The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-10-18

practice on the funeral dirge. The other
regiment camped near us. They had
large suffers store. which was well pa
tronized. Pedders found a ready sale for
all they might bring. The result was
fun hospital and funeral very fire.
quently.
Later in the war | crossed the Cumbcr-
land mountain from kentucky to Knox
VILE, distance of 200 miles, in mid-Min-
ter, and arrived there just after siege
of the place by Longstreet had been
raised. Rations were so scarce for sew
eral, weeks that guards were placed over
the mules while they were eating to keep
the men from stealing the corn. When
rations were issued to us, we dare not
trust ourselves with the whole weeks
supply for fear we would eat II all IN
one day. We chose one man to take
char~e of 1t and give Us some each
day. When we got through picking our
teeth after n meal all evidence that we
had eaten vanished 1t did not make any
one sick; on the contrary, the command
was unusually healthy. Most people for
get that more people die of ovcreatinS
than starve TO death.
o
Some critics complain that the men In
Santiago were short of kettles to boil
water and had only their cups and cam
teens to hold supply Of water. As to the
Kettles, ! presume they had thrown them
away. which Is not an unusual thing TO
do on a forced march on hot dav
have known soldiers to make campaigns
of some lcrgth with only plate ana
cup for their cooking OUTFIT. As TO the
shortcomings of the medical department,
! have seen on many battlctields the
conditions as bad, or worse, where there
were pretty good roads to bring supplies
up on. One would think from reading
that a doctor needed a whole drug store
to properly care for wounded man. All
that is usually used on wound Is a
cold water compress. Bandages, anaes-
thetics, antsrptics and a case of instru-
ments make M u surgeons kit on IL bat
tlefield | was wounded almost in sight
of the White House, where lived the
great hearted Lincoln, and yet, with hum
dreds of others. was left on the field to
fall into the enemys hands, when there
were many hours in which to remove us;
but in forced march to engage and
stop "Stonewalr' Jackson's forces, our
ambulance train had been left far be-
hind Some of our surgeons remained
with us. I saw them cut off the leg or
arm of many poor fellow and lay him
| back in the grass. as they are said to
| have done in Santiago. After lying there
three days and nights almost without food
| q had in that time one crackcr) an ambu-
| lance train came for us under flag of
| truce, and took us into Alexandria, twcnt-
| ty miles distant. We arrived about a.
m. and were put on cots in building, and
| II was 10 o'clock a. m. before any one
| came to remove our bloody. greasy, lousy
clothes and dress our wounds. All with
in sight of the war department
| One cold stormy morning i'm the lasr
| days of October a Comrade and | re-
ceived our discharges, and set out, on
| crutches clad in the thin white hospital
suits to go to Washington, where We
were told we could get our pay. 1t was
only three blocks to the ferry. but We
| were so weak that it was necessary tC
rest many times on some convenient
/ door step. Neither of us had the price oI
| the fare across the river. and we started
| out to beat our way. While the fare col
| lcctor was berating us for coming on the
| boat without money, middle aged
| farmer-looking man stepped up. and OF
| learning the trouble, gave the fellow y
cents. We were landed about mil,
from the paymaster's office, and started
| out to walk there when our friend over
took us with a cab and landed us al oul
destination. We sat around there on tn,
| steps and on the floor in the hall until
| o'clock in the afternoon before We re
| ceived our pay. My experience was only
the experience of thousands of others
| 1t was just war and some of its results
| The government was not censurcd for it
| They did all they could for U.S. as I be
| lieve they have tried to do that for tn,
| soldiers in the late war. In case of a re
| newal of hostilties the president viii
| know just where to put his fingers on th'
| right men to run the war without a mis-
| take. N. Z. Rice.