Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-08-10

served. said that we will suppose on june
1 q man reported, received his paw and
signed the muster roll. Sixty or 30 days
from that time the regiment was again mus
tered. One man is present. signs the muster
roll and receives his pay. In the meantime
he may have been engaged in half dozen
battles. he may have been wounded and re.
covered, he may have been prisoner and
escaped, or have been exchanged. and yet
none of these facts would appear at all, any
more than though he had not existed, 30
far as the record is concerned. That is very
largely, though not in every instance, true.
A man is reported missing in action, " that
may be all there is of it. He may be dead,
he may be q prisoner and have died in
prison. The captains were supposed to
make monthly reports of their companies,
which would give some details, but this
work was in the large majority of cases neg
lected.
The regular army regulations required
that this should be done, but they were not
complied with to any great'extent. There
first part of the war, and such details were
neglected, so that the individual history of
the rank and file was largely overlooked.
AN INDIVIDUAL HISTORY.
In very many Of the posts of the Grand
Army there is recorder, who writes up the
history of each member. The official records
show the account OF his enlistment, his
promotion, his discharge, but they do not
show fully where he was engaged. These
records are made up very largely from
memory, somewhat inaccurate, but still the
data is furnished by men who made the
history-men who know the battles they
were in, men who know whether they were
wounded or taken prisoners and when.
Although inaccurate, perhaps, and, to
great extent, much is left out, yet they show
where the men were DUNG the period they
were in the war.
There is no settled purpose in the Grand
Army as to the use to which this data is 10
be put. Under the rules and regulations
these records belong to the Grand Army
and. of course, it is supposed and intended
that, in time, they will be gathered together
and placed in the archives of the State or
the National Government, where access can
be had to them when they are needed. They
will also be very useful to the families and
descendants of the soldiers. Though there
is no law requiring that these records shall
be kept, it is one Of those things which we
urge men to do, rs far as practicable, as an
act of justice to the enlisted man.
THE GRAND ARMY BUTTON.
In common with all organizations Of this
kind the Grand Army OF the Republic has
certain badges and insignia by which they
recognise each other, and are also known to
the general public. The membership badge
is cast from bronze composed of cannon cap
tured during the late rebellion.
Some people, and fear not very patriotic
people, speak lightly of the little bronze
button worn by the Grand Army meE. But
years ago Bulwer Lytton wrote:
ttWhat ia a rihhon Unrth fo a aoldiar0
Everything! Glory is priceless"
That expresses the real truth Of the senti-
ment. 1t will be remembered that when
Napoleon proposed an institution of the Le-
gion of Honor he was told that crosses and
ribbons were the pillars of hereditary
State, and that they were not used by the
Romans. In his answer to this objection he
showed that it was the custom of Rome to
reward achievements by all kinds of dis
tinctions, and added that "for the soldier,
as for all men in active life, you must have
glory and distinction; recompenses are the
food which nourish military virtue"
R. A. ALGER,
in Chief of the Grand Army of
the Republic,