The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1893-07-20
APROFESSIONAL SKIPPER
The TriR.ls of a Deserter as Told
by Himself


of the American army. Like all other
evils, it has its causes. In the old days
when the frontier was the frontier,
harsh treatment, bad food, hard service
in the field, the monotony of garrison
life and the lack of amusements and
recreations in the isolated and shabby
little posts were among the causes that
imrelled men to desert their colors.
Among the enlisted men desertion
was regarded as very venial offense;
and it was held that men who were Ill
treated had right to desert; men who
were discontented ought to desert; and
men who We're found to be rogues were
encouraged to desert by public senti-
ment and certain rude but significant
hints.
This constant depletion of the ranks
by dcsertion, and the great expense in
transporting recruits to distant sta
tions, as well as the difficulty of OBJ
tanning recruits for the hard and unro-
mantle service of the plains, made the
evil very serious problem for the war
department to solve.
Fort Wingate, situated on the slopes
of the Zuni mountains in Campbells
pass, New Mexico, being without tele-
graphic communication with the inner
world, suffered a great deal from deser-
ton.
After each visit of the paymaster
there was decrease in the ranks and
stables of the garrison. The officers
were used to it; the men expected it;
and the flight of these military birds of
passage became one of the pleasing ex-
elements of the post. They furnished
weeks holiday for pursuing party,
which chased the fugitives as far as
San Mateo, where they remained to
have good time with the daughters of
the town as long as their cash lasted,
and then returned leisurely to the post,
TO report that the deserters had es-
capped.
In the ease and safety of "ssipping,"
as 1t was termed in army slang, the
cavalryman had the advantage over the
mere infantryman. While the poor
"doughboy" deserter was hiding in the
NILS by day and tramping over dusty
trails by night, with a heavy "long
Tom on his shoulder, the cavalry
skipper was riding gayly to freedom
careless of pursuit, able and willing to
stand off any too-officious civil officer,
confident that his comrades would not
bother him unless he ran into their
arms, and certain that his good troop
horse was worth hundred dollars in
the settlement, when he had cunningly
burned out the U. S. brand with red
hot currycomb.
The experience of Fort Wingate was
duplicated in every western post, and
soldiers deserted in parts of the country
and reached civilization when it was
deemed hazardous for armed trains to
travel Strange as it may appear, men
never deserted in the field during an In
dian campaign; it was garrison dull
ness that made deserters, not the fight
ing and hard riding of plains and sier-
raS>
In 1878 Gen. Grant issued a procla-
nation pardoning all deserters who
surrendered to the military authorities
and returned to their colors. The
president wisely concluded that this
would bring back number of men in
TO the army and stop the outflow for
awhile; but he hardly realized the
story it would tell in the army itself.
AT Wingate the proclamation was the
universal subject of talk in the com.
pany quarters, and conjectures were
made as to the number of men who
would avail themselves of it's clemencv.
Out OF total strength of eighty men
IN my own company, some twenty re.
ported themselves as Shippers"
Then we began to hear from posts in
Arizona, Utah, Kansas, Texas, Dakota,
IN fact from all parts of the American
military world, from men who were
getting in out of the rain, and, per
contra, there was constant demand
Tor the records of elusive soldiers who
IN times past had slipped away unos.
tentatiously and were new willing to
return to their first love.
The most interesting of all this hos,
OF prodigals, to me, was quiet, smart,
clean, well set-up fellow in my owr
company, named Dick Brandon, who
modestly admitted twenty-three de.
sertions, Dick had evidently been OF
ass HseYs sey years and had . gssveas