[54]
Many of the newspapers have much to say of the inefficiency of our cavalry. If you had seen the last lot of horses sent to our regiment the other day from St. Louis, you would have been surprised. Of the ten drawn by our company, not one was fit for the service; one would not eat, another could scarcely walk, and the remainder will be in the bone-yard before the month is out. If the government will furnish us with such horses as Morgan steals, we will ride as fast and as far as his band.Of the policy pursued in Tennessee he writes:—
Two thousand good men from the plains and the Rocky Mountains, led by the right sort of man, such as can easily be found in Kansas or the Territories, with some flying artillery, with no wagons, but living on the country, would soon clear the State from guerillas. They would do more than twenty thousand of the troops who are now trying to catch the miscreants.Of the sanitary provision for the army he writes:—
There is more truth than poetry in an article in the Atlantic Monthly on the sanitary condition of the army. Our company entered Benton Barracks with one hundred and one men. One man has been lost in action, three have died from disease, and one has been drowned. There are fifty-two left. Where are the rest? Discharged from the service for disability. If a soldier has a severe fit of sickness, his chance for recovery is rather small. The hospital under present management contributes little to his recovery. It would be far better policy for the government to cure and keep the enlisted men than to offer large bounties for recruits to fill their places.He describes the Southern feeling in the following extract from a letter dated March 14, 1863:—
One decisive victory here at present would be the signal for the people to join our ranks; for if they see clearly that we shall win, they are so poor that they would enlist for the sake of the pay. The people are praying for peace and something to eat.The utterly lawless condition of affairs in Tennessee, the want of discipline pervading both armies, the prevalence of intemperance, the growth of vicious habits of every description, at times produced in him a feeling of despondency, almost of discouragement; and he wrote, December 12, 1863:—
