Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1901-10-25
FRANKS OF SOLDIERS.
Relieving Comrnde I'm Durnnce
from an UnjustIy Imposed
Penalty.


"Discipline didn't count" said the
sergeant, in the Chicago Inter Ocean,
"in the matter of pranks. There were
no better soldiers in the union army
than the boys of the Eighty-fifth 1lli-
nois, and none yielded more readily to
discipline or ripened more rapidly in
the rough school of experience. But
the men of the Eightyfifth were, after
Stone river, Chickamauga, Kenesaw,
Peach Tree creek, Atlanta and the
march to the sea, as much given to
pranks as they were in their first
march in Kentucky in the summer of
1862. We arrived at Richmond, Va, on
the long march from the Carolinas
early in May, 1865. Our brigade was
made up of seasoned soldiers, if there
were any in the army, but they came
north in the belief that Gen. Halleck or
Secretary Stanton had put slight on
Gen. Sherman, and they were looking
for trouble.
"The march from North Carolina.
after the surrender of Johnston, had
been a sort of picnic for the boys, but
discipline was as strict as it was in
front. of Atlanta, and it was needed
when we came to Richmond. Halleck,
then in command of the department
of the James, directed that Sherman's
army pass in review before him as it
marched through Richmond. Sherman
forbade the review, and Halleck re-
fused to permit any of Sherman's men
to enter the city. EX-confederates
and citizens came and went at will, but
when Sherman's men attempted to
visit the city they were met at the pom
toon bridge by provost guard and
turned back.
'Sherman's men resented all this,
and they were furious over the intima-
tion that they were kept out of the city
in the interests of good order, and be-
cause they could not be trusted. The
boys talked only among themselves.
and organized to carry out plan to
see the city. One day n large crowd
of unarmed soldiers assembled at the
south end of the bridge, and at given
signal rushed upon the guards, push
ing many of them into the river and
overwhelming the others by sheer
weight of numbers. In short, Sher-
mans men, acting without orders and
without officers, seized the bridge
and held it while the boys went over
and looked about the fallen confed-
crate capital. So far as i know Hal
leck made no complaint of this ir-
regular proceeding, and Sherman did
not notice it.
after the grand review at Wash
ington the Eighty-ifth Illinois, with
the other regiments of the brigade,
went into camp near the soldiers
home, and the men were permitted
to roam at will over the city. One
morning some of the boys discovered
a soldier at Fort Slemmer walking up
and down in front of an officers tent
carrying a log on his shoulder. One
of the boys was sent over to investi-
gate, and when he reported that the
soldier at the fort was carrying the
log as punishment for very trivial
offense the men decided to interfere
They went in force, but without
arms, over to the fort, took charge,
dismissed the log carrier to his quar-
ters, and jovially informed the officer
in command that the punishment was
contrary to the regulations, and
Sherman's men didn't want him to
let it occur again.
"At the close of the interview they
picked up the log and brought it at