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Show Oaaly Mteim anad a Meadbw Wir M(S(db(dl to Firinni Tmnmimg Cammps in SSSS jj THE generations which are learning learn-ing all about n splendid elaboration of cantonments, training camps to prepare soldiers for the war In Europe, know nothing of the trulnlng camps lor the terrlblo civil war in tho United States. l.Mil-G.V Tho exception Is omy among tin.' old fellows, veterans of thai awful strife, or old civilian, who weio lr It in one way or another though never on tho firing line As a boy I witnessed the inoperative operations of one of the "training camps" of 1S01. writes E. W. Llghtnor in Pittsburgh Dispatch. Tho war was on The little tragedy of Fort Sumter had been enacted April 14, a date Bva years later indelibly inscribed on the pages of history as that of the assassination assas-sination of President Lincoln. On i lie following day after Sumter, April 15, President Lincoln Issued a call for ",-000 ",-000 soldiers. The, regular army was a mere handful and afl many were of the South as of the North. The trained commanding officers. West 1'olnlcrn, were about BO-BO between tho South and I the North, and It Is an In. I. but of the final act of the war, tho dramatic drop of tho curtain, that Gen. Lee, br'l llant chieftain of tho Confederated, ind Gen. Grant, to whom ho offered nlt sword, and Which Grant gallantly returned re-turned to him, woro both Kraduatoa from West Point. Aside from theso few olllcers and the handful of regulars not a soul who wont Into that war know anything of military evolutions or tho simplest tricks of tho manual at arms. Tho great body of men who fought to a finish in that four years of fratricidal carnago were the rawest of raw recruits, re-cruits, and they went into battlo to shoot and be shot, a random aggregation aggrega-tion on both sides soon to bo swelled to millions, many of tho early battles being without possible soldierly perfection. perfec-tion. Tho "training camp" to which I havo referred was on a Jo-acro field of my father's farm mar Sharon, In Mercer County, Pa. There was no camp. Tho "camp" extended for miles around, for after a Saturday afternoon of supposed drill on that untentcd field all tho embryo soldiers hiked to their homos. . With the first call for soldiers a largo company was organized of all ages, from IS ycar.j to W) and M. and my father, onr of tho most active in recruiting and drilling, was GS. I beheld the movements of this llttl . Inharmonious unit with bulging een It arparontly brought the beginning of tho war to our very doors. M only brother, broth-er, a stalwart six-footer of IS. aa w.;il as my father of 05. with a dislocated shoulder, were to me thp most conspicuous; con-spicuous; and I wondered if they ould go to tho great war and leave mother and mo to run the big farm with Us f.no array of thoroughbred sheep and horses Tho company hnd the dignity and r-namentatlonW r-namentatlonW a flfer and two drum-mors drum-mors snaro nd bass self-taught, woro all of the Jmposlng military array who could profeaa any form of teachln-r Tho officers and most of the men had provided ll.jmselvoa with litUo took I, whlch sprang up everywhere for sal j. containing directions for drill and .h i manual of arms. This was tho company which in part was to make up our community quota to tlo grand army, composed of -ll sorts and conditions, some of them ro-minding ro-minding me of soldiers of Falataft'a ragged regiment, I having road Shakes-pearo Shakes-pearo over and over, boy as I was. Rut tho real humor of that "training camp" was not fully appreciated until many years later. I had witnessed drills In nearly every country of Eurbpo of young men who had Just reached tho military age, recalling and duplicating tho awkward, entangling gyrations of tho "boys" in tho moadows at the old homo, though the Europeans woro officered offi-cered by thoroughly trained men; and tho humor of tho comparison was enhanced en-hanced after I had witnessed thO gravid maneuvers at different times of the armies of Britain, France, Italy, Germany Ger-many and Austria. Only after witnessing witness-ing thoso maneuvers could 1 from memory mem-ory have a full conception of the raw, nut r.tlned, crassly crude condition which was that of both the Unionists and Confederates Con-federates when they engaged in r-nd-to-hand battle for lour years, in at least fifteen states of tho old Federal Union, some of which ncared Pittsburgh Pitts-burgh so threateningly as to lead citizens citi-zens of all conditions to engage in tho healthful labor of throwing up earthworks, earth-works, tho only experience wo havo had up to date In the "trenches." gUSh was an "example of training cami s" throughout the country in lSCl. Thoro was no six months or more of drill and practice with arms and crosscountry cross-country marching. As soon ad companies com-panies were organized locally ani offered of-fered their Horvlccs they woro merged In regiments and assembled In camps at some center, and as fast ns transportation trans-portation and equipment could be provided, pro-vided, they were forwarded to the front As bls obtained both n the North and tho South. It may bo said that Ula armies wcro On an even footing, remembering remem-bering that thin war ll a vastly different dif-ferent proposition. gjgjglllllllflglllglllll |