The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-02-13

Z
have been applied for by them. AS far
as practicable, details of the kind are
! to be from officers and non-commis-
stoned officers of troops stationed in
the vicinity of ithe schools in which in
struction is required. and the instruc-
ton is to be so arranged as 80 only
require officers to devote such time as
is necessary. No detail is to be made
where the number of scholars of the
town or city to be taught does not eX-
coed 800.
Deserter Reisenger, late sergeant
major in the Third infantry at Fort
Smelling. St Paul, Mimi. left Tuesday
night for Alcatraz Island military prison.
in charge of First Sergeant Russell and
Privates Bowers and Mccain of COM
pany B. He received q sentence of eight
cen months. The general court martial.
before which he was arralgned and tried,
sat here several weeks ago. ReisenSer.
or Richardson. that being the name un-
der which he served in the Third infan-
try. deserted the service three months
ago. for reasons not yet fully understood
here 1t is a rare thing to hear of the
from the army. as they draw more pay
and do less work than the more untor-
tunate DrivateS.
From few hints dropped by Reisen-
ger. it is suspected that he had a
serious and somewhat complicated love
affair on his hands in the north coun-
try, which, nevertheless, seemed not in
the least to destroy his love of a mill
tary live.
Leaving Fort Smelling, Reisenger went
TO Chicago and after an uneVentful SO
1ourn OF two months in the lake city,
presented himself as a candidate for mil
itary honors at the recruiting Office pre-
sided over by Captain Palmer of the Six
teenth regiment. He knew nothing about
like 1T very much; preferred the infantry
to any other branch of the service; was
too heavy for the cavalry. He was sure
of that. and would rather be sent to the
Sixteenth infantry Fort Douglas, Cap
tain Palmer's own regiment He had
| heard such q lot about Utah climate. In
fact no arrangement the captain could
make would suit him better. One snowy
afternoon he arrived at Fort Douglas,
and the adjutant assigned him to COM
DanV A. In d short time he was required
to drill the manual, setting up exercises,
etc. with the other recruits. One day
Sergeant Hunt was in charge of the
squad and noticed that Reisenger went
through the drill with good deal of
snap and accuracy not usual with men
new TO the ranks. When the other re-
cruits would come to halt they did not
always remember to come to an order
arms, but Reisenger did not have such
bad memory. He came to an order
every time he received the command TO
halt. Hunt reported the fact to First Ser
geant Weir. who laid the matter before
the company commander, Captain Noble.
antecedents had been going on but a
short time, when To- there came one of
those mysterious kilograms from Wash
ington, ordering ReiSenger confined in the
post guardhouse to await trial for deSer-
ton. His identification cards, containing
a complete description of him had reached
the Surgeon-general'S office and they were
found to tally precisely with those of the
missing Sergeant Richardson of company
3. Third infantry.
Some years ago congress established a
military detective bureau under the sur
geon-general for the detection and cap
ture of deserters and other military Grim
mails. DeSertionS were getting to be very
frequent. and there were many Grim
malls who used the service as place of
Temporary refuge when pursued by de
tectives for crimes. The secluded life of
/ an army post afforded them protection
which they could not have while dodg-
ing around in civil life. It would have
been an expensive and unsatisfactory
method for the government 10 pursue
deserters by the usual detective methods,
and the surgeOn-general was authorized
to establish a scheme to capture them
otherwise.
All men have permanent marks on
their bodies by which they can be iden-
titled and surgeons of recruiting sta
cards bearing the outlines of an anatom-
ical man. These cards are about eight
inches square and the outlined figure of
a man is printed on both sides One side
shows front view of the figure with
the hands and arms straight down at the
Sides and the other shows the rear
figure. Blank spaces are provided for the
mans name, age, height, nationality,
color of eyes, and few other
things that might assist in identifying
him.
When man goes to a recruiting Office
the surgeon strips him and subjects him
to a scrutiny for scars, moles, tattooing
and other permanent marks on the body.
He indicates the nature of any marks he
may find on one of these cards with ink.
in three years from the time the scheme
was put in operation there was a card on
file for every enlisted man in the army
When a man is honorably discharged his
card is destroyed. When a man deserts
or commits any other military offenSe the
commander of the post at which he is
stationed forwards his name to the war
department and consequently they are on
the lookout for him when he shows up
through another recruiting office and
under an alias.