The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1879-09-04
Sltsce1Imenms.
ADDRESS OF
THOMAS EWING,
AT THE SOLDIERS REUNION, ,sTEU.
BENVILLE, o., AUG. 80.

TIE career OF the volunteer soldier is an
epitome of life.. He rushes to arms with
the ardor of youth, ignorant, but eager
and hopeful. His mind, filled with Wis
ions of glory and stern resolve, ignores
the weary march by day and watch by
night. He sees before him, or thinks he
sees, a holiday campaign, crowned with
j victory, and speedy march home to
the sound of triumphant music. Here,
as in all other pursuits, the future is
vailed from view, and the Imagination is
allowed to paint it in its own colors.
We're it otherwise, could the unfedged
soldier feel in advance how heavy the
knapsack would become and how sore
the feet many would be loath 10 enlist.
His mother or wife loads down the
departing hero with such quantity OF
necessary wearing articles of apparel
and toilet that he wonders when he
comes to unpack them how she ingenu
uosly contrived to squeeze them into
knapsaCk. The number of horses and
wagons, and files of company and regi
mental tents, trunks, writing-cases, bed.
ding and endless baggage are fully
enough to occupy the attention of all
hands, leaving the enemy to take care Of
himself. How we managed to advance
or retreat at all in the beginning, so
loaded down, seems now mystery. 1t
may be explained, however, by the fact
that the impediment0 imperCeptibiy but
daily grew less. In the first place it
was found impossible for mortal man to
get back into the knapsack all the arti
Cles the wife or mother had got into it.
Some things, therefore, after frantic but
Intellectual attempts to squeeze them in,
were thrown away in rage on the beat.
ing Of the "fall in" drum. Then came
the losses and the wear and tear and the
occasional abandonment of articles to
tighten the pack, and the soldier at last
reached light marching order, while the
turning over to depot quartermasters of
supelhuous wagons, tents and make.
weights brought the regimentas whole
down to fighting trim.
The march in the beginning even by
day, ON good roads, was hard, but in the
mud and rain and in the night, 1t was
toilsome in the extreme. TIE want of
sleep, together with the frequent halts
from the blocking of the road in front,
threw men into inCessant "cat maps"
from which they we're as necessarily
awakened to move on" Night, under
these circumstances, heightened INTERN
inably, and life toward morning became
almost unendurable and when at last
day broke, it disclosed many and many a
stragger far behind the column, stretch
ed out by the road side sound asleep.
When these nocturnal movements oc
cured in the winter, detsChments of tbe
sick poured into the hospital from ev.
cry quarter, until they oveIh)wed. They
were as disastrous to the column as
battle. The march, too, under an Au-
gust sun, kept up from it's rising to its
setting, and often prolonged into the
night, amid clouds of stiff ng dust and
torturing thirst, must be experienced to
be unde stood. The uninitiated think
the greatest danger soldier is exposed
to is on the battle field. On the contra
ry it is the least, This popular misap'
prehension is caused by the consolidated
report sent out after an action of the
thousands shot down in day but the
defamation from exposure and disease,
that slowly swells into its tens of thou
sands, passes by without notice. But
we, who have closed our shrunk ranks
as our comrades dropped out by the way
side know it, and our surgeons reports
attest 1t
OF all this the ardent volunteer on
leaving home knows nothing, he anticl-
pates NO such condition of things. 1t
breaks upon him day by day like reve.
lation, and if his constitution, physical
and mental, is not built for endurance,
he sinks under it. If, however, he pass
es through unbroken, he develops into
the veteran-the pride of armies, the
right arm of force. Who can stand be-
fore him, who march with him, who en-
dure the summers and cold winters as
we'll as he2 He is priceless, for he has
been through the furnace OF exposure
and came out sCathless-pu steel, har'
dened and tempered to the terrible
work before him. With an army of
such men, gathered from the North and
South, the United States could hold the
armiea of the world at bay, The battle
field, as o test of endurance, is overrated
The fatigue is not experienced until al
ter the fight is over, and comes chiefly
not from the fight itself, but from the
toilsome and broken marches that pre-
cedes it. If troops could be brought into
action fresh and rested, after a good
breakfast we might concentrate our at.
tention on the battle. But in point of
fact they are not 80 brought on. The
supply trains have often unavoidably
been left far in the rear, the haversacks
are nearly empty, and the night before
has been in part consumed in getting the
troops in place, The excitement of bat
tie supplies the want of food and rest, 80
that the actual discomfort largely pre-
Cedes and follows the fight
The opening of the battle with artil,
lery at long range and the bursting of
shell is rather dramatic than dangerous,
Cannon ball and Fragments of shell
when they strike do execution, but they
comparatively seldom hit the mark.
They are chiefly effective in disturbing
the nerve ofadvancing columns by their
sound and fury and occasional ghastly
work. The artillery does its real work
at closer range, with grape and canister,
and when the action extends into night
the bursting Of shower Of shells at
short range lends to the scene peculiar
ly wicked and vindiCtive aspect.
The first heavy loss in the battle falls
upon the skirmish line, which, hoWev.
erlmuchiit may protect itself by inter.
Venihg objects, is necessarily constantly
exposed, in advancing, to q steady FIRE
atrese The advance Of the skirmishera