The National tribune., 1903-02-05
Chaplain rrumbu11.s Story.

EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: Please
allow me to express the hope that you
will issue the "ChapIain's Memoirs" in
book form, and at the lowest possible
cost, so that Posts and comrades may be
able to procure several copies in each
town, for distribution among pastors of
churches, school professors and editors of
local papers. l suggest this, because 1 see
that many of the men in these places of
influence are young men who know moth
ing of the ''boys of the Co.'S" except hear
say, and that source Of information is not
always trustworthy. / have had two pro-
fessors in public schools boarding with me
at different times, and in each case, while
they were splendid young men, and fully
abreast of the times in their speciality, they
had been too busy to study our day and
the character of the boys in blue, and in
some instances they had received impress
sions, by studying the boys of the war of
'9S and the men in our Regular Army,
which were not of an exalted character,
and thinking that q soldier was merely
a soldier, judged US of the civil war by
the same rule, to our detriment. I told
our present professor that, while would
not for a moment try to lower the grade or
dim the honor and glory due the boys of
the Spanish war, or speak in disparage-
ment of the Regulars of today, l did and
would always maintain that the average
manhood and intelligence of the soldier of
81 to 60, especially after the second year
Of the war, was much higher than that of
the soldier of these later wars. My rea-
sons for so judging l gave him as fol-
lows:
In '9S when a call was made for volun-
teers we knew that the need was not so
urgent, nor the cause at stake SO great as
If was in 81, and that men in places of
trust and importance did not feel called
upon to leave for the front, and that as in
the first call in 81 the majority of those
who rushed to arms were young men, foot
loose and in many cases not our best young
men by any means. Of course, there was
a Roosevelt and many of high degree, but
say the majority were Of much lower
grade. On the contrary, in '62 and '63,
when the magnitude of our task became
apparent to us and the gravity of our
country's situation impressed itself upon
us,
"a thrill went through our Nation,
A fear that our glorious land
Might be rent and divided and ruined,
By a misguided traitor band"
And then on all hands the pastor left
his pulpit, the professor left the school, the
lawyer lis books, the merchant his coun-
ter and the farmer his pillow, and there
stood an army that for intelligence, morals
and patriotism never before was equaled,
nor ever will be.
Now, an article written by one in the
ranks will hardly command the attention
of our young men who are at the lead Of
affairs, but so well known a character as
Chaplain Trumbull, and whose articles
through the Sunday School Times are so
widely read, and who is so well known
Inv, Il In
obtain for us hearing and create for US
a sentiment which believe worth striving
for. and nowhere have 1 seen the character
and services of our boys of the civil war
better portrayed than in the article now
current in the soldiers bible," The Ma
tional Tribune.-C. A. HOWE, Co. G.,
both ILL.,, Wyanet, Ill.