Rogue River courier. (Grants Pass, Or.) 1886-1927, 1903-02-26
CRITICISM UNWARRANTED
Adiuta nt-Generd Gante n bein
Justifies his Position

Adjutant- General O. U. Ganten-
bein publishes the following article in
response to Brownell's critiscim, in
the Oregon Senate, of the "Oficial
Records of the Oregon Volunteers"
Senator Brownell introduced a
resolution instructing the secretary of
state to appoint a committee COM
posed of two enlisted men and one
commissioned officer of the Second
Oregon, to revise volume of records
compiled by me under authority of an
act of the legislature passed two years
ago, for the reason that / had favored
the officers, and had done injustice to
the enlisted men. The particular
section of the act reads:
In addition to the foregoing duties
and all other duties pertaining to the
Office of adiutant- general and the
chief-of- staff, he SHALL at the expense
of the state cause 800 copies of the
muster rolls of the Oregon volunteers
for the Spanish War to be
printed by the state printer, bound in
proper form and distributed in such
manner as the governor may direct. "
In my introduction / state that "the
records of Oregon volunteers in the
Indian and Civil wars are very in
complete, so that it is always difficult
and sometimes impossible to furnish
desired information. A liberal com.
pliance however, with the requirements
of the above section would have re-
suited in volume of at least 1900
pages of tabulated and therefore very
expensive work, including much mat
ter of comparatively little Importance.
have for this reason assumed the
responsibility of preparing an abstract
of the muster-in and mustor-out rolls
of each organization and of adding
official histories and reports of great
value in their bearing upon the SER
vices of the states volunteers in the
recent war and insurrection. "
The volume is not a history of the
volunteers but is what its title repre-
sents it "The Official Records of the
Oregon Volunteers in the Spanish
War and Philippine Insurrection. "
This history was selected by me for
the reasons that it was official and
was written by a private who was
twice wounded in the service Of the
regiment. 1t was first published four
years ago and | have yet to hear of
any criticism of its fairness.
This history is followed by 300
pages of abstract of muster rolls and
of all the organizations Of the Second
Oregon and Of Batteries A and b,
which give the complete history of
each person named, nothing being ad-
ded to or omitted from the record CON
tained in the muster rolls under each
head. Tho arrangements Of these
abstracts was decided upon after con
sultation with General Summers and
tho council Of administration of the
Spanish American War Veterans of
the department Of Oregon, the major.
ity Of whom were enlisted men The
remaining pages Of the book contain
the official reports of general officers
under whom the Second Oregon In
fantry served, with appended reports
of Second Oregon volunteer officers,
in which every enlisted man as well
as every officer known to be entitled
to special mention receives it.
! have but one request to make in |
regard to this work, viz, that any
person desiring to pass Judgment on
its merits irst examine it and ascer.
tain what it purports to be and what
1t is-not history not an expression
Of opinion as TO the services of any
person or persons, but a compilation
of official records, to be placed for
future reference among the archives
Of the state.
/ cannot but feel that the resolution
by the senate was the result Of misin.
formation as TO the purpose aud con
tents Of the book
@. u Gantenbien,
Adjutant. General
We are agents for Hercules Power,