The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1901-08-01


Subsistence Department had not been Off
cially Informed of our, transfer from one
battalion to another. though the fact of
the transfer was under their eyes, and
the order of the Chief of Artillery making
il was offered them in evidence. These
officers We're not to blame They knew
the temper of their Chief. and had been
taught the omnipotence of routine.
RED TATE IN RICHMOND.
But it was in Richmond that routine
was carried to its absurdest eXtremities.
There, everything was done by rule except
those things to which system of some
sort would have been of advantage, and
they We're left at loose ends. Among
other things q provost system was devised
and brought to perfection during the time
of martial law. Having once tasted the
sweets of despotic rule, its chief refused
to resign any part of his absolute SOW
ereignty over the city, even when the reign
of martial law ceased by limitation of
time. His system of guards and pass
ports was very marvel of annoying inefii-
cheney. 1t effectually blocked the way OF
every man who was intent upon doing his
duty, while it gave unconscious but sure
protection TO spies, blockade-runners, de-
Serters, and absentees without leave from
the armies. 1t was omnipotent for the an
worthless for any good purpose. If a sol
dler on furlough or even on detached duty
arrived in Richmond. he was taken in
charge by the provost guards at the rail
way station, marched to the soldiers home
or some other vile prison house, and kept
there in durance during the whole time
of his stay. 1t mattered not how lcgiti-
mate his papers were, or how evident his
correctness of purpose. The system re-
quired that he should be locked up, and
locked up he was, in every case, until one
plucky fellow made fight by appeal to the
courts, and so compelled the abandonment
of a practice for which there was never
any warrant in law or necessity in fact.
Richmond being the railroad center
from which the various lines radiated,
nearly every furloughed soldier and Off
Ger on leave was obliged to pass through
the city, going home and returning. Now
to any ordinary intelligence it would seem
that man hearing full description of
himself, and a furlough signed by his
Captain, Colonel, Brigadier, Division-Com-
mander, Iieutenant-General, and finally
by Robert L. Lee as Gencral-in-C Chief,
might have been allowed to go pcaceably
TO his home by the nearest route. But
that was no ordinary intelligence which
ruled Richmond. Its ability to find places
in which to interfere was unlimited, and
it decreed that no soldier should leave
Richmond, either to go home or to return
direct TO the army, without brown paper
passport, signed by an officer appointed
for that purpose, and countersigned by
certain other persons whose authority to
sign or countcrsign anything nobody was
ever able to trace to its source.
If any such precaution had been neces-
sary, it would not have been so bad, or
even being unnecessary, if there had been
hn .lTerllt on Ia M
these passport people to facilitate obed-
fence to their own requirements, the long
suffering officers and men of the army
would have uttered no word of complaint.
But the facts were exactly the reverse.
The passport officials rigidly maintained
the integrity Of their Office hours, and nei-
Their entreaty nor persuasion would induce
them in any case to anticipate by single
minute the hour for beginning. or to post
pOne the time of ending their daily duties.
stood one day in their office in a crowd
of fellow soldiers and officers, some on fur
Tough going home, some returning after q
brief visit, and still others, like myself,
going from one place to another under
orders and on duty. The two trains by
which most of us had 10 go were both-to
leave within an hour, and if we should
lose them we must remain "A hours longer
in Richmond where the hotel rate was
facts, the passport men, daintily dressed,
sat there behind their railing, chatting and
laughing for a full hour, suffering both
trains to depart and all these men to be
left over rather than do 80 minutes work
in advance of the improperly fixed Office
hour. 1t resulted from this system that
many men on three or five days leave lost
nearly the whole Of it in delays, going and
returning. Many others were kept in
irh nf n
their furloughs expired, when they were
arrested for absence without leave, kept
three or four days in the guard house,
and then taken as prisoners to their COM
mands, to which they had tried hard to
90 of their own motion at the proper
time. Finally the abuse became so out
rageous that Gen. Lee, in his capacity Of
General-in- Chief, issued peremptory
order forbidding anybody to interfere in
any way with officers or soldiers travelling
under his written authority.
But the complications Of the passport
system, before the issuing of that order,
were endless. ! went once with a friend
in search of passports. AS | had passed
through Richmond Il few weeks before
| fancied / knew all about the business
of getting the necessary papers. Armed
with our furlOughs we went straight from
the train TO the passport office, and pre-
senting our papers to the young man in
charge, we asked for the brown paper
permits which we must show upon leav-
ing town. The young man prepared them
and gave them to us, but this was no
longer the end Of the matter. These pass
ports must be cOuntersigned, and, strange
ly enough, my friends required the sign
manual OF Lieut.. Y. whose Office was in
the lower part of the city, while mine
must be. signed by Lieut.. Y, who made
his headquarters some distance farther up
town. As my friend and | were of pre-
cisely the same rank, came from the same
command, were going to the same place,
and held furloughs in exactly the same
words, / shall not be deemed unreasonable
when | declare my conviction that no
less fully developed than that
which then governed Richmond, could pos
sibIy have discovered any reason for re-
quiring that our passports should be
by different people.
But with all the trouble it gave to men
intent upon doing their duty, this cum
brous passport system was wellnigh
worthless for any of the purposes whose
might have excused its
existence Indeed, in some cases it served
to assist the very people it was intended
to arrest In one instance within my own
knowledge, soldier who wished to visit
his home. some hundred miles away, fail
ing to get furlough, shouldered his
musket and set out with no scrip for his
journey, depending upon his familiarity
with the passport system for the accom-
plishment of his purpose. Going to rail
road station, he planted himself at one
of the entrances as a sentinel, and pro-
ceedcd to demand passports Of every
Al.