The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1894-12-13
uTHrKTY YEARS AFTER

average boy of Is, who enlisted in th'
Fall of 1861 in one of the regiment
which afterward formed the Army O
the Tennessee.
He was then in the first flush Of youth
full strength, in the dawn of a gloriou.
manhood. The keen examination of the
Surgeons discovered no physical blemisl
in him anywhere. Heart, head, stomach
lungs, limbs, ears, and eyes were sound
and healthy. A life insurance company
would have considered him first-class
risk" and given him policy at a very
low rate, calculating with reasonable
certainty that he would go on paying
premiums for so or 60 years before ii
would be called on to cash his policy.
This boy leaves comfortable home,
where he has been well fed, well clothed,
well sheltered from the storms, aud goes
to Cairo, ILL.,, where he is initiated into
army life, as it was found in the barracks
and tents of that low-lying town of
Mississippi fogs and Ohio back-water.
In Midwinter he is called out of what
shelter and comfort he has had, to make
the campaign against Forts Henry and
Donelson. For month his regiment
founders through the mud and icy
streams of the peninsula between the
Tennessee and the Cumberland. The
streams he has to wade are Winter cold );
the mud in which he lies down at night
freezes to bis blanket; he is oftener
without food than with; he is much
oftener chilled to the marrow than warm
and comfortable; and without tents or
other shelter he endures the fiercest
storms of hail and sleet ever known in
that region. 1t is amazing that he lives
through it all, but he does, nevertheless,
and in the midst of all assaults a power
full fort, manned by determined men,
and compels them to surrender.
The next few weeks bring warmer
skies but continuous and drenching
rains, and find him making the best home
he can on the muddy and fateful field Of
Shiloh. There he meets the enemy in
deadly carnage, where one-third of his
comrades are killed, wounded, or miss
ing.
Following this come 80 days of In
tensely, exciting and fearfully laborious
marching, digging and fighting in the
advance upon COrinth. When that place
falls he has had over four months of as
arduous campaigning as ever fell to the
lot Of a soldier. 1t is a miracle that his
constitution has not been permanently
wrecked. This has actually been the
case with thousands Of bis companions
who have been sent home to die or to
linger for years with increasing de-
crepitude.
A few weeks of fitful rest, broken by
rapid marches hither and yon, over the
hot, dry tablelands Of northern Mis-
sissippi, and he is off with Sherman upon
the Inflated expedition to Chickasaw
Bayou. 1t is the Fort Donelson cam
paign over again, except that the mud
is deeper and the assault ON the enemy's
works bloody failure.
Undismayed he marches against Ar
kansas Post, and wins victory to par
TALLY compensate for the failure TO take
Vieksburg. Then for four weary, deadly
months he camps on the sodden leyee
at Young's Point, plods sadly over the
soaked soil, digs useless canals to get
around Vicksburg, makes endless
marches through the dreary swamps,
with not enough dry ground anywhere
to make fitting graves for the comrades
who daily succumb to the deadly fevers.
The gloomy Winter at last ends, and
sad and chastened, but still resolute, he
marches away to open the grand, final
campaign against Vicksburg. Three
months follow Of excited, perilous
marches, Of sharp, sanguinary battles,
Of arduous labor under burning sun
by day and of weary watches by night
in the rank miasma Of the fever-smit-
ten lowlands, Of hourly danger in the
deadly proximity Of siege, and at
last Ficksburg falls. By this time four