Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1906-02-03
THE FIELD OF BATTLE
INCIDENTS AND ANECDOTES OF
THE WAR.
The Veterans of the Rebellion Tell of
WhistIinG Bullets, Bright Bayonets,
Bursting Bombs, Bloody Battles,

j nave QltSn NOlAltItNs sdlu the
Major, what became of the unreal
! sonable and wantonly brutal officers
of the old volunteer army | do not
! mean the petulant, noisy, or swearing
officers who were good fighters, but
the martinets and coarse-graiued men
who were gratuitously abusive, and
uniformly severe or merciless in the
administration OF punishment. The
I volunteers admired rather than disllll-
/ ed a good discipilnarian. 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 i'll the
ranks contemptuously or brutally.
There were not many officers of
! this kind, but nearly every regiment
1 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 in cultlvating
aloofness, but they had nothing of
/ the regular officers soldierly quality or
his disposition to care for his men.
| The regular punished severely I'm the
| interest of discipline, whereas the
ruftian or the incompetent in shoulder
| straps punished in the spirit of ven
/ geance or resentment, and failed ut
! 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,
We're under sentence of death.
But l never heard OF one of them
being shot after the close of the war
| by a 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 tc leave their old
home neighborhoods and settle In dis
tant States, but not in a single case
was the oath Of a private to kill his
captain or lieutenant carried out.
Those seeking revenge for humiia-
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.
lie 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 prvates
/ were delegates lie was showed I'M
1 der In the interest of Private Jack. and
/ he knew why In still another case
1 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 disciplinar-
| ian he might he 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 a Captain Of military
/ training His ambition was to beat
/ the raw material of his company into
shape to driIl the regiment into form,
/ and sternly persistent, he succeeded
''In the last year Of the war he was
/ promoted 10 colonel Of one Of the new
/ regiments and we lost sight Of him
/ Two years after the war was visit
/ ing Western penitentIary with a
/ legislative committee When the guard
was formed for our inspection ! 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
/ made no advances. But | 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 a
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 q proud and sensitive man.