New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1917-05-21

TThis picture Of the dark side Of the
rolunteer system, the side to Which most
of our histories pay scont attention, IS
taken from an Grafton delivered by the
late Charles Francis adams, who served
as a youth IN the Girl War. roiunteer
soldier. and Tired TO become distinguished
citizen of Massachusetts,.
The occasion pds the celebration by the
torn of Lincoln, Mass, on April %, 1904,
Of the f5Oh anniversary Of ITS incorpora-
lion. Earlier in his Grafton Mr.. Adams
told of the large part which that Shistor7c
torn plaued in our wdrs. II is near
peiohbor Of Concord and Lexington; Paul
Rercre's ride ended there; the colonel Of
The minute men, AbUah Pierce, who came
m 10 Concord bridge on the GLORIOUS
morning" of April ~, ms, armed NTH
nothing but a cane" tcas citizen Of Lin
colin. These extracts are reprinted from
the Uol,,me published by the toDn.l
Again. ST years later, and during the Civil
War. one would look far to find more typi-
cal or credtable individual case and record
than that of George Weston, Of Lincoln
stock and one Of Lincoln's quota. A Har-
ward graduate, his story has been well, and
perhaps sufficiently, told; for he was OF a
goodly company. Two years only graduate,
just entering on professional life, physically
unequal to the hardshps necessarily incl
dent to all active military service, under
every family nducement to remain at home
he enlisted from an overruling sense OF ooii-
CATION But in him, as in so many others,
pluck supplying the lack of physical stamina
he proved faithful to the end.
And vet there was another side to the
record both in the War of independence and
in the Civil War. That other side, too, was
developed in the case of Weston and empha-
sized in one of his utterances, by chance
handed down to us. His entrance into the
service had been peculiarly creditable 70
him. For a young man to enlist, or rush
into the training camp, during the summer
and autumn of 1861 called for no courage
bespoke no sense of sacrifice or duty; on the
contrary, the restraint lay in not yielding to
the universal military craze. AS in the case
of George Weston, many who then held back
showed in so doing a suitable regard for
home and domestic obligations. 1t was not
so a year later. The glamour was now gone;
and, after the terrible fighting before Rich
mond and Washington in June, July and Au-
gust, 1862. war showed itself for what 1t was
something very grim. The tnsel was
gone; recruits were sorely needed enlist
ments had stopped.
When the "Craze" Had Passed
The "craze" had passed away even be-
fore the close of the summer of 1861. THE
black disaster of Bull Run still overshad-
owed the North The five regiments in
camp lin Massachusetts, lacked some LOO
men, and yet the daily returns from the re-
cruiting officers for four of the regiments
showed a total enlistment from the 14th to
the 10th of August of only four men, I'll
G.. Pearson, Life Of J. A. Andrew, Vol. |, p
PAD A year later, and at the time young
Weston volunteered, the situation was much
worse Even in early June, 1852, the militia
organizations would not respond to an emer-
gency call. Governor Andrew then wrote:
at was not so a year since. No one was re-
luctant. No one stipulated for short terms
Twenty regiments eagerly pressed for leave
TO 20 for any term, however indefinite. Now
Z. battery company whose enlistment began a
week yesterday has not SO men. And they
are only enlisting for six months. The wal
looks to be of indefinite length" (lb., Vol. IL
p. 23) AS the struggle progressed the diff
cultes in procuring voluntary enlistments
steadily increased and the character of those
enlistng deteriorated. Finally, the filling OF
contingents became a recognized business
and passed into the hands Of set of brokers
and crimps of whom as class 1t is said;
"The sum total Of honesty among them was
probably as small as in any set of men to be
found outside prison" (Ib, p. 144.)
It was, five days before Antietam, in Sep
TENDER. 1862, just as the first draft was
about to be ordered, that Weston stepped to
the front. He volunteered. He did so, as