Arizona weekly enterprise., 1888-11-24
=::s.:.:::::... .::.:=
esgpINa VERSUS FlaHTINe.
What It Means to Keep the Army's Im- mense Stomach Filled-TSe Glory.


 What It Means to Keep the Army's Im-
 mense Stomach F1led-TEe Glory.
 ''There is one feature in active military operations, said an old Union veteran tn the course of a long war renlniscence, that the general run of people little realize, and that is, what it means to feed an army, and especially an army pushed far in advance of it's base of supplies An army is terrible creature to feed It fights occasionally; it feeds all the time. It is an immense stomach with thousands of mouths always crying for more. It can't be put off or ordered not to be hungry. With 10000 or 30, 900 men in 6 thinly settled. mountainous country-an enemy's country at that-and with that enemy in possession of Q part of the only rickety railroad running through it, and his cavalry gallivanting around. you know not exactly where, between you and the place you draw your tons of supplies from, your only means of getting these tons on tons of bread and salt beef or pork and other things is to have them hauled over this half made mountain road, which man brought up in a finished country would hardly dare to travel on anyway.
 "You have creeks to cross or rickety bridges, or you find the bridges destroyed You have small rivers to ford, liable to be swollen at any time in few hours by rain. You have only a single wagon track to travel on, running up and down hills and mountains, or along their sides, not kept in repair, and if wagon breaks down your whole procession of vehicles is stopped until it can be got out of the way. You don't know at what moment In this country, new and strange to you, a squad of guerrillas, to whom every road and pass has been familiar from their youth, will swoop down or fire from an ambuscade upon some portion of your long drawn out, struggling train of wagons, all of which, from the narrow ness of the road, it is impossible fully to guard. You must drive along, also, pos sibly, herd of half wild, half starved cattle, who will dash of or stray of in the woods through which they are pass. ing at every chance they can get.
 1 You have sixty or eighty miles of this sort of country to pass through before you can reach the S0,000 hungry men, liv- 1 ing now on Q cracker per day. You may 1 advance ten miles a day. You may ! twenty. You may make only five. Dis tanees in an up and down country like this are very uncertain. You can't go at ( l gallop with wagon train And you are 1 the officer in charge of this slow, lumber 1 ing, long drawn out, clumsy procession. You ere responsible for its safe delivery 1 to the hungry army. You've got youl hands full and your head full and wher you've bossed road repairs, built bridges pushed everybody and everything to keeI them moving, and then, half worn out and half dead through care and the strair of the responsibility. you get your trail through in safety, and for a few day. more feed this collective stomach whicl otherwise would have starved, how mucl glory awaits you7
 Well, search our pictorial military an nGls and see how much of the pomp cir cuInstance and sensation of war you fint Illustrated about a wagon train. Blu society would tumble to pieces toda, without cooks, kitchens and beef cuttin. men with white frocks and cleavers, ant all the epauletted figures on horsebacl about an army dwindle down, man ant beast, to very poor critters in very fey hours if they've no crackers to nibble ol or hay to chew. I tell you, war mean feeding ss well as fighting, and there's great deal of unrecorded glory due tn quartermasters and sergeants who had look after the bread and beef which give men strength to stand on their legs an pull triggers. "-Prentice Mulford in Ney York Star.