The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-10-24
ARE AFTER JUSTICE
FOR THE VETERANS
1t Is Claimed That Several of
Them Are Not Being Civ
en- a Square Deal.
PUT AT A DISADVANTAGE,
COL. SELDEN A. DAY, A NATIVE
OF OHIO, AND ONCE A RESI-.
DENT OF RICHMOND.

Washington, Oct. PA bill is to be
introduced at the coming session of
congress the object Of which is to give
twenty-three civil war veteran Off
GERS of the regular army, who answer
ed President Lincoin'S first call for
troops a square deal in the place of the
otherwise rough one marked out for
them by the laws of the land 1t will
authorize the president to promote
each of them to the grade of brigadier
general on the retired list They went
through the civil and Spanish wars
and took part in all the Indian cam
pagns Because the law requires
that every officer reaching the age of
GA shall go upon the retired list, many
of them were put on the retired list
when they were on the eve of pro-
motion.
Had they gone into the war just the
day before Lee surrendered every one
of them would now hold higher rank.
If congress does not pass the bin to
be offered, eighteen officers on the
active list, who went into the army
just before the close OF the war and
did not therefore, suffer the hardships,
will have higher rank than the older
men who passed through the whole
of the Titanic struggle.
The injustice that viii be done these
long service officers, the average age
of whom exceeds II years. is made
possible by the act of April %, 1904,
which provides that when an officer
who served in the civil war is retired,
he shall go up step in official grade.
That act was intended for their bene-
fit but the possibility that now pre-
sents itself was not thought of. They
reached the age of 81 before the slow
promotions which prevailed right after
the war, made it possible for them to
come within hailing distance of brga-
der genera;ships. But the men who
came in at the flag end of the civil
war, being younger than the men who
stood all the hardships of that great
war, have all reached the grade Of
brigadier general or colonel, and when
they go upon the retired list. they
will go up a step and be away above
the men who served longer and under
harder conditions. The passage of
the bill will give the officers, some
of whom entered the army as early
as 1855, an honor that has come or
will come to all their comrades of the
war between the states.
One of the twenty-three is Col. Sell
don A. Day, who, born at Chillicothe
O., spent his boyhood and young man
hood days in Chi:licothe, Urbana and
Richmond. Ind. He is one of those
who tried to get into the army in re
spouse to the first call but failed
through no fault of his own, but simp
" because there were too many ahead
of him. He raised company at Bow
ling Green, O., doing it in the short
time between April II. the day he
heard the call, and April %. But his
company could not be taken, so, in
June he enlisted in company B of the
Seventh Ohio infantry, one of the
crack organizations from the Buckeye
state. From that time to July %, 100:
he was continuously in the service ant
quit only because the law said hi
must, being GA years old.
At the close of the civil war, 303,
officers who had participated in it
held commissioners in the regular ar
my. Of these officers. there are aliv'
and on the retired list of the army
1873 who went through the whole war
In addition, there are IS officers. still
on the active list, who served in tn
civil war but only for comparativel,
short periods. OF the 1873 115 are gen
erals, leaving the % remaining below
that grade. OF the IS on the activ
list, nine of them are generals an,
the other nine will become general
when they retire, thus giving then
honor, through the operation of a Law
intended to benefit them, denied t.
the men of much longer and harde
service. And that is not a square dea
: from any point of view They serve
each of them, from 45 to 81 years. ir
Guiding the whole war and by ever
= ruei of justice and equity, they shout
have equal, if not superior standing
to those who served less than tn
whole time of the civil war. The
are all old men and unless the bill i
, passed this winter, some of them wi
carry the injustice of their country I
= the grave.
= Col. H. R. Brinkerhoff. born nea
Tiffin, is another Ohio officer VIII
would be benefited by the passage G
the bill.