The National tribune., 1888-11-22
NO. Of. Total length 1n - =
eases. Of service. saT,
Kind.

Mexican war widows S555 86iS I 20 II %
It is hard to make the reader of to-day
understand just what hardships and dangers
were involved in that average two years and
three months of service which those pen
sioners performed, and thereby incurred the
injuries which now entitle them to pensions.
Two years and three months in an ordinary
young mans lifetime is considerable
period, but when that period is passed amid
the thronging dangers of such incessant
fighting as our armies did, it becomes almost
the span of lifetime. 1t covers more des-
perate, bloody fighting than any soldiers in
the world were ever required to do.
Let US suppose that one of these pension
eTs was in the Army of the Potomac and
went in at the first call in April, 1861. Two
years and three months from that time
would take him to August, 1868. During
that time he probably marched out and
fought at the first Bull Run; drilled, review
ed and built forts around Washington until
March, 1862; went on the Peninsula; fought
at Williamsburg Fair Oaks, and the terrible
struggle of the Seven Days retreat to Harri-
sons Landing; hurried away to the Kappa
hammock to fight the second battle of Bull
Run; then to South Mountain and Antie-
tam; back again to the Rappahannock to
the bloody repulse from Marye's flights,
and after four months of the misery in Win
ter camps on Stafford Hills to the defeat at
Charlottesville. Then the race with Lee
for the heart of Pennsylvania, the awful
struggle at Gettysburg, and the slow pursuit
of the beaten army back to its lair behind
the Rappahannock.
Think of what must have been the expert
ence of the man who went through this
momentOus two years and three months
During that time he participated in 16 san
culinary pitched battles, besides countless
skirmishes; had marched fully 1000 miles
through the mud of Winter and Spring. and
the parching heat ofSummer; had borne in
the open field the SHOWS and sIeet, the icy
rain and biting cold of the inclement months;
had seen $4,000 of his comrades actually
shot dead on the field of battle, and three
times as many more wounded and mangled
in all horrible ways Is there any man liv-
ing who would go through such an expert
ence for any money?
Or, suppOsing that instead of taking the
example of a man who enlisted at the first
call and joined the Army of the Potomac
we take one who came out under the second
call and was assigned to that army. Thi:
would make his two years and three month;
of service extend from the latter part of 186:
to the beginning of 1866. In those 81 moRthi
he would take part in the battles of Freder
icksburg, Charlottesville and Gettysburg
spend two dreary Winters on the banks o
the Rappahannock; 60 through that pro
longed hell which began in the Wilderness
and continued to the massacre at Cold Har
Dor; encounter for months all the horrors O
war in the trenches around Petersburg, AM
finally chase and fight the enemy through
the rain and mud, till exhaustion came t
one and victory to the other at Appomattoz
Would he not earn pension by all this?
Or, surprising that one pensioner of
months service went out in the Summer {
| 1861, and was sent to Cairo to help Gran
control the junction of the Ohio and Missis
sippi Rivers. He spent some unutterabl
uncomfortable months in the mud an
misery of that miasmatic town; had h
baptism Of fire at Belmont, beleaguered Fol-
, Donelson amid the pelting of the Febrr
airy sleet, and beat its garrison back int
their works; stood amid the awful carnae
{ of Shiloh-the blOodiest battle in proportio
2 to numbers that the world has evC
seen; helped dig miles upon miles
trenches in Hallecks preposterOus advant
l upon COrinth"; stood with Rosecrans j
e dantless resistance to the wild charge
Prices rebels on Battery Robinett; marcht
q with Sherman to bloody repulse at Chickasa
: Bayou and TO victory at Arkansas Post, al
n spent the dreary Winter of 1862, % in Il
swamps of the Mississippi digging cana
cutting channels through interminable m
a rasses, breaking levees and struggling wi
4. diseases more deadly than the bullets of t
d enemy. The Spring brought the march /
a low Vicksburg, the perilOus crossing to t
n enemy's vantage ground; the sanguina
ID fighting at Port Gibson, Champion Hills a
Jackson. the murderous repulse on the 2
j of May, the daily and nightly fighting Il
eliminated in the surrender of that stro1
= hold; the pursuit of Joe Johnston, the 10
march to the assistance of the Army of /