Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1889-08-09

first and the greatest of the fore;on- I
e est VINO enlisted in our cause, he Was
al1erwafa as great in France as he Ind |
peeh IN America, and always kent his
patent OF nobility at home. his birth. |
risn' as trenchman, and his influence
WIN ms ccouEtryman. In fact he re-
garded his American experience ONLY
as an episode-though a very import
ant one-in his career
but there was host of European
soldiers who threw themselves into our
revolution, loving liberty. no donbt
h pu. also strongly desiring to bear a
nun, nano y IN the actual fighting. There
was Baron Steuben, soldier of the
great Frederick, who gave drill and
Iae a3l1ty to maneuver to the Cont
mental army, and who was afterward
rewarded by the State of New York
Win large grant of land, and became
an actual citizen and settler. There
was Baron DeKalb, who fell at Cam
den; Count Pulaski, who was killed nj
the assault of Savannah; and it is even
contended that the great Marshal New
was, III his early youth, soldier in
our Revolution. The entire list would
be long. >'l>%
There is one grand name which is
fairly connected with this subject, and
which / still hesitate to classify among
those of Soldiers of fortune" Gen
eral Phil kearney was an American,
thoroughly imbued with love of his
native land, and died in her cause.
He lost an arm in Mexico, and made a
shining record in the war of the re-
bellion, until his career was untimely
ended September l, 1862, by Con-
federate bullet at Chantilly. But be-
tween the close of the Mexican war
and the beginning Of the rebellion he
was in the foreign military service; in
deed, I believe he hurried home to
take up arms for his country. He was
so thoroughly soldier that it was inn
possible for him to be anything else.
The business of arms and fighting en-
tirely engrossed him.
When our great rebellion was sud-
denly launched, there was large
fastening OF unemployed military men
from all the civilized countries of Eu-
rope to offer their swords to one side
or the other; with many of them it
made little difference which, so long
as they were given rank and active
service. Some of these men were real
soldiers and made their mark in the
war; many others were arrant hum
bugs and Adventures, whose cowardice
was disclosed by the first smell of
burnt gunpowder.
Not only d.. foreigners claiming
| mi III WV ,.op1y onl ox,,or;o,on boo+o,, ~
our shores upon the outbreak of the
great struggle, but the people in al
most every part Ct the country We're
amazed to discover the great number
of foreigners settled among them who
suddenly blossomed out into military
heroes, soldiers of protested long ex-
perience beyond the Atlantic. A great
deal of awe and respect was felt in
those days, both at the North and
the South, for men who had seen some.
thing Of wal, especially if they were o.
another country. Commissions were
often issued to Germans and French
men merely on the faith of a jaw
breaking name, and a good deal O.
brag as to what they had done an6
seen on European fields. Some O
these gentry turned out we'll; many O
them were Of no credit to any cause
and after the first year of the war, the
business of looking up Adventures
from beyond the seas to make field ant
staff officers out of, was pretty gener
ally discontinued. We had by tina
time thoroughly developed the neces
sary material on our own soil.
It is pleasant to be able to record
from actual experience the names o
foreign officers who did good work il
our service. Iknew quite number o
such. Space is given me for the men
ton Of one only Who, in the Firs
Division of the Nineteeth Army Corps
has forgotten Lieutenant Colonel De
. La Paturelle, of the Ninetieth New
York? He was typical Frenchman
vivacious, brave, experienced, and al
way popular. His only blunders were
those of the English language, which
; he could never master. and his absurd
mistakes in wrestling with it were
the laugh of the division. He was
true soldier Of fortune; getting safel,
through the rebellion, he drifted bacl
) to France, and fell at Gravelotte
fighting the Germans Chicago
Lel1er,