Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1891-08-06
WAR "REMINISCENCES.
a LETTER WRITING ARMY.
How the soldier BOys Remembered the
Folks at dome.

hard at work and you would always
see a number IF them writing. There
never was sue,n letter writing army
n the face of Gods earth. You never
could go into camp without finding the
men writing letters on the ground,
against the side Of trees, from which
they had torn the bark. on their knees;
and never did we women at home in
preparing for the sanitary commission
fix up comfort bags in which we did
not put sheets OF paper, postage stamps,
envelopes and the inevitable plug of to-
bacco.
/ remember very distinctly when the
army came back from the relief of
Burnside at Knoxville. Never was
there such a tatterdemalion looking set
of men in the world They started out
in summer blons les; they came back
with their feet bound up in rags, so
that as they walked they looked like
the most veritable scarecrows that you
ever saw in a cofnfeld. One came out
of the hospital more ragged than the
others, more thoroughly demoralized in
his personal appearance. One of the
physicians said to him: ''Well, my
boy, if You don't need clothes don't
know who does And the happy fell
low, looking at him said: "Wen, now.
/ amt hankering for clothes, you bet
your life, but ! am just dead clean
heartbroken for a diamond breast-pin."
The army wasn't a good place to go
TO talk the blues { wasn't a very good
thing to undertake. to indulge in morbid
sentiments. You we're taken off your feet
in no time: you wefe compelled to know
that these men hact a high sense of hui
NOR about them said one fellow, COM
ing out one n 1rning when the reveille
was sounded altogether too early for his
comfort: when tlls9 cruel war is over
and get home inm.y own house am
going to hire a elbow to come and
f, sound reveille every informing under my
window, simply that, l may have the
spleasure of opening the window and
throwing the conteatsI of the washbowl
on him. -
They did not even die gloomily.
Again and again have heard men say:
s'Chaplain, the doctor is mistaken about
my case. am going to die, and not
live and turn their faces to the wall
and die And when one man was not
so very sick, but who thought he was,
and was becoming hypochondriac and
giving vent to his anguish, which was
purely imaginary while talking with
him | saw two-thirds of the men in the
beds about slip themselves into clothes
that would make them little more re-
) spectacle, and march about the room,
one of them pretending to play the
fha inli l,a
I flute, another the clarinet, another the
! double base drum. There was not an
instrument there, and it was all done in
pantomine, but the mimicry was so per-
feet, and they went through the move
ments of playing the various instru-
ments so well that they stopped the
gloomy outpourings - the hypochon-
driacs, who were lnpelled to join in
the laugh.
When | was in Switzerland l was one
day standing at the door of railway
station, and at the opposite side of the
station ! saw railway porter wearing
an artificial leg AS / looked at him
carefully thought he was wearing the
badge of the grand army. l stepped
back to tell my husband about it.
oh" said my husband ''of course
you know it can not be the 9adge of
the grand army. 1t is probably some
foreign decoration. "
But the man crossed over toward me,
and / saw it was badge of the grand
army | Immediately forgot all con-
ventionalities and hurried to him, and
in the very best French l could muster
| asked him how it came about that he,
Swiss railway porter, was wearing
the badge of the Grand Army of the
Republic of America?
He said, speaking perfect English:
Madam, | enlisted in the service in
your country in June, 1861 and l was
mustered out in October, 1865" lap
plause
Where did you lose your leg
u "'At Gettysburg, and l still remained
in the service, as | wanted to see the
end. So got myself put into the in
valid corps, that l might do duty in the
hospital and l was not mustered out
, until October, 1865
/ Then, said l, if you have lost your
leg at the battle of Gettysburg and
fought under my country's flag for four
years, you are my brother, and l must
Shake hands with you.
said he; Madame, your America
and my America is good nation to live
for to fight for, to die for. BY and by
when the old father and mother pass
away, ! am going back to my America
My brothers are there with their fam
lilies have no family, and l am here
to take care of the old father and
mother. l receive pension from the
United States government. / am one
of its people, naturalized citizen, one
/ of you not by birth but by adoption,
and | am going back some time. Be-
ieve me, America is to be the Messiah |
of nations Before God, ] had thought |
that myself, but had never dared say |
\ it''-Mrs. NJ A. Livermore
INSIDE WAR HISTORY.