The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1900-09-13
FIGHTING Them OVER.
What the Veterans Have TO Say
About Their Campaigns.
SOME MEDITATIONS.
By Commissioned Veteran Who Saw Deal
of Hard Service.

EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: Having
been a subscriber and reader Of your val
liable paper the greater portion of the
time since its first number, | have always
found much in its columns of interest To
the veterans of the various departments of
that grand old army as organized by rcgi-
mcnts, briGadcs, divisions and corps from
start to finish of the great rebellion.
These various organizations have been Civ
en- free and liberal access to the columns
of your valuable paper. and valuable his
tory has been written by those most com
petent-the actual participants and sur
vivors of the struggle and sacrifice for
principle and right. / for one, after over
three months experience in the West Nir-
GINA campaign under Col. j. Il. Steedman.
18th Ohio, returned to Toledo, o., for mus
ter-out in August, 1861. and in October,
1861, assisted in organizing the 6Sth Ohio
Mt Napoleon, o., then my place of resi-
dencc.
The GSth Ohio, the last regiment in
which / served, commenced its active serv-
ice under Gen. Grant at Fort Donelson;
was at Fort Henry, Pittsburg and
Crump's Landing, on the Tennessee River,
the siege of Corinth, Bolivar, Tenn. We
tried TO get at Nicksburg by the Hollow
Springs route late in the Fall of 1862, but
could not make il that way. We lay up
for repairs at Memphis u part of the Win
ter of 1863; before Spring went into camp
on the Anderson plantation, near Lake
Providence, La, on the Mississippi River,
from which place we marched. starting IN
April, 1868, by circutous route to Grand
Gulf. below Nicksburg, where we crossed
the Mississippi May II, 1868.
Then began the memorable and brilliant
campaign and series Of battles under Grant
that resulted in penning up Pcmherton
and his army i'll the city Of Vicksburg.
Then followed the siege, after which and
some rest came the Atlanta Campaign in
1864, and later on the march to the sea
and through the Carolinas TO the close of
the war.
OF course this is all matter of history,
and has been written up and discussed in
every form through your paper for the
past 20 years. The history as to service
| have referred to, and the men who made
this particular campaign and history were
mainly composed Of men from the West
Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin. Iowa, Nebraska,
Indiana, etc.-mcn used to and Injured to
hardship and full of vim and known and
designated during the greater part of the
war as the Army of the Tennessee. and
mainly under the command of Gen. Grant
from the start, later of Sherman, Mae
PhersOn. Logan and others.
This Army of the Tennessee has moth
ing to be ashamed of pertaining to their
service, and for which history gives them
credit. Their campaigns were lively from
start to finish, and as a rule they got what
ever they went after, and were not inclined
to boast OF their valor and great deeds
There are yet surviving many thousands
of these veterans Of the Army of the Ten
ncsScc who saw all this active service in
the Western Army. although few of them
are now able, by reason of infrmities, to
put on paper what they actually know
from experience. Yet they can read and
very correctly size up an article written
that has reference to what occurred on
the campaign in which their various COM
mands did active service.
This is the class Of men who most ap-
prcciate what your paper has done in the
way Of giving the old boys of the grand
old Union army free access to the col
unnS of your paper to write for publiCa-
ton and to freely discuss their army eX-
periences. This feature as regards your
paper has, as | know, been highly appre
ciatcd by class Of men that you have
heard very little from personally. As for
myself, / will simply refer TO one CORE
spondcnt, DR. Cannon, who served on the
Confederate side and was directly oppO-
site to our Seventeenth Corps and Third
Division, under Logan, during the siege of
Nicksburg and later on in the Mississippi
Campaign. His intelligent and truthful
description of the Confederate moves and
how they Jared on his side Of the line and
what they thought of our moves, etc, are
very interesting and instructive to any vet
eran on the Union sides. w. RICHARD
SON, First Lieutenant, Co. q, GSth Ohio,
Defiance, o.