The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1897-01-07

been in the rebel army, and were then fight
ing for Uncle Sam.-A. z. GREEN, Go. A,
I'D Ind, Leroy, Ind.
THE WAR AS AN EDUCATOR
How Great Many Acquired the Rudiments
of an Education.
| EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: AS an edu-
Gator, the army has never been carefully
considered. In all probability three per
cent. of the rank and file learned to write
in the army, not including colored troops.
My own experience in the army life was In
doing garrison duty. There was more leis-
ure among enlisted men there than in field
service. Wherever there was leisure enough,
no doubt, from two to five enlisted men
learned TO write out of every full company.
| In active service, where battle or Skin
mish was q common occurrence, men were
probably more anxious to write home, and
those who could not write would be wishing
they could One per cent. Of 2OOO,OOO
would amount to 10000; and, without the
| least doubt, more than that number learned
to write while in the army.
OF the colored troops-1S6, 000-more than
| SO per cent. learned to read and write; pos
sibly 100000. AS far as my observation ex-
tended, have this to say: That the conf
| missioned officers of the colored troops were
| very considerable in this matter, and encour-
| aged the prvates in all possible ways to
learn to read and write during their leisure
| hours
| Add to these estimates the number OF
| those whom the occasion forced to resume
the habit of writing, and who would never
have written another letter but for army
| life, then we can form some estimate OF the
number who were benefited Internationally
| by the service.
Reading was encouraged by all commits
stoned officers. The commandments of COM
panies found it easier to control their men
when not in active service by seeing that
they had late daily papers to read. have
| hardly afford. Many man entered the
service barely able to read little, and
| would have forgotten all but for this
awakening A quarter of a million of men,
no doubt, left the service better educated
than when they entered it.
In the Spring of 1865 spelling book was
part of the equipment of a colOred soldier.
Near Huntsville, Ala, the Lane plantation.
on Limestone, had $50 inhabitants of color,
and they behaved themselves properly, by
| the influence of few old uncles of wisdom
and experience Being Commissary, had
orders to visit them for the purpose of buy
| ing vegetables for the soldiers. In making
change the leading old uncle gave me 81 too
much. took pieceof charcoal and COM
menced teaching him the different denOmi-
nations of money He begged Of me to wait
till he could call the people together. In a
few minutes / had, indeed, large class !
had taught many Years, and was never more
proud of my profession.
Four generations were among my pupils.
In but little more than an hour every child
of six years and upwards was able to tell the
name of any piece Of currency, from the pit" "
| five cents up to the ".two bits" and so on up
to the $40 greenback. A few pieces Of sill
yer were in circulation among them, which
they knew readily;
An of them could count, add, and sub
| tract to a limited extent. / left the figures
on the hewed log honAe from up to SO. !
found more scrip and greenbacks among
them than l expected, which used for OBJ
ject lessons. For weeks the little darkies
daily taught the same lesson to the children
of their neighbors.
The war was responsible for a huge
amount of ignorance, for most of the schools
| in the South stopped as soon as the first gun
was fired, and were not fairly reconstructed
until 1868, for the simple reason that school
funds were used to carry on the war. Yet a
few schools (private) were held in block
houses as soon as the Union soldiers vacated
them; the main trouble being the want of
buildings. There were two many chimneys
without houses
Taking seven years out of the school life
of the children had a lasting influence. But
we must not suppose that the illitepate Con-
| federate soldiers were idle when doing gar
rson duty. 1 have been told that many of
them learned to read and write in the army.
On the whole, war has been an educator.
We learned more about geography aud hui
| man nature than we could have learned
without it-JONATHAN HUNT, Sergeant,
Co. ID, 1S9th Ohio, SwantOn, O.
CAPTURED BY MORGAN.
Illinois Soldier Tells of Escapo by Night