The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1906-02-01
THE FIELD OF BATTLE
INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES OF
THE WAR.
The Veterans Of the Rebellion Tell of
WhistfinR Bullets, Bright Bayonets,
Bursting Bombs, Bloody Battles,
Camp Fire, Festive Bugs, ETC., Etc.

Camp Fire, Festive Bugs, ETC., Etc.
81 have often wondered" said the
Major, what became Of the unrea-
sonable and wantonly brutal officers
of the old volunteer army. 1 do not
mean the petulant, noisy, or swearing
officers who were good fighters, but
the martinets and grained men
who were gratuitously abusive, and
uniformly severe or merciless in the
administration Of punishment The
volunteers admired rather than dislik
ed good disciplinarian, and they did
not resent the explosive language of a
hard fighter, but they swore vengeance
on the officers who took advantage Of
shoulder straps to treat men in the
ranks contemptuOusly or brutally.
There were not many officers Of
this kind, but nearly every regiment
had one or more. Some were light
headed martinets, some were born
ruffians, and some were Influenced by
inordinate vanity or petty resentment
to persecution Of their own men. They
aped the regular officers I'm cultivating
aloofness, but they had nothing Of
the regular officers soldierly quality or
his disposition to care for his men.
The regular punished severely In the
interest of discipline, whereas the
ruffian or the incompetent In shoulder
straps punished in the spirit of ven
Pot aI
terly in discipline and In care of his
men. A few of these officers probably
were shot by their own men during the
war, and most of them at the close
Of the war, If repeated declarations
of their own men meant anything,
were under sentence of death.
But l never heard Of one of them
being shot after the close of the war
by man who served under him.
Scores of them were beaten in fist
fights by men they had abused, and
several in my field of observation
found it advisable to leave their old
home neighbOrhOOds and settle in dis
tant States, but not in a single case
captain or lieutenant carried out.
Those seeking revenge for humilia-
ton or injury found other means of
satisfying that revenge. In one case
an unpopular officer sought admission
to the regular army some years after
| the war. By that time one Of his old
noncommissioned officers had been
| elected to Congress.
He told his story to Garfield, But
| Ter and others, and the applicant was
ruled out In another case an officer
who had been brutal toward the more
intelligent men In his company sought
| a nomination for sheriff and made an
| active canvass. The president of the
convention was one of his old SER
| geants. Several of his old privates
were delegates. He was showed I'M
| der in the interest of Private Jack, and
| he knew why. In still another case
| an officer given to abuse of his men
sought an appointment at the hands of
| the governor. He met with a rebuff
that took him out of the State"
The average volunteer officer" said
| the Sergeant, captain, colonel, or gen
| eral, had too much rather than too
little of the milk of human kindness.
Bluff and gruff and a rigid dlsciplinar-
ian he might be and yet win the re-
| spect, If not the affection, of his
soldiers. And in all such cases the
men in the ranks won at least the
respect of their officers. The relations
of such officers and soldiers after the
war were worth study We had in
our regiment from the first a preemp-
| tory sort of Captain of military
training His ambition was to beat
| the raw material Of his company into
shape, to drill the regiment into form,
and, sternly persistent, he succeeded.
"In the last year of the war he was
| promoted to colonel of one Of the new
regiments and we lost sight Of him.
Two years after the war l was visit
legislative committee When the guard
was formed for our inspection 1 saw
in the ranks the old drill master of
our regiment, the Captain of our crack
company. / looked for some sign Of
recognition. but there was none. and
1 made no advances. But 1 went that
night to our old division General and
told him of my discovery. He thought
| must be mistaken, but he would in
vestigate.
"In two days the General sent for
the warden of the prison and asked
him If he didn't need a captain for
his guards. The warden said he did.
but added that he could not find q
trustworthy man TO take charge The
General replied that he had among his
guards one Of the most capable and
most trustworthy officers in the old
volunteer army. Why not appoint him
to the captaincy without explanation?
He warned the warden that the Col
onel was a proud and sensitive man,
and no questions should be asked as
to how he came to be a prison guard
Meantime our committee paid Il
visit to the warden and made prac-
tically the same recommendation. |
had told the story to all the old
soldiers in the Legislature, and they
went into action. The Colonel was
made captain of the guard, was later
made chief Of police through the in
fuence of his old company, and the
officers Of the division. AS he told me
later, the boys did the work and he
accepted promotion after promotion,
with no questions asked. Some years
later I was with this officer in the
city, when we passed an old staff off,
Ger of our division General He shook
hands with us, saluted in his old dig
nified way, and passed an. The Col