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01R 1RMY CORRESPONDENCE.Sherman's Troops Coming North,Froai the 32d Wisconsin,Homeward Bound—Hard Marching—Somebody guilty of mficting unnecessary Hardships on Soldiers—/Several Deaths from Exhamfon— Insolence of Jubds in 1'etersburg—Sherman's Boys Disgusted—Tht Country South of Be tersburg, lt;fv.Correspondence ot the State Journal., Camp 32d Wisconsin InkY Vuls.,1 1’,'ear Petersburg, Va., May S, 1865. j“We are on our journey home, ” as you are aware ere this, probably. We left Raleigh April 2ath, and traveled 15 miles. The nextday was the Sabbath, and we remained in camp. Monday we traveled 18 miles, Tuesday 22 miles, Wednesday 22 miles, and Thursday moved tip to the Roanoke river, some two miles, and waited lor the 15th Army Corps to cross. Friday we only traveled 85miles. Saturday 28, and Sunday. 12 miles before 10 o’clock in the day. Total 151 miles, and the traveling time was less than six days, being an average of a fraction over 25 miles peY day. What the necessity was tli.it called for this extraordinary haste no one seems to know; but one thing seems definitely settled, and that is this—some one is guilty of a great abuse of power. The weather was excessively hot, the roads part of the time dusty, and the men marched till, overcome with the heat, they fell dead by the wayside. The 82d lost none: The men kept up totheir places, all doing their duty as good soldiers at the expense of health, and taking the chances of even death itself. When we came into line at night, every man was accounted for; but in one regiment of our di-viion—the enly Eastern regiment in the Corps—there were over eight hundred stragglers aud several deaths. But there is nothing so quickly forgotten by the soldiers as ‘hardships after they are. safely past—so iiere we are on the road to Richmond.We passed through Petersburg to day—a very pleasant city once, but now it is anything else. We were very much disappointed •with the appearance of tilings, and the generally expressed opinion was—“ these peopleare not half whipped !” They certainly did not act as the people have where our army has marched. About the only attractions seemed, to be rebel officers trimmed in their gayest uniforms, and the ladies arraved in “ red, white and red.” It is very pretty totalk of not misusing a “ fallen foe,” but if our boys could have had their way to-day, there would have been some of those “ gray coats” rolled in the gutter; but every man kept his place, and not a loud word was spoken while passing through the principal part of the city. 1 have heard that the Johnnies say they 1 adnever conceived it possible for an arrnv to attain so high a point of discipline as* our troops exhibit, and still they have the impudence to say they are not whipped yet, right in the lace of our soldiers. A woman told a
Newspaper Details
Madison Wisconsin State Journal
Madison, Wisconsin, US
Thu, May 18, 1865
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Paula B.
CA, USA 22 Dec 2021
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