Bismarck weekly tribune., 1886-10-15
COFFEE BOILERS I

COFFEE Z ! BOILERS B / il. ] ; !. l
BOUNTY PAID RECRUITS OF THE
ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.
what q Private Saw In the Field and on
the March--Cowardice Of Unpatriotic
wretches IN Line of Battle ~ A Dis
graceful Crew. NSg
The potent cause Of the Generalization Of
the Army of the Potomac was the worthless
character of the recruits who were supplied
to the army in 1S64-5. In 1854 acquisitions
calling for 500, 900 troops were made on the
north SESthoroughly exhausted was the
breed of fighting men in the north that but
1890 of the enormous number of men
raised by purchase ever stood in battle ranks,
and they stood there because they had been
unable to elude vigilance or corrupt the hon
esty Of the guards who accompanied them
from the recruiting barracks to the ont.
Since man has been on earth the race has
been divided into two classes, one of which is
the criminal class. This class lives by plunder-
ing the producing class They live by theft.
by MURDER by cheating, by pandering to the
ignoble vices of men, When the northern /
townships inspired by confidence, and not by
patriotism, as the rising generation is taught |
began to pay bounties for recruits to fill the
quotas allotted to them the criminal class of
America quit preying on society at large and
turned their attention to swindling the gov
ernment. They accepted the bounty offered
by the towns and enlisted. When the boun
ties were paid to them they deserted and en-
listed in another town, to again desert.
Bounty jumping was the safest and most
profitable business in the United States dur
ing those days. The boldest and most intel]i-
gent of the criminal class never appeared at
the front. They escaped. The weak, the
diseased, the feeble minded joined the army.
They were the scum of tho slums of the great
European and American cities. To these
were added the rakings of rural almshouses
and the ne'er-do-wells of villages. The re-
cruits were faint-hearted and stupid. Many
were irreclaimable blackguards, wholly given
over to numerous ignoble and innumerable
vices. They were moral lepers. They were
conscienceless, cowardly scoundrels, and the
clean minded American and Irish volunteers
would not associate with them.
Directly after the battle of Cold Harbor
these pretended soldiers began to be notice
able in the Army of the Potomac. They were
not the heavy artillery men drawn by Grant
from Washington to make good his losses.
We had no better troops than those. But
these men were the bounty paid recruits.
They were the white slaves whom greedy and
unpatriotic men, who preyed on the necessi-
ties of timid communities, gathered from the
slums, from Castle Garden, from the aims
houses, from the cots of venereal hospitals,
from the bars of criminal courts, from prison
cells, and from the unnatural parents of
weak minded sons. After gathering the foul
creatures they kept them in pens and private
prisons. Over the doors of these foul dens
swung signs, and blazoned on them in gilt
letters were shameful legends which an
nounced that within man dealt in alleged
,nen, and that the honor of townships could
be pawned there. A Mississippi slave dealer
was d refined and hoSorable gentleman in
comparison with northern bounty broker,
who sold men to the townships which filled
their quotas by purchase. I have seen these
foul recruits, many of them unable to speak
English, verlnin-infested, rough skinned,
sinking with disease their eyes running mat
ter, their legs and arms thin and feeble, their
BACKS bowed, and their ratlI,e and idiotlike
IL" AO". JoAAA oAAo w Nv IL
tually kicked out of the decent commands
they were billeted on They were scorned,
kicked and cursed by the volunteers as NANCY
ours These degraded men formed the coffee
boilers"
l first saw systematic "coffee boiling" a
sure sign that discipline was relaxed, at Cold
Harbor. In the woods to the rear and right
of my battery groups Of unwounded men
cooked and boiled coffee. These men had
dropped out of their commands as they ap-
preached the battle line and had hidden in
the woods There were scores of them in the
army at Cold Harbor. There were hundreds
of them around Petersburg Oh, these 'cofee
boilers!" How my gorge rises against them!
They sneaked away from their reg iments
during battle or while marching to battle, to
rejoin them when on the march. They were
always present when ratious were issued
They were never present when cartridges
were supplied. They were, without excep
tion, thieves. They robbed the dead. They
stole from the living. They were strongly
suspected Of killing wounded NEIL o nights
More cowardly creatures were never clad in
the uniform of English speaking people. They
plundered houses. They frightened women
and little children. They burned dwellings,
To call u soldier of the Army Of the Potomac
a COIIo0 OOller was al 1IlSulC CO W promptly
resented.
These worthless creatures weakened every
battle line they were forced into No matter
how brave veteran soldier may be. he relies
on the men Oh either side of Linn to stand
there until they fall He relies on them rt
accompany him in the advance, and to be 10y
his side when slowly falling back before q
superior force. 1t is essential that soldier
hears the voices of his comrades when be i:
charging He must know that his comrade:
are as stanch fighters as he Then he can fgh
with comparative comfort. How it witt
the larger portions Of the bounty paid re
cruits? 1t did not lie within the power Of any
regimental officers to hold these u1ldisclpailleC
blackguards steady under fire. Dozens .,
times have seen them break and run, throw
ing away their arms as they fled, yelling, te
the rear and to their coffee pots. They weak
ened the battle lines, us no man can tigh
when surrounded by towards, who are easily
panic stricken, and who are unrestrained by
any consideration of pride from ignominious
ly running away to save their lives
No man really enjOyS a BATTLE One has Il