The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1878-08-15
AN EXTINCT RACE.

1.-The Private Soldier in the War OF the ne
beion."
| The "lprivate soldier in the war OF the
rebellion" He is dead. Or lost. STRAY
ed or stolen, possibly. Wedo not know
where he is, but he is not here. He has
gone away to some place. Perhaps he
has ceased to be necessary. Perhaps ii
he were here he would be in the way.
AT any rate he is not around. He does
not 20 to the Legislature. We do not
find him in congress He is not eagerly
sought as a candidate for anything. No
body seems to know anything about him.
Occasionally he appears on the pension
list with one leg, vile and seven chill
.dren, and eight dollars month. 1t
-four takes much of rise, he will not
last much longer at that rate, and we
shall soon be deprived even OF the occa-
sional glimpse we now have of him.
1t is asserted, and quite generally be
lieved, that at one time he was quite nu-
merous, and was even considered rather
convenient, If not, indeed, quite indis-
,pensable. 1t was found that upwards of
100 of him were necessary in order to Sc
cure mere lines of commissions Tor three
eminent and deserving men. When field
commissions were wanted for three even
more eminent and great men upwards of
4 900 private soldiers were necessary.
One thousandl 1tseems an enormous
number now, when by iconsulting the
congressional directory we find there
are none in all this proud republic. But
- ,or15 yearsago even that, incredible
as it may appear to lie to-day, was con
sidered q small number. There were
private soldiers and private soldie.s
There were even hundreds of thousands
of them.
And they were useful. They dug
trenches; they constructed long lines of
lbreastworks, and then, when an enemy
came within sight, they climbed over
them and went outside of them to fight.
They worked and watched and fought.
Cooperating with great and eminent
men who have since passed ito their
rewards in one office and another, these
private soldiers sometimes rendered
very useful service in winning great
battles. Oh, they were useful. Some
historians have even gone 80 far as Ito
maintain that without them the war
could hardly have been carried TO q
successful termination. They were really
quite useful.
\ And now they aresall gone. 1T seems
sad, looking back at the war, that nont
4 but the generals and colonies and ma
ljors and line officers should have sur
\ vived its dreadful ravages. Provi
i dences, even mindful of the wants of /
great and growing nation, ,undoubtedl,
took special care of these great men
and in great anxiety that the countr.
should not suffer from allack of eeminen
men, kind of forgot the private soldier
and let them wander away. And q
! they are all gone. Some of them go
shot. Some of them got married ami
moved out of the world, to settle upol
tracts of government Land, where th
Indians could get at them more easily
Some of them went into business. Som
of them are teaching school. Some &
!, them are diving ,dray. Some of ther
went away and jdidn'tlleaye their, preser
7 address. Bntiall the same, they are d
gone and it seems dreadfulIy lonesom
without them. There used to he i
many of them. II Hawkeye.
q How to DO dt.--A subscriber of