The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-05-19
THE LONELY REGIMENT
COL. BARNETTvs MEN ARE GETTING
THEIR EQUIPMENT.
Given a Taste of Strong Military Dis
clpIine-Warm Day in
Camp Mount.

Governor Mount received telegram from
Quartermaster General Luddington, at
Washington. yesterday, which he afterward
turned over TO Quartermaster Compton, of
the misunderstanding Regiment,
at Camp Mount, that indicates very strong
ly that the regiment will be sent to Wash
ington and held there until its service is de-
cided on. The telegram was in relation to
equipment for the regiment, and said that
as the War Department stores lad been
heavily drawn upon for equipment for the
troops already at the points of mobilization
it would be best for the State to equip the
troops as far as it could before they are
sent to Washington.
Quartermaster Compton made requisition
for equipment for the regiment when the
order came to move to Chickamauga, which
was afterward countermanded, and the
equipment asked for is just beginning to ar
rive. Some of the equipment just received
here was intended for the three regiments
that have already gone to Chickamauga.
This illustrates how great the strain has
been on the government depots to supply the
troops. Quartermaster Compton was for
merly quartermaster general for the State,
and saw four years of service in the civil
war, and this experience gives him the be-
lief that it is advisable to hold the regiment
at Camp Mount until it is as fully equipped
as possible, for, he thinks, when the troops
are swallowed up in thousands at one of the
points of mobilization it will take weeks to
procure proper equipment, because the War
Department is besieged with acquisitions
that it is able 10 fill but slowly.
The prospect is bright for the One-hun-
dred- and-fifty-ninth to be equipped with
clothing to-day One thousand blouses have
been received, and last night 1000 shirts and
1000 pairs of drawers arrived and will be
taken to the camp to-day to be issued to
the regiment. Shoes are expected in a few
days, and word was received yesterday
afternoon that trousers. knapsacks and
haversacks are on their way to the camp
The supply of bayonets and scabbards has
run out, and the various government depots
are engaged in making more. This morning
enough guns Of the latest Springfield pattern
will be taken to the camp from the local
United States arsenal and issued to the
men. About 974 guns will be required to
equip the regiment. BY consideration of
these facts 1t may be seen that by Sunday
the regiment will be well equipped and ready
to move to the point of mobilization intend
ed for it, where the men can wait COM
fortably for the rest of their equipment
Some inconvenience will be caused on the
trip from the fact that the regiment has no
canteens, and IS short on cooking and eat
ing utensils. The boys will forego these
things with little complaint, however, when
they are equipped with uniforms and guns
so that they may make a soldierly appear
ance They have been greatly disconnected
at the appearance they made-one-third of
them without full uniforms and all without
guns. The guards paced their beats yester-
day with clubs in their hands, and could
offer no resistance when restless ones ran
the guard lines One of the boys remarked
that the regiment looked like "Coxey' S
army" and another, with fine sense of
the travesty of the thing, walked with
marked pride through the camp head erect
and shoulders back, with a thin piece of
board carved roughly in the shape of a
rifle and with piece of wire thrust into
the end of 1t as a bayonet QuartermaS-
ter Compton told with gusto of his attempts
to get pair of uniform trousers to fit him.
The first pair he procured were so short
that he had to wear his boots all the time
to keep his ankles from being exposed. The
second pair, and the last, are long enough
but are not large enough around the waist
A city fireman who has charge of the
chemical engine at the camp appeared
with badge on his breast and q soldier s
cap added to the rest of his uniform A
member Of the company of Vincennes Ca
diets, who joined the observation-disclosures fifty
ninth, and who still wear their grey uni
forms because they have been provided
with no others, while walking with another
member of the regiment who wore the reg
ulation blue drew the attention of a visitor
who remarked: There's a representation
of the union of the blue and the gray in
this war with SPAIN"