The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1885-08-20
WESTERN VS.. EASTERN TROOPS.

To THE EDITOR: Will you inform me through
the columns of your paper in regard to whether
there any volunteers from this section of tho
country during the late war for the maintenance
of the Union. Now, there are still living in this
community quite company of men who still in
sist notwithstanding all they have read in regard
to the Western mems fighting abilities that they
have dim recollection OF trouble that took place
years ago and have the audacity to stand up and
say that they were there Now, Mr.. Editor, all OF
these men, nearly all of them. are subscribers
to THE NATIONAL TRIBUNE, and on the perusal of
the same arc led TO think that they in the
wrong; that they not there at ALL that it was
the Western troops that did all the fighting and
endured the hardships, and that these men whom
we are wont to call comrades, and who have been
disabled by loss oflimb otherwise must have been
the victims of some terrible railroad accident; con-
sequently, j wish you would assure them that they
are mistaken, and that the New England troops
were not all on garrison duty. Perhaps some COM
rade will suddenly recollec Of his being there him
self and tell what he knows about fighting
GEORGE II. SHAW, Co. A, Sd N. ii, Holyoke, Mass.
We are in frequent receipt of similar let
tiers to this, expressing dissatisfaction that
SO much more is said of Western campaigns
than of Eastern ones. We take this Occa-
sion to say with all emphasis that whatever
fault there may be in this matter is wholly
with the comrades of the Eastern armies.
They are not nearly SO much given to writ
ing about their campaigns as the Western
men. We get 20 letters from the latter
where we get one from the former. THE
NATIONAL TRIBUNE aims to treat all alike
and give every comrade an opportunity to
be heard through its columns. For the last
few months, however, we have tried to give
the Army of the Potomac men the prefer
ence, so as to rectify any appearance of par
TALLY to the West, and so have published
nearly everything that has come in to us
from Eastern men, while Western mems let
tiers have been condensed or delayed in
publication.
There is one good reason for much of this
discrepancy. The Eastern men as rule
moved in large masses, where the experience
of one man was the experience of thousands
perhaps tens of thousands. Take for ex-
ample the members of the Fifth Corps.
Every one who served in that organization
saw much the same thing, and took part in
much the same operations from Gainess
Mills to Appomattox. The story that one
man tells is very much like the story that
any other man tells and consequently after
it has once been told, other members of the
Corps do not feel that it is worth their re-
peating. The fighting in the West was by
much smaller bodies of men, and, therefore,
more individualized in character There was
consequently. with no more fighting than the
Eastern men were doing, vastly greater
range of experiences. For instance, a regi-
ment that one month might be with its
Corps in the lines around Vicksburg, might
in the next be hundreds of miles away from
Corps headquarters, burning bridges, fight
ing Forests cavalry, OF starting with Banks
up the Red River. Of course, the story of
such variety of experiences takes up more
space than the routine of great campaign.
Then, too, somehow, the tendency seems
much stronger to write of these minor
movements and side-show expeditions than
of the great battles and the hard, everyday
fighting. The men of Shermans army, who
went through the 100 days offighting on the
Atlanta campaign, do not write one-tenth
as much of that experience as they do of
raids, skirmishes or expeditions in which
only their companies regiments or brigades
took part. They say as little about that as
the veterans of the Army of the Potomac
seem disposed to do about the awful cam
paign from the Rapidan to the James. The
only explanation that we can give is that
fighting became such commonplace. resu-