1st, We should be allowed a band of ten musicians for each camp, to enliven the men and cause attraction. This proposition I made when you were here, and I understood you and General Buckingham to accede to it; but I wish to have the authority in writing, so it may go on file. The cost for each camp will be about four hundred dollars a month. 2d, There should be a commissioned officer in each of the camps to muster in recruits as soon as they arrive in camp. We now have to depend upon Captain Goodhue, who is stationed in Boston; but his time is so taken up that he can but seldom go to the camp at Worcester. The senior officer in command of any camp ought to have authority to muster recruits. 3d, Officers authorized to raise companies should be commissioned, and draw pay, from the time they begin recruiting, with the understanding, that, unless the company is raised in a reasonable time, the commissions shall be cancelled. As it now is, the men who recruit spend their time and money without receiving any pay for their services. Why should not their pay begin when their labors begin? 4th, We are too much hedged in with army regulations and army officers. Our tents should be floored; but the United States officers won't pay the bills, because the regulations don't allow it. In order to get recruits, the camps should be made comfortable and attractive. It is the denial of these little things which annoys officers and men. It was a great mistake when the recruiting was taken from the State authorities, and put in charge of army officers: they move slowly, and appear to have no enthusiasm. Please have this letter given to General Buckingham, and request him to let me know what we may be authorized to do. I think he can have the fifteen thousand men in the time you stated: only give us a little margin, and keep us as much as possible under State authority.The suggestions made by the Adjutant-General were substantially complied with: a band was engaged for each camp; a lieutenant for each company was commissioned; flooring was allowed for camp-tents, and the recruiting was put under the control of the State authorities,—the army officers auditing and paying the bills, and mustering in the recruits.
This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
[348]
In accordance with which request, on the 7th of July, he wrote a letter to Secretary Seward, giving his thoughts upon recruiting, from which we make a few extracts:—
1868. E. P. DUtton and Co. Boston,.
Tufts University. provided support for entering this text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.