The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-05-26


and send it properly to be stored at
Norfolk. Now, my chum, Phil Corell,
and myself, had just drawn some
clothes, and we made up our minds
that If we sent it to Norfolk we would
never see it any more; so we decided
to send it home. After we had packed
it up in a box and marked it properly
to be sent to my brother in New York.
I went to the officer of the guard, and
asked for pass to go to Norfolk and
ship the box. He refused up and
down. and 1, boylike and foolish. -Gld
him 1 should go anyway. 1 went. hid
| ing myself in the bottom OF a wagon
and then, more foolish than ever. I
told the officer of the guard what
had done. He laughed, and asked
for proof. and 1 showed my receipt
for the box.
Corporal of the guardr' yelled the
officer, when he saw the receipt.
Il knew then that my trouble was
| ahead of me, and MD. But it was
no use; they found me, and with Phil
! Corell, I was rather severely punished
Each of us was made to stand with a
headless barrel about him, and tied
under his armpits. A soldier who OBJ
| jected to the punishment and fought
the men who put us in the barrels,
was punished worse than we We're
| being tied up for hours to a post
/ Co0c1Aty VIC WCAC PlAA1ASICQ ny OC4A1S
made to stand on barrels for hours,
with knapsacks filed with stones fas-
tened on our backs
How Drummer Boys Lived.
1--WE lived the same as the soldiers"
Mr.. Ritschy went on, sbeing served
with the same sort of uniforms, gen
orally too big, and the same sort of ra-
| lions. We messed together the same
| as the soldiers, and tented together,
being furnished sometimes with A
! tents and sometimes with Sibley tents
round and pointed. At Suffolk,
where we were kept a long time doing
nothing, but where the enemy's bull
let's used often to fly very uncomfort-
ably, we had a Sibley tent which we
used as a roof, on the top of walls of
earth four or five feet high. We were
comparatively safe from the whizzing
bits of lead when we were in these
tents, for although the bullets could
pass through the upper portion of our
little house, they were stopped by the
earthen walls of the lower portion.
One day, however. as one of our boys
was sitting with his back to the en-
bankment, writing a letter on his
drum, there was a sharp ping he
jumped straight up in the air, and We
thought he had been shot He hadn't,
though, but the bullet had plowed its
the cloth and leaving a long red mark
on the f1esh.''
The drummer boys often got &C
quainted with the Southern children,
and were often befriended by the
Southern mothers and daughters.
Phil Corell, Fred Ritschy's partner.
tells of how the two were put to bed
in the guest chamber, one night, by
motherly Southern matrOn, whose own
boy was beating a drum in Lees
army. She tucked them up, after they
had got in bed, kissed them goodnight
as their own mothers had done before
they left New York, and dropped
tear or two on their upturned faces,
as she said that they and her own
dear boy, too, ought to be at home
and not in the field. In the morning,
after giving them a royal breakfast,
she gave them all the yamS they could
carry to take back to camp with them.
The officers and men, also, were apt
to make great pets of the lads.
Specimens from a Drummer's Diary.
Some of the drummers kept diaries,
and wrote voluminous letters home.
Phil Corell still preserves his little
pocket diaries. They contain an entry
for every day, two or three of which
are here reproduced:
Thursday, Jan. 1, 1S63-New Years
udg- Lht anu I. w. 1l1lSCuH SOL q
pass, went to Norfolk and seen the
niggars' procession in honor of Pres
dent Lincoln's proclamation. We then
went to the Indian Poll bridge"
Friday, 2-After strOlling about the
city, me and f. w. r. went back to
camp. There was a brigade of our
troops in Norfolk, bound for North
Carlina."
Saturday 3-Went on guard"
fsSnndoU A-VNa inSnaPfA6
closely by our colonel today
Monday 5-We had plenty of fun
today"
Tuesday Camp life as usual
RigOrs of Drum Practice.
When Fred Ritschy and Philip Corell
went to the front, they and the others
of their regiment had to devote hours
each day until they were all proficient
in drum practice. Their instructor,
a white haired Scotchman who had
been in the Crimean war, was very
strict, often keeping the boys at their
drill until it seemed as though their
arms would break. At first the sol
diers rather enjoyed hearing the drum
practice, but this relish did not last,
and finally the boys were sent out of
the lines to some distant place in the
woods for drum practice. 1t is on
record that sometimes they found
ClneT elnplOyIleuIS IMAM uFuIuHlluS,
such as fishing, swimming and boat
ing, while their drums lay hidden
somewhere. There were twenty drum
mers to each regiment, when the corps
was full, and certain number Of each
corps was told off as lighters.
Both Ritschy and Corell are sober
business men today, and both are en-
thusiastic memoirs of the Grand
Army, and, like Judge Langbein, al
ways participate in Memorial Day OBJ
servances. 1t was Mr.. Ritschy who,
when it was desired to raise money for
the Bartholdi statue of Liberty in the
harbor of New York, raised flute and
drum band of seventy-five boys, and
gave concerts in the streets Of New
York, from which over SLIGO were
realized. They were both great IA
vorites of Colonel Wardrop, who COM
manded the Ninety-ninth New York
Volunteers, and the picture of the
colonel and the two ex-drummers
taken together shows the three as
they now appear.
DEXTER MARSHALL