The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-12-27

called corn thief and everything else / was
| astonished. began TO get my eyes open to the
extent and intensity Of the war feeling"
DIscIPLINING VOLUNTEERS.
In letter to the st. Louis G,obe-Democrat.
printed less than week ago, the writer says:
A reference to some early war incident called
out from the General a brief but emphatic expo
sition of his views on the subject of discipline
among volunteer soldiers Said he: 81 never be.
lieved in the punishments that some officers IN
fiicted their men. Anything calculated to
degrade soldier and destroy his self-respect
does far more harm than good. / recolect
had German on my staff, who was chief
of artillery. He had this idea of Furnishing.
One time at Memphis he tied a sold er.
an artillery man, to a tree for some offense /
was sick, laid up with bilious attack, but
heard what had been done. Mrs. Logan was
with me. She had come down to take care of
me- | handed her sharp knife and said to her,
You go and cut the rope and let that soldier
loose She did it, too. and, when the officer dis
covered what had been done, he stormed about
awhile until he found out who had done it. After
got well said to him: Don't tie up any more
men, You can give little extra guard duty. or
administer discipline in some other quiet way,
but you mustn't degrade these soldiers"
~"Once, continued the General, ''they sent me
out from Washington a brigadier with
these bad ideas about discipline l was out
walking and came upon man with dead hog
tied around his neck, being paraded through the
camp by a guard. / inquired what was the
matter. and they explained that the sol
der had killed a pig contrary to orders, and
this was the punishment directed by the
new officer. | said to the guard You take
that pig off and throw it in the wagon. It's
dead anyway; and turn that man loose Of
course they dd The brigadier came to me
to find out what WAS the matter, and told him
II he ever treated another soldier IN that way
would remove him from his command. And
yet" said the General, there weren't any bet
ter behaving men in the army than had. No
body ever accused me of lack of discipline.
have SUSPENDED officers and sent them to the
rear when / thought it was necessary, and
1t was pretty generally understood that
while l was in command nobody else was.
recoliect once when we were having little
fight one of my brigaders left his position in the
line, rode all the way to whore was. and began
to explain to me some things about the general
situation that it my business to know all
about beforehand He said to me, General, a
brigade ought to be sent right in there to do so
and so. All right l said; General, just take
your brigade and go in and do it He never
came back to me with any more advice as to my
business"
AN UNRECoRDED WOUND.
In talking of his military services, General
Logan said:
1T ia greatly matter of chance in war.
little more or little less exposure doesn't make
much difference There is this that is in favor
OF the officer. Marksmen the other side
so anxious to hit him that they shoot too quick
or get excited and aim badly. was wounded at
Vicksbure, but you fellows never knew it."
The General stopped and glanced at the group
of listeners with twinkle in his eye
eve heard the chair you were sitting on was
hit, said
YES" continued the General, II laid it on
the chair / expect that saved me from a worse
wound than l got. The way il happened
this. was sitting, leaning back, with my right
foot up against the ridgepoe of the tent. The
bullet struck the leg OF the chair just at the top
and went in here" pointing to the under portion
of the thigh ''The surgeon dug the bullet out
and fixed me NJ. told him not to say anything
abont it, and he didn't 1t was only flesh
wound. didn't get into the saddle for some
days. but all that was known about the matter
was that the chair had been hit"