The National tribune., 1891-01-01
1.-THE HEssIANs AND THE PLAY SOL
DIERs.n

There were In the Union armies ~ 600 Conscripis.
IL Is matter OF sentiment as 10 whether these men,
surviving, should he pcnsioued or not. But as
/ they arc not Disseminated against in the law LET
1 their mines go into The grand total OF possible
pensioners. Bat the substitutes, who sold them
selves like hessisns, ought not have pensions.
There were a. 59l OF them and their names should
/ be stricken from the pension rolls where many OF
/ thom appear. We shall nj least take them from
our list of possible and worthy pensioners. bring
ing our total down 20 l2sO.O77.
There was large class Of soldiers, who, through
no fault Of their own, were never ordered into
thc sort Of duty that could 10y any possibility
subject them 20 danger or liability 10 unusual in
I jury 10 their health. A prominent Volunteer Gen
eral once estimated that 900 men of the Union
armies never smeiled gunpowder except from affair.
/ There IL no accurate or satisfactory method OF
estimating tho number OF these non-fghting sol
! diers, but reducing the estimate Of the General
just mentioned to 100000 ia order TO lac the safe
side we find our total number Of possible pension
ers, under just aud proper pension laws brought
j down e l.O22.5Gs
But this was p years ogo, and since that day y
per cent Of these men, &c OBJ. have died. leaving
as survivors July ]. 1890, FAC. AL Leaving ont the
desertors, and the hessians and the play soldiers
we have 786, al survivors who, II actually wounded
in the service iucuiTug In the service other dis
ability, may properly be ON the pension rolls under
one or other Of thc many liberal laws passed by
Congress. -Four hundred thousand men are on the
rolls, or more than onehaf OF those who by any
possibility could honestly be therel
Could anything be more obvious than That the
descrters, the conscipts the play-soIdiers are on
pension rolls by regiment and battalions2
ln view Of the fact that the survivors have lived
just as long and apparently enjoyed just as good
health their fellows who not in the service
for If the veterans had more disease and more
troublesome wounds than their non-combatant
neighbors the disease and the wounds would tell
la The death pie-is il not obvious that fully one
half Of the men now on the pension rolls for dis
ability said 10 have been incurred in the service
have had their names put there by fraud and
perjury?
In the first place, ii is preposterOus TO say
that ii is matter Of sentiment" whether
cOnscripts should be placed on the pension
rolls or not 1t is nothing OF the kind. 1t
is matter Of justice, right and law. The
drafted man has precisely the same right on
the pension roll that the volunteer has.
They are both there by the operation Of
law which attempts carry out the Govern
ment's contract with them. The Govern
ment took the drafted men from their homes
and families and forced them into the
army, where they were exposed TO
great danger from bullets and dis
ease. 1t agreed at the time Of
doing so TO place them on precisely the
same footing as volunteers and Regulars,
and it was right in doing SO. The cOuBtry's
sense Of equity and morals would not have
tolerated any other course Men would not
have stood the draft if they had not known
that if drawn they would be treated pre-
cisely as other soldiers. The armies TO which
they were sent would not have endured any
other treatment for them, since the great
majority OF them made splendid soldiers,
who did their duty as well as any men. The
Government agreed that they should be put
on the pension rolls if disabled 10y wounds
or disease, and they are there by strict right,
and nothing else.
We should like 10 know who the promi-
nent volunteer Genera" was who made the
absurd statement that 100000 men never
smelled gunpowder except from affair."" We
do not believe that any such statement was
ever made by any man prominent, OF other
wise entitled 10 the rank Of General 1t
would be grossly untrue, and require but
little knowledge Of the statistics Of the
war 10 show this All statislicians substanti-
ally agree that there were about 100000
different individuals in the Union armies.
Or these fully 100000 were killed on the
field Of battle, or died from wounds OF
disease. Fully 100000 more were Sc
verely wounded by the missiles Of the
enemy. Tossy that fully 100000 men never
were in battle would therefore imply that
two out Of every three men actually at the
front were killed, wounded, or died. The
war was very destructive Of the lives Of
those engaged, but this would imply vastly
greater mortality than was ever claimed.
Where could these 100000 men have been
stationed all Ie time the war lasted I?
Not one-tenth that number was ever re-
CURED for duty in the rear, and very large
proportion Of the organizations 30 employed
were ones which had been cut up and worn
out by severe service at the front, and sent
back to rest and recruit
There never was such hard and dangerous
service eKacted Of all men in an army as
was required Of the men who formed the
Union armies. Never, in the long history
Of war, was danger and hardship so generally
distributed, and such a small proportion Of
those on the rolls exempt from the perils OF
battle aud the hardships Of the field. This
is shown conclusively by the statistics.
Assuming that there were 100000 men in
the army, then il follows that
in every 20 was actually killed in battle.
j in every died from wounds or disease.
i in every was wounded.
j in every 30 died in rebel prisons.
Such universal participation in all the dan
gers Of the seryice-such wholesale mortality
throughout an entire army, is utterly un.
precedented in the annals Of war.
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