Military Essays and Recollections; Papers Read Before the Commandery of the State of Illinois, Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1891 edition. Excerpt: ... ground, although under different circumstances, as we participated in the battles of Resaca, Kenesaw Mountain, Atlanta, and many others in the Georgia campaign, and the two--Franklin and Nashville--which, so far as the Army of the West was concerned, terminated the war. More than twenty-five years have elapsed since the events portrayed in the preceding pages occurred. During the past few months the narratives of many of my men have been forwarded to me to be used in the history of the regiment. Time should have softened, if it were possible, the distressing and pitiless experiences of these brave men. But if any doubt ever existed concerning the terrible treatment of our prisoners by the Confederate authorities, they have all been removed. " In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established;" and from the East and West, and from the North and South, --from places a thousand miles distant, and from men who have never looked in one another's faces since their dreadful experiences in An-dersonville and Libby, --comes the same, same story. Look at Wiestoff, of my company Delirious from starvation to such an extent that he does not remember passing through Chicago on his way to his farm-home in the county north of the city, death nearly came to him on the threshold of his own home. Look at the deplorable and helpless condition to which so many were reduced by impure vaccination, as narrated by our Sergeant Hileman, of Company H; and the prostration to which Cullen was reduced by successive attacks of small-pox, pneumonia, and erysipelas Look at our men killing a dog to obtain meat, and the hand-to-hand fight to decide who was to have the meagre nutrition, if any were possible, from the little insignificant field-mouse We pause...