New Ulm weekly review. [volume] (New Ulm, Minn.) 1878-1892, 1885-12-09

were donated by private persons AND
by societies, and these were issued to
the volunteers. These blankets were
borrowed, lent or lost by the soldiers
without any heed whatever Many Of
them were worthless. It often hap
pened that a blanket when being shak-
en- in the morning by man at each
end, would part in the middle. The
writer Of this received $4.84 for his
first six months pay-as sergeant-
instead OF $lO2, the difference Of $97.-
l6 having been stopped out of thepay
for clothing overdrawn, one OF the
items being nineteen blankets. OF
course he had not drawn that many
blankets, bad as they were, but great
many blankets had gone astray some
how and the officers had probably
balanced their clothing accounts by
assessing the difference among all the
men. Yet these blankets and some of
the articles of clothing charged on the
payrolls against the soldiers had not
cost the Government a cent.
Very strong guards about the camp
of each regiment were necessary to
prevent the men from struggling off to
the next town, neglecting drill and
coming back, as frequently was the
case, with anything but the cadence
STEP" which great pains were being
taken to teach them. But if once
they did get out Of camp and began
to ''make things lively" in town, it
may be imagined what difficulty the
patrols sent out to bring them back
must have had to recognize them, uni
formed as they were, among q crowd
Of civilians. One jealous and ingen-
ious Captain distributed strips of red
flannel to his men and required every
one of them to wear the strips around
the right arm. In this way they were
to be known as Company KS men. !"
And they obeyed him, of course. Only
when they slipped the guards and went
to town they took off the flannel
strips and put them in their pockets.
At Camp Dennison, fifteen miles
from Cincinnati-one OF the chief train
ing camps in the West-the need Of
clothing became so great III June
(186l that there were symptoms of
nutiny. Finally an issue OF clothing
was made, but it was limited to un-
derclothing, and that day s,n entire
regiment appeared on dress parade in
uniform-except as to hats-tor the
first time. But the general command
ing the camp was scandalized. For
the regiment, all but the officers,
marched to the color line and were
paraded with nothing on but their
hats and shoes and the newly issued
knit underclothing! The uniform
coats issued that summer were OF q
deep blue, and when worn with the
shining brass scales on the shoulders
looked decidedly impressive. But
alas! If the Union soldiers did not
change their coats they at any rate
soon changed their colors, for amonth
of Virginia rain and sunshine soon
turned the true blue in the coats into
a secession butternut. That was the
epoch when fortunes were made out
OF shoddy. 1t would be curious by
the way, to trace the history of those
ill-gotten gains. What sort OF luck
did they bring to their winners?
Once in the field, those regiments
blessed with officers of natural apti-
tude were not long in acquiring the
qualities of veteran soldiers. The of.
fcers were usually the drawback.
have in my mind a regiment COM
manded at first by a respectable
nonentity, who had combined when
at home the functions of farmer, law
yer, and country politician. An I'M
lucky accident for him caused his res
ignation and he was replaced by a
colonel appointed from the regular
army, q stranger to everybody in the
regiment. His arrival created discon-
tent among most Of the officers, who
feared the strictness OF discipline which
he would be sure to introduce. He
was spoken of derisively as "fuss and
feathers Within q week after join
ing the regiment the new colonel had
the captains and lieutenants on the
parade ground, formed into "awk-
ward squads and he himself put
them through the 'sgoose-step," and
thence, successfully, through all the
SCHOOL Of the soldier" to the intense
delight ofthe ''noncoms' and privates.
The men found out after a while that
fuss and feathers" understood what
were their rights and protected them.
He did what his predecessor had not
done; he Systematically examined for
himself all clothing, equipments and
food before allowing them to be issued,
and whatever was poor in quality or
short in quantity be rejected with good
round oaths. and witha savage threat
of arrest to thequartermaster orcom-
missary. It was amusing to- observe
that the company officers soon adopt
ed his careful ystem of looking out
for their mems rights, and even initial
ed his oaths Fuss and feathers
was gallant soldier, and an educated,
skillful officer, and he afterward be-
came aparticularly dashing General.
He loved to lead his men into the
thickest of the fight and into the most
difficult places, but he always knew
how to extricate them from trouble
and to bring them through the most
trying circumstances with honor. He
took the rustic mob and trained it into
a argument of real soldiers which car
ried it's colors into.sixty-three b attles.
The officers who were Of good materi-
al he lectured, and scolded, and in
Structed until thew were worthu of