclined to make
complaints. The good men silently bear
with their grievances, while those less gifted
with patience or the spirit of subordiuaton
simply desert as the readiest way of finding
relief. These desertions take place at sta
tions so widely separated as to forbid the
idea of local causes of dissatisfaction. Regi-
ments undergoing the discomforts of a cam
paign suffer by desertion scarcely more than
those quartered within easy reach OF the
pleasures of city.
We have before US the official lists of de-
serters as published by the Eastern Superin-
tendency in this city, between July 10 and
October 20 of the present year-a period of
about three months-in which over five hun
dred deserters are advertised. But this is
not the whole number by many hundreds of
those who, grown tired or disguised, have de-
serted the service Out of the forty regi-
ments of cavalry, artillery, and infantry in
the army, but fifteen regiments appear to
have made reports at all during this time;
and even from these regiments the reports
are but partial, not comprising the whole
command, except in two instances;
for out of the 136 companies of these
fifteen regiments, but "a have fur
nished reports. Five regiments of the fifteen
have only one company to each reporting de-
serters. 1t cannot be said that the want of
reports from other organizations argues no
deserters from them, for we find the whole
ten companies in the 9th Infantry and eight
of the ten in the 9TH Infantry making these
reports; and it will not be supposed for a
moment that the officers in those regiments
are harsher in their treatment or that the
service performed by the men is more severe
than in other commands. The fact is, the
rendering of these reports to the Superin-
tendent is not compulsory, and most organi-
cations make none at all. 1t is but fair to
suppose that, were all the captains compelled
to make these reports to the Superintendent,
it would be found that the number of de-
sertions from the different regiments would
average about the same.
Taking these official lists as data, and
averaging for all the organizations, without
counting the ordnance, engineers, or West
Point detachments, we find the aggregate of
desertioDs from the army to be nearly four
thousand for the year ending Oct 20, 1870!
Such a state of affairs is worse than dis
creditable; it demands the closest scrutiny
and the sharpest measures of reform. In-
| deed as matters now stand, it is seriously a
question whether it would not, as an econo-
mical and military measure, be beneficial to
the Government if the present system of
recruiting were abandoned altogether, and
that of hiring men as soldiers, with the expi-
ration of their term of service dependent on
their own will and that of their employers
always with three months notice to quit
substituted in its place.
We have the best paid, best fed, and most
comfortably clad army in the world; SO that
the causes of this widespread decentralization
lie outside the material wants of the men. II
the War Department cannot grasp the diff
Guilty, by all means let Congress do it, anG
make army service what it should be, an EN-
ployment to be sought after by honest
temperate, and patriotic young men, only too
glad to give five of their youthful years tt
the service of their country in exchange 70
q military education, and an assured anC
honorable standing in the community.
THE PRETENSE OF PROTECTION.
n ,oTn the ~ Y. World