The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1898-04-28
4 SIMPLE EXPERIENCE.
Hard Soldering for Seventeenth Corps
Men on the Way to Atlanta.

Editor National Tribune: have been an
interested reader of your paper for many
| years, off and on and never saw an item
concerning my regiment till ran across
Comrade Bledsoe's note in the issue Of
March II. He belonged to Co. q, while
was in Co. c, 18th Iowa.
| did not have the privilege, like him, OF
serving from start to finish, as | was not
old enough to enlist till the Spring of "a;
being now 81 years of age. | saw some
service, however, in the Atlanta campaign,
and was badly wounded at the battle OF
Atlanta, having b en- shot en- the morning
of July 81 by one of the 18th Wis, while
making charge on the rebS, and still
have partly paralyZed foot and ankle.
The shooting, however, was accidental, as
the Wisconsin boys fired a volley just as
our company happened to be between them
and the rebS.
If the Atlanta campaign was a fair sample
of army life / ale avs wondered how any
one could have stood up under three years
of such service. | remember many Incl
dents as well as IS they happened last
week, and when | quote from memory to
the younger generation they seem to look
upon it as a leaf from ancient romance,
rather than actual experience OF living
persons.
In the Spring of '6i the part of the Seven
teenth Corps to which / belonged rendez-
voused at Cairo, H., and started up the
Ohio, and from Paducah, KY, up the
Tennessee River. At Clifton, Tenn, we
disembarked and hOOfed it across country
to Atlanta. Our boys had seen good deal
of marching, but owing to the long distance
and the great necessity of getting to the
front as soon as possible our leaders gave
us some pretty tough stunts in the way OF
travelling, and the boys concluded after
awhile that they were not having quite as
nice time as they had had on former Oc
caSiOnS.
At last they decided that our new corps
commander, Frank p. Blair, was not capa-
BILE of conducting a march as it should be,
and they constantly compared his qualities
with those of John a. Logan and other
former commanders, always to the great
detriment OF +. p. b. IS reputation. Finally
all the sore toes, blisters and other troubles
were lain by certain class OF boys, we'll
meaning but prone to grumble, at the door
of said +. p. b. They didn't pretend to
know anything as to his merits, but they
thought they knew one, thing, and that
was he did not know how to manage a
march and keep the boys from getting
tired
One morning it was announced that Co.
c was going to have picnic-was detailed
to act as rear guard. We filed out to one
side and went into camp till the last OF the
army had slowly crawled by (say, about six
hours); then began our picnic, and we filed
out in the rear. We luckily had no Johnnies
to bother us, but had our own troubles
dozens of stragglers and broken down
teamsters and wagons.
At last we came to stream up to our
waist; we waded it, sat down on the OPP
posite bank, and set a log house afire to
dry off by. 1t being now about 10 O'Clock
at night, one team in crossing managed to
get a wheel fast on rock or root, and we
worked for hours in the water trying to get
it out with dozen more teams OF army