Private and Official Correspondence of Gen Benjamin F Butler; During the Period of the Civil War Privately IssuedThis 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. 1917 Excerpt: ...impossibility of getting sick and wounded men who were sent to hospitals back to their regiments. 5th. The want of regularity of payment, accounts, and records of the soldiers in the field. 6th. The great pressure upon the contract officers at the War Department of the records of all the details of the administration of the regiment. 7th. The need of responsibility to the head of the regiment of the administration of the Staff Department, such as Medical, Pay. Quartermaster, Ordnance, and Commissary. 8th. The want of accountability of the Staff Department because of the change of locations and commanders of regiments for the kind and quality of the equipment and stores furnished. The science of war and of administration of warlike affairs although the study of hundreds of years in Europe is practically comparatively new in this country. It would seem to be, therefore, the part of wisdom to examine and adopt so far as practicable the system of organization, expedients, and devices which are found to be serviceable in countries where larger armies are permanently kept, having in view the fact that hereafter the necessities of this country will require a very much larger force than ever heretofore, because from the action of this war we have become essentially a warlike people. The argument against standing armies which pressed upon our fathers at the time of the adoption of the Constitution, that they might be wielded by a monarch against the liberties of the people, does not apply. The result of the late election convinces every reflecting mind that our "bayonets think," and that the sympathies, feelings, and wishes, the political desires and aspirations of the Army, are in full accord with the people at home, only lighted up with a more fervid and... |
