Arizona silver belt., 1878-07-25
S Ir
AN EX1TNCI RAOE
The Private Sol ter in the
 Var Of the n ebellion 5

At the decoration of thsf graves oi the Union soldiers in the National Cemetery at Gestysbarg General B. F. Butler delivered an address on ssThe private soldier in the var of lhe rebellion. 3 It vas 6 touching tbeme. There IS always 8 wonder ful pathos in the speech or play or story founded on a life that has ceased to exist. This is the charla of uUncie Toms Cabin. this is the power of Joaquin Aziler 'Danites, 7 this must have lent tenderness and pathos to General Buffers address.
 The private soldier in the var of the rebellion. He is dead. Or lost. SHayed or aolen, possibly Ke d0 not know where he Is, bat he is not here. He has gone away to some place. Perhaps he has ceased to be necessary. Perhaps If he were here he would be h the way At any rate. he is not around. Be does not 20 to the Legislature. We do not find him in Congress. He $ not eagerly sought as 2 candidate for anything. Nobody seems to know anything about him. Occasionally be appears at the pension list, with one leg, q wife and seven children, sad ss8 $ month. Ifhour takes much of 8 rise he viii not last much longer st this rate, and we Wil soon be de prived even of the occasional glimpse Ee have of him.
 It is asserted, and quite generally believed, that at one tIme he vas qulte numerous, and vas esen con sldered rather convenient, if not, in- deed, quite indispensable. q vas found that upwards of 100 of him were necessary in. order to secure msre line commissions for three emi- nent and deserving men, Nhen field commissions were wanted for shree even more eminent and great men upwards of l 1000 private soldi CTS were necessary. One thousand! It seems an enormous number nov, when by consulting the Congression- al directory we ind there are none in all this proud republic. But l2 or 15 years ago. even that, incredible as t may appear te us to-day. was considered a small number. There were private soldieEs and private sol diers. There were even hundreds of th0usa nds of them
 And they were useful They dug trenches; they constructed long lines of breas6works, and then, when an enemy came within sight, they climb ed 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 to their rewards h oneI oface and spether, these .privatesol- \ diers sometimes rendered vsry useful service in winning great battles, oh, they were usefal. Some historians have even gone so fa2 as to maintain that without them the var could hard .y have been carried to 3 successful They were really quite aseful.
 And now they are al gone. Itl seems sad, looking pack at the war, that none but the Generals and Col onels and Majors and line officers 1 should have survived it's dreadful -avages Providence, eyer handful of the wants of 3 great and growing ! nation, undoubtedly took special care of these great men, and in its great ! anxiety that the country should noE Iaffer from a lack of eminent men, i zind of forgot the private soldiers snd let them wander away And 30 hey are al gone. Some of them got | hot, some of them died. Some of hem got married and mo7ed out of be werld. to settle up0n tracts 9f | land. where She Indians i ,ould get at them more easily. Some e t4eno vvonf info hucinnsr. Same # them are teaching school. Some 1 # them are driving dray. Some of I hem vent away, and oidnt leave .heu present address. But all the 'ame, thsg are all gone, and lt seems l lreadfully lonesome without them. There used to be so many of them. Burlington HaWkeye.
 A Tucson letter to the Citizen says: I