Barton County democrat. [volume] (Great Bend, Kan.) 1885-1915, 1905-02-10
CHAPTER Xxx.
A CRY FROM THE AMBULANCE

A CRY FROM THE AMBULANCE
The autumn, the wasted autumn has
gone, 'tthe winter of our discomfort
indeed has come. For weeks the army
hangs there inert and chafing along
the Potomac, while Lee and his bronzed
veterans saunter away through the
Shenandoah, feeding on the fat of the
land" Marveling. at the inaction of
Mcclellan, Stuart rides back with 1880
horse and two light guns and, of
course, Pelham; and, just as he did
few months earlier down on the pen
insula, joys contemptuously clear
round the bewildered and indignant
divisions, laughing at the effort of
Pleasanton to catch or others to head
him. Mcclellan says his cavalry is
too wearied and broken down to &C
complish anything, and the president
mildly asks what it has been doing to
so fatigue it. Another correspondence
of complaints begins, and finally ends
at WarrentOn, when the order comes
early in November that sewers once
and for all McClellans connection with
the Army of the Potomac He had
done much to make it, God knows
He was great as an organizer and in
structor. He had the faith and regard
of most of the officers and the love of
all the men. 1t was in battle and cam
paign that he failed them, not they
him, for mortal man had never deeper
devotion than was accorded Little Mac
until he took the field. Even now, this
sad November day, there are scores of
officers and soldiers whose faces are
1ufroWed with tears as they see him
ride away. There are many commands
that would gladly recall him There
are regiments that could not be made
TO cheer him after Antietam that
mourn his going now, even In the
hard-used First corps.
Changes, too, have occurred in many
a minor grade. The Fifth corps
mourns the loss of the brilliant. gift
ed, handsome soldier whose head is de-
manded as one result of the woful mis-
maneuvers about Manassas. Old
names appear at the head of grand
divisions, as Burnside calls the doubled
corps. New names, comparatively, ap-
pear at corps headquarters. New
brigadiers, a full crop, ride up from
the roster of field officers, and not so
many now hail from the ranks of in
huential but unSkilled civilians. New
regiments have been grated on old
brigades; new blood injected into old
and toughened veins. 1t is high time
our friends of the Iron name had re-
enforcement, for despite Wisconsin's
praiseworthy course of recruiting vet
eran commands as well as raising new
ones, their ranks are wofully thin; so,
as neither Badger nor Hoosier regi-
ment comes to swell the Army of the
Potomac, there is assigned to the old
brigade, thereby assuring it's distinctive
western character, brand new, ambi-
tous and, as it turns out, most pug
| nacious and fghtful array of Wolver-
| ines, "all teeth and toe-naiis," say
| the Badgers. who take them under ad-
| visement, and SO the much-vaunted
menagerie is complete again.
| Changes, too, have come to the STAFF,
| and, to Benton's blushing delight, he
| is called upon at Catlett's to wet"
a new commission, recommended by
| his old general and heartily approved
| by the new. 1t is Capt. Benton. addi-
| tional aide-de-camp now, and he rides
for the time being with a division COM
mander famous for staying qualities, If
not for urbanity, man who is of the
! f1ght-to-a-fnish mold, and would hang
every rebel from Maine to Mexico.
We have had few as yet of these We
hement patriots in high places We
} have had far too many, storms Stanton
in Washington, of those who would
handle treason with gloves, furnish
guards for the homesteads of hard
fighting chiefs on the southern side
hold commerce and communion
through flags of truce with former
: comrades across the lines. Eve mus
stop it, by heaveni" says Stanton
splitting table top with one blow o.