The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-09-03
ALL TELL THE SAME TALE
BOYS OF THE TWELFTH REGI-
MENT WANT TO COME HOME

Extracts From "A Number of Letters
Received by The Globe From Lex
tngtOn-HaIf the Regiment Sick,
and Nearly All the Men Feel That
the Work for Which They Enlist
ed No Longer Remains to Be Done.
The CT b was yesterday in re-
Ceipt of a number of additional letters
from priVates and commissioned
officers, especially in the Twelfth regi-
ment, all urging the people of the
state to use their influence to have the
regiment mustered out, as there no
longer exists the object for which they
enlisted. AS the people of the state
are already pretty thoroughly aroused
in the matter, and the authorities at
Washington are aware Of the popular
demand, The @ | be does not con-
slider that it will hasten the orders
that are expected, or rouse the friends
OF the boys to any higher degree of
earnestness by publishing the lettGrs
il full. Extracts from some Of them,
however are given. One of the letters
from a private takes exception to
statement written by q member Of
the Twelfth, under date Of Aug. 25,
and printed in The | o b e. 1t men
toned the names of Col Mccoy, Lieut..
bingham and Lieut.. Benner as being
among the officers anxious to have the
regiment remain in the field. The
young man who criticized these officers
seems TO have been too hasty in his
conclusions, or not to have based his
statements on facts So he might have
caused an injustice among the trio of
officers, Where they are not known. In
one of the letters received yesterday
is the following:
I am as anxious to return to Minnesota as
"A Private in Twelfth Regiment and J
think that 95 per cent of the boys
feel the same. But do not want the people
TO think the officers of the Twelfth have
consulted their personal interests in any
thing they have done, for l do not believe
they have. They have, l believe, followed the
rules laid down by the government. Il
doesn't make much difference to Col. Mccoy.
He Is a regular army officer; draws a
additional, for his lergth of service So he
doesn't have to whether school keeps
or not. Lieut. Bingham is a business man
and neither he nor Lieut.. Benner are here
for what there Is in it for them. They,
like the rest Of US Joined the volunteer army
them and because they were willing to fight.
Lieut. Benner was formerly a sergeant, and
has since been made a lieutenant, which
shows that he has made good solder and
further promotion. So l tank they none
of them the kind of men to consider their
mon. Otherwise [ think we ought to be al
lowed to go home, since we have been the
sufferers up to this time and would or could
not possibly be the gamers by doing garrison
duty.
Here is a portion of another letter:
There is some talk around that the Twelfth
IS going to do garrison duty and | for one
can't see how we can ever do garrison duty
unless this regiment IS consolidated into one
battalion and go a battalion.
d There were l06 mustered into this
I Company, and last Saturday night, at retreat
roll call, there were twenty-five members in
! line, and l noticed that some companies only
had three sets of fCurs this morning in COM
pany drill. / feel safe in saying that there
are not twenty-five enlisted man in the
are some men in this organization who de-
pend on daily labor for a support and if
they turned out late in the fall or in
winter they will have to seek climate where
the weather suits their clothes. And if they
are mustered out now or very soon they
can accumulate enough for winter support
We enlisted TO fight and are ready now to
fight, but if there is no show to scrap and
being the first to be mustered in we feel
that we ought to have a show to go
home. Private, Twelfth Minnesota.
Another writes
We had 285 as good men as ever enlisted
until about one-half is unfit for duty. Com
pany has forty men either in the hospital
or home furloughs and all the gallant