Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1907-02-08
THE TWENTIETH ILLINOIS.
Story Of Their Scrape and Gen. Grants
Summary Punishment.


Summary Punishment.
To a group of comrades of the Co
lumbia post of the G. A. r. the other
evening Capt Oscar Ludwig told an
interesting story of the summary pun.
ishment meted out by Gen. Grant to
the entire regiment of the Twentieth
Illinois infantry, which was referred
to as a precedent by President Roose-
velt in his recent communication to
congress relative to his action in the
affair at Brownsville, Tex, where
three companies of negro troops were
summarily dismissed from the service
for the act of few in attacking citi-
zens, says the Chicago Record-Herald.
Il was member of the Twentieth
Illinois infantry for more than four
years." said Capt Ludwig, "and was
with the regiment at the time of the
vandalism cited, A suffers store at
Jackson, Tenn. where eight regiments
were assembled to intercept the con-
federates, was broken into and sup
plies estimated to be worth S1,240 were
taken.
1T was known at the time that men
of all or nearly all of the eight regi-
ments had participated in the raid for
eatables and liquid refreshment. The
only trace of the suffers supply dis
covered however, was part of box
Of cigars in one of the tents of the
Twentieth Illinois.
AN official investigation failed to
fasten the crime upon any of the sol
diers individually, as no one would
admit knowledge of the affair. Tho
general feeling was that among so
many it would be impossible to ferret
out the wrongdoers and nothing would
be done about the matter And then
no one cared to inform on his com,
rades.
But Gen. Grant was determined to
put stop to such disorder and to sup
press any tendency to lawlessness
among the troops. AS none of the
members would come forward to aid
in securing satisfactory explanation
as to the presence of those few cigars
in our quarters, the entire regiment
was made to suffer.
The officer commanding the regi-
ment and the officer of the day were
dishonorably dismissed from the serv-
ice for neglecting to discover the
guilty parties, and the whole Twen-
tieth Illinois, officers and men, were
fined pro rata according to pay an
amount sufficient to cover the $1,240
loss to the sutler. My share of the
fine was S5.1S. The fines were de-
Quoted from our pay.
"a good deal of good-natured fun
was poked at us by the other soldiers
for having paid such an exorbitant
profit on the suffers goods-the goods
were SAID to have been worth only
$500, and not s1,240, the amount of the
claim put in by the sutler and which
was allowed. 1t was the talk of the
camp that some of the good things
taken in the raid found their way to
the officers quarters. So the boys of
the Twentieth used to answer the
raillery of those of other regiments in
this way:
"'Who robbed the sutler?'
Don't know
"'Who paid for it?'
Twentieth Illinois,
"'Who ate the stuff?'
"Gen. Grants staff
"The verdict of the court-martial
seemed uncalled for and unjust at
that time, but all recognized that an
/ example should be made in order to
check the tendency to outlawry. 1t
seemed hard, though, that we should
be the ones selected for that purpose.
However, there was no bitterness, no
disloyalty among the men, as subse-
quent acts of the regiment on the bat
tlefield showed. Within month the
regiment participated in one of the
bloodlest battles Of the war, Britton's s
Lane, in which we lost in killed and
wounded one-fourth of our number"