The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-04-25
ooINo TO WAR IN ApuLLMAN.
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 "Recruits for the Canadian var h the HoFtAwass are being seat tc the trnns In Pullman eas.S says dispatch in one of the papers, Soldiers in Pullman eass Truly, war is robbed of much of it's glory when soldiers start to the seat of var la such laxasy. lt must hA an interesting sight to see . carload of soldiers Aisrobe toF the night in Pullman ear, aud roll into the clean sheets of the beFths, and sleep all night, have their boots hiacked by the por,er. get up in the morning and wash in toilet room, and 60 to din- ing~ear for their breakfast. A soldier would be spoiled tor active service who started out that way. lt was different during esv war. Is there any gentleman within the sound of our voice who was ever on . train with load of recruits on the way to the front, any time after 1869 n so he remembers that the boys did not retire on downy beds the night he trav- eied with them Gracious, but don't we remember the train load of recruits tha, lett Madison in the spring of 1863 The first soldier that got in the car kicked two windows out, stuck his head out the hole, and called the captain of his company bald headed old guthoogen. The cap. tain sent the second lieutenant in the csr to snatch the recruit bald d.headcd, and the officer was seized by the back of the neck and the pants and showed through the window onts the depot platform so quick he didn't know what hts salary vas, and the broken glass tore his new coat of, The cars were loaded, and SO were the soldiers. The most of them were full of beer and cheese, and they raised merry hades, ripped up seats, kicked over the stove and pulled the bcll-rspe after the tr ain got started, and scared the conduc. tor 90 he had fits, by firing revolvers with blank cartridges at the root oi the car. o, 1t was a picnic. No discipline, uo nothing, bu, beer. The boys would sing and dance, and # on officer showed up some one would hit him on the neck with haversack full of hard tack, and if he got mad they would lay him down in the aisle and sit on him. No officer would come In car with the boys unless he could do as they did, and howl. Go ing through Chicago 1t took isur guards 10 watch each soldier, to keep him from straying away and taking in the town, and getting lcft. After leaving Chicago anybod-' who tried to camp down in seat and sleep vas court m martialed aRd shot in the neck with the cork from bot tic. It was wild Three days later those boys that were SO kitteny went into fight. and how they did hghtl There was dts cipline enough then. The officers that h ad been treated so dlsEespcc,fuliy on starting from home were looked up to as though they were emperors, every order was obeyed and there was no more mon key work from that hour. The fellow who kicked out the Car window led charge on a breas,work, and brained with his muske, confederate who was going to shoot the captain he had ( llled a baldheaded gu,hoogen four days he. fore. The fellows who left Wisconsin so full of beer that their back teeth were afoa, had got over iving fun, and were taking In the reality, and were the best soldiers that ever lived. They did no; go to the iron, in Pdilman car, but many oi them came hack in Pulmans, as of. hcers of high rank, years later, some ( me back by express, in boxes, and some of them never came back a, all but are lying in rows little distance from Chattanooga, in the National Cemetery, liule beadStones above them, some marked with their names, others marked |" unknown" but all waiting for Gabriel to play the '"Asscmbiy' on hi. tus.s s. the last great day. A few weeks ago we saw the graves of some of the boys who went ,o the front that day from Madison, in Cars that were ventilated by kicking the windows out. and we iel, that if the boys had no, drank the beer that day and had a high old time, they never would have go, a chance, and we didn't blame them bit. Going to war now is different