The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1898-09-15
DEFENSE OF ALGER.
COMRADE BACON WRITES IN RE-
GARD TO SECRETARY OF WAR.
HITS THE YELLOW JOURNALS.
Draws Telling Comparison Between the
Days of 81 and the Days of '98-Calls
on Official reports For Data and
Shows Rumors are False

ports IN some OF the newspapers OF TO-
day, and compares them with similar
circumstances of the past, they are al
most inclined to think that the public
and press have lost their heads.
What would the people of the early
sixties thought had the press and
thousands of citizens raised the hue
and cry that is being raised today, to
have had some of the regiments located
in the unhealthy districts of the south
sent home and be disbanded. 1t would
have been preposterous, and yet the
losses now by sickness are not near SO
great as then.
Go down to the line of McClellan's
camps on the Chicahoniny, and there
lies an army whose epitaphs are, died
of fevers, nearly if not quite as large as
was furnished by this whole State dur
ing the war, yet does any one remem-
Der of Populations visiting Congress-
men and requesting them to use their
influence to get those regiments sent
north to more pleasant camps, or dis
banded?
Look at the condition of some of the
Wisconsin regiments in Arkansas and
other parts of the south in 1913.
The report from the I'd regiment of
cavalry shows: Killed in action, 10;
died from wounds, 4; died of disease,
265. Next comes the 18th infantry:
Killed in action, sc; dice of wounds,
As; died of disease, 1852. (This regi
ment's health suffered greatly before
they got to Helena.-Adjt. Gems re-
port) Look at the report of Uncle"
Jere Rusk's 25th Wisconsin infantry:
Killed in action, 26; died of wounds
Is; died of disease, 376. "While sta
toned in this sick1y spot (Snyder's
Bluffs, Ark.) the health of the regiment
suffered severely. On July Goth 500
men lay sick and not over 100 were fit
for ."-Adjt. Gems report This
regiment lost in camp and hospital
lost forever-nearly One-half as many
men as has been lost during this whole
war, outside of the battle of Santiago,
and yet Uncle Jere" nor his men
clamored to be sent home or disbanded,
but like the majority in other regi-
ments in the service at the time, would
have re-enlisted for another term had
not the war closed before their term
expired.
But the paragrapher Of the News in,
Inmates that when one makes .cOmpari-
son of the late war with this war, he
means to be unfair to some one. So
compare the losses by sickness of the
volunteers with the regulars and navy,
and you will find that in the regulars
where orders are Obeyed more nearly
to the letter than in the volunteers,
that the losses are less, and in the
navy where the discipline is still more
strict and evasions of orders less posi-
BILE, it is less yet.
In making comparisons between '61-
'65 and now, it must be borne in mind
that when speaking of regimental losses
that regiment then consisted of ten
companies as against twelve at the
present time.
1t, too, must be borne in mind that
the officers of the present army, most
of them, have had no experience except
such as. came to them in the annual
encampments of the National Guards
of from ten days to two weeks; have
not had to contend with the problems
of wormy hard tack and imperfectly or
improperly cured meats. That men
unused to coping with seemingly i'm
possible problems have sometimes
failed to rush supplies to the front,
from not yet having learned their full
duties in the premises.
AS to that part that is due to the
soldiers themselves; it must be borne
in mind that these men have made
three great changes in life-a great
climatic, a great dietic and a great
change in the habits of life, ali of them
at time of year that tends to create
sickness, Fresh from the factory,
farm and store, with the varied diet TO
tempt their appetites, to the regulation
"hard tack and sowbelly" and coffee
of Uncle Sam, in very short time;
from being used to work under roofs,
in most cases, to an outdoor life, and
and the arduous duties of company,
battalion and regimental drill, and they
are arduous duties, under great
climatic change too, it is no wonder
that the diet became distasteful, es-
pecially when prepared by men detail
ed for company cooks whose culinary
experience extended only to eating the
dinner prepared by mother or some
other experienced cook. No wonder
that the bean soup tasted salter than
when mother made it, or lacked that
other inviting flavor. No wonder that
at the first opportunity he filed himself
up on the fruits that he was unaccum
toned to and the stale beer and