The National tribune., 1901-05-09

carefully adjusted a blanket and over
coat. They were stalwart looking and OF
gallant bearing, but pride, courage and
strength will yield to exhaustion.
The veterans set the pace with the ia
miliar swinging stride. Long experience
had taught them that real necessaries
were few, great fact yet to be learned
by those who, overloaded, labored along
the parched highway under the blistering
sun, inhaling the air laden with dust, that
dried to parchment the throat and tongue.
Sentiment will yield to profuse perspira-
ton and blistered feet, and accordingly
a transformation scene was enacted that
day on the great Kentucky pike. BY
piecemeal oyercoats, blankets, knapsacks
and all their indispensable contents were
recklessly strewn along the roadside and
| in such profusion that there was not the
least difficulty in following the line OF
march.
There was no one in the command to
instruct the men as to what a hurried
march involved. and to try to make some
other arrangement for the transportation
of the really valuable blankets and oEer-
coats. 1t mattered little what became Of
| the knapsacks, if these two articles could
| only have been preserved.
| In due course we went into camp, par
taking sparingly OF the uninviting rations,
| and then the cool evening air recalled the
burning heat of the day, when all were
| impressed with the feeling that blankets
and overcoats could never again be need
| ed. Now they were beyond recall, and
| in the possession of the residents along
| the pike / know of no effort looking to-
| ward replenishing the lost supply that the
| men had actually thrown away; no apol-
ogy was thought of because of their ig-
nOrance and the other conditions of the
situation; they had been the architects
| Of their misfortunes, and now must sleep
| in the bed they had prepared.
Hi .raA
| change in habits and situation within
| few weeks, and now exposed to the hot
sun, the toll of march and breathing only
| dust clouds, with water the scarcest of
| all articles, and food that was never de-
sigEed for mortals, the effect can be bet
ter imagined than described.
The ratiOns now became an important
| factor. The orders forbade foraging at
all, and equally forbade the taking of
more than the top rail for the varied uses
of camp, forgetting that the top rail was
continuously present, a fact that the OBJ
serving and needy soldiers We're not slow
| to discover. In a single half hour l have
seen the fences of a Kentucky plantation
so handled that it presented the appear
ance of an illuminated prairie. We were
following retreating and destitute army,
and as to foraging so little escaped their
search that it was proftless. Thus we
were forced to accept the heat and cold,
the dust and thirst, and rely only on the
army ratiOns. We had the best coffee
that mortals ever drank, and plenty of
sugar; we had beans, side meat and army
crackers. Fresh, juicy vegetables, as well
as fresh beef, were practically unknown
to US.
ARMY RATIoNs.
What beef we had had been driven
along until it was as fatless as the seven
| lean kline of Holy Writ, and the crack
| ers-oh, those crackers. Where they had
been stored was an unfathOmed mystery,
but We regarded them as very ancient, as
they bore stamped into them the capital
letters b. c., which our linguist inter-
preted into Before Christ"
That they had the qualities to fill this
bill of endurance q thousand witnesses
would then testify. Soaking them in cot
fee, the outside became slippery and the
tough inside would bend quite double.
They could not be broken in the palm of
the hand with stone or hammer, but in
a pan they could be fractured with the
butt of musket. A nail could be driven
through them as through a board, but
without long soaking they were quite i'm
perviOus to teeth and defied mastication.
There was little complaint, as all felt
that the Government was doing the best
1t could, and we somehow did not regard
| ourselves as Juveniles just detached from
! mothers apron-strings.
Mind is said to be superior to matter,
but in this case the deterioration of the
body resulting from all these causes grad
ually sapped the foundation of enthusi-
asm and soldierly pride.
Clearly, we were not the high-spirited
men we were when we left Camp Lima.
Our commander at this time, though in
tensely loyal, kind and brave to Tashness,
had no military training. Some men have
military instincts, but of this he seemed
to be void. The command was not drilled
military the pf than
had never loaded and fired their guns; in
fact, many If the guns could not be fired
Worn down with incessant marching and
undesirable food, they became broken in
spirit as well as in general health.
| struggled along as best | could. Sick
call was an appalling s. hit, not only as
to numbers, but as to ailments that re-
quired conditions that could not be fur
Dished. All the sufferers looked to the
Surgeon for needed aid. With so unable
to march, two ambulances only were a
sorry outfit.
| was compelled to require men unable
to do so to march. AT Cave Springs
received orders to select % of the worst
cases and send them to the rear. ! sent
over 100. | was soon asked why l had
overreached my orders, and replied that
they were unable TO march and there was
no means of transportation, and that
had 100 more who should have gone with
them. Why / was not court-martialed
do not know, but my statement was dem
onstrably true.
Those who were gone were scarcely
missed at sick call and on the march
Never were embarrassing conditions
greater and more discouraging. There was
nothing to be done but to struggle on.
Every available help was resorted to, but
there were occasions when we had TO
leave both officers and men behind, some
Of whom We never afterwards saw.
nfficprq and M GbaroI9 orlyy
far as food was concerned. No one, not
even the regular medical officer or Surg
Gen. Hammond, seemed to have had the
faintest idea of the cause Of our distress,
which l learned thereafter to have been
almost wholly the continuous use Of bad
crackers and salt meat, the absence of
vegetables and the consequent scurvy and
scorbutic diarrhea, from which numerous
cases of partial paralysis occurred. A man
would lie down and in the morning wake
with paralyzed arm, leg or vocal cords;
officers were no exception, and / myself
was victim Of sensory paralysis at the
left thigh that in 4 slight degree exists to
this day.
l excused men from duty until COM
pany officers presented complaints to the
commander that their commands were re-
duced to impractical numbers, and, fur
ther, that l was being imposed upon by
the men.
Thus | was between two fires. for in
vestigation showed that i had far too
kindly accepted representations of illness
1t was the first opening of my eyes to the
adrOitnpSs of the malinperar