Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1904-11-03

lay in clover at Charlottesville, petted
and soothed by the prettiest girls to
be found in the court of Queen! Rosal1e,
while Benton, a prisoner patient, moped
In huffy dignity and merited semi-ne-
elect. Now the Virginian lies in splints
and stuffy room in parboiled Wash
lngton, far from the pretty girls of
Albemarle, yet assiduously cared for
by their queen. Washington is now
one vast hospital, whose walls echo
night and day the moan of fevered
sufferer, the dull thunder of distant
guns, the rumble of rolling cannon,
the tramp ofssoldier hosts, for Lac
mas leaped the Potomac and gone Ca
reerlng northward toward the Pennsyl-
wanna line. Pope, Mcdowell and Sigel
nave retired in favor of Mcclellan,
Hooker and Porter, the little chief
AGAIN called to the fore, while the
manager OF the sack campaign sits
aoWn to figure out the twistings, turn
lngs and doublings of the hare that
wouldn't be caught until there were
hares enough to smother the hounds. 1t
is fortnight of fruitless recrimination,
OF pushing for place and not for the
foe, OF intrigue and SANDER, of loyal
victims and disloyal triumph. 1t is a
fortnight in. which the fortunes of the
union seem drifting to the lowest ebb.
with all the mud and slime and wreck
age and putrescence hitherto hidden in
the surging tide Of the campaign, now
revealed to public gaze, stencil to
public nostrils. 1t is a fortnight of
funerals. All, what hundreds of gallant
boys have we to mourn, what scores
of noble names On both sides! Wrung
to the uttermost is the great, lonely,
plying heart of him now day and night
striving to bring order out of chaos,
hope out of the slough of despond,
victory from dire and persistent de-
feat Small wonder is it that in the
contemplation of the tremendous peril
that confronts the nation, Lincoln can
find little time to listen to innumerable
personal appeals, to individual claims
presented by inssstent senators, to the
stories of self-seeking, self-sufficient
patriots demanding the doing of this,
the undoing of that. 1t is a fortnight
in which Stanton, at the war office,
is overwhelmed with work and worry,
and grows even more testy and imper-
ious. 1t is a fortnight in which, despite
orders and precautions, swarms Of
officers who should be with their COM
mands are buzzing about congress and
the caravanserais, when every man is
needed at the front and thousands are
sulking at the rear, when the regiments
of the Army of the Potomac and OF
Virginia that marched forth in the
springtide in such splendid array, with
such crowded ranks, are silently, shah
billy slipping through the outskirts,
mere ragged shadows of their former
selves, yet to their everlasting credit
be it said, loyal and subordinate still,
and confident in their faith that they
can yet whip Lee. 1t is fortnight in
which many and many sad-faced SOL
der comes away from the war depart
ment, even from the white house, de-
MED favor that at any other time
would have been accorded as by right,
and one September evening, Benton
and the squire, summoned to accom-
pany their senator to the president,
are witnesses to a scene that wrings
their very hearts.
Continued in next issue.)