Quiner Scrapbooks: Correspondence of the Wisconsin Volunteers, 1861-1865, Volume 5

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A few words for company K, aud I will stop. Pliny Norcross, our captain, has just got back from Fort Leavenworth, hav ing been chosen for ono of the jurors on the court martial held at tbat place. The boys were all glad to see him enter tbe camp ngniu, and I doubt not he was glad to see us, as the company's affections and his are warm toward each other.    Our cap
Whither we may go I cannot tell, but it is   and they remain paraded till the last thing conjectured by -icroe that New  Mexico or Arkansas   v'ill  reed   assistance.    General Deiixler is the acting brigadier  general at this poPt now.
Seventy fivo of tbc sick ibat were left back belonging to the gth, 12ih and 13th Wiaconain regiments,   arrived here  yester-
the traveler sees in the distance is their fluttering butternut jeans. Having accom¬ plished my journey aud in the meantime exercised my observation to a considerable extent, I think I may say with Cresar, in tbe folio translation of that martial com>> mcnlator by Johu Phirni.K, '•! ciiine, I saw, in a Concord wngon,"
There is an Irish theory which accounts for the bluffs along the Mississippi, by siir-
„. ,   ,       .   r ' mising that when the channel for that rivpr
The  general  hospital ,      .. ., i     i   i      . .u
•^ ' was dug thc earth   was wheeled out thero
„_. ^.. cl*y- Iberc are a'.ill more back yet. The tain is a good mau, and we know it. Lieu-•" general health of the Li'h is very good, tenants Wemple and Burdick aro also be-P We have but 15, including the convales- loved by the company, and I guess they J cents in tbe hospital here, and some at would fight like heroes if they ever got a ^ Leavenworth  yet
cfiance.and   to   bo   candid, I  think I can 1. ha.s not far from 50, and half of  those are   ^„j j^,„^     ,      Xotwilhstanding the plausi. say that wc have tbe best set of boys that'  able to go to their meals.    Ihc complaints   ^.^.^^ ^^ ^^,^ ^^^^^^^  ^^^^^.^^^^ ^^ .^^
ever left the state of Wisconsin, as a com- ^ are measles fever, rheumatism, drop.y and ;,^^.^. ^^ ^^ ^^^,.^^.^  .^^ ^,^^^^^^^^ j^^.^^^^^^.
pany -, and one hundred men, which is our ^ wounds.    These are under the c«e of the   ^^ ^^^^^^^^ ^ .^ .^ inadequate
aggregate, are ready to be sworn to this |ll brigade surgeon, J, E.  Quidar, and   •\f>-1 ,o explain the peculiarities of Kaus.s lo-
fact.    Sometimes some of os get the blues, but the rest of the  oompany are always ready to  laugh  them   out of the notions wbi«h t)ie blues geaerall^ lead to, espeglal- ! ly   our  commissioned   officers.    They aro always  ready   to lake   a part in any game which tbe boys may be engaged in, while oilr captain will be arouud among us look- j ing as pleasant as a peach blossom in sum-' i mer.    Also  our  drummer  who   is alwa|i8 \ cheerful and makes fun for us  on all occa¬ sions, he baing good at acting the  part of the clown.      In fact, wo have n    reason to get homesick as long uh we  are  so favor¬ ably dealt with as we ere at present.    We need no sympathy from friends at bome as yet; when we do we will let them  know. All we want is encouragement and a chance at  the  secesh,  and   we  will como out all right.     I again repeat that the sympathies from bome are injurious in our camp.    Let us  havo   all  the incitement to good works and brave deeds that friends can afibrd us, uotil this rebellion is crushed, and wc will : come home and shout together for the Un ion. B. W, J
Co. K, iHth Reg. Wis, VjiK , iProm tU« Tblrtecuth Regiment.
" f o&T BcoTi, K\:«3M, March 21,1M2
Messrs. Editors-.—The tenor of this , letter will not be directed to marvelous in¬ cidents and thrilling intelligence, regiments aro still camped here, waiting j for further orders, viz: the 9th, 12th and ISth Wisconsin, Ist Kansas, and 2d Ohio cavalry. Six companies of tho Kansas 5th and 6tb have recently been ordered to Car¬ thage,   Ho., and the  Sfiu* Wisconsin  have
B. Carpenter, assistant.    They are gentle-
, men in every respect, and spare no pains '' in rendering aid to their patients. '' A short timo since a private of the I3tb, A. B. Miller, from Co. B, died after an ill¬ ness of twodayw. Thc day of hia burial the whele regiment wero drawn up iu battle ar¬ ray before their hospital, and the sleep¬ ing soldier was borne along ihe whole Iront of the column of men, beneath the stars and stripes which ebrouded hia coffin. Ho was borne along to his quiet grave with a procession oonsisling of toe whole regi¬ ment with the exception of a few. The drummer's beat w-as solemn, uud every step and movement betokened a solemn, cburch- Itke, quiet burial. After he was laid in his resting place, three rounds were fired.
The mail has been irregular for the past week, on account of the streams being un- f irdablo at times. It snowed nearly all day yesterday and last night, bat the snow melted nearly as fasfiis it came, and there li not a particle to be seen that has   to-day
pography. Rivers would have to bo within gun shot distance cf each other before it could hold hero—the whole di^^tance from L(;avenworlh to Fort Scott lying over a succession of hUs and riuges. Hibernian research must go to profoutuler depths for its p.hilosopliy.
At Ossawotloniiv; I saw a novel <ind in¬ teresting sight in tbe shape of a school of "contrabands." The school in question is taught by a Wisconsin mau called Elder lleod. At his solicitation I visited his school during an evening session, finding congregated there some fifty pupils of all sizes, ages and shades of black,mid of both sexes. Five weeks before thoy were all slaves iu Missouri, and scarcely one of iheiii knew a single letter ot the alphabet. When I saw thom, after they bad attended schrol some thirty days, ull knew the alpha¬ bet, many were spelling words of two sylla bles, and a few were beginning to read.— It was a strange sight to see old gray beard¬ ed men strugf;ling fur knowledge amid tho
• betm subject to the ro.ys of the sun.    Clouds
are fdbt disappcariuf.', aud there is a proba- a b abs of Ibe speller, and   rociling in the
3 bility of fair weather again. same class   with   their   children,  and, for
Yoxn&JtTfAr, O. A. C, aught I know, grandchililren, for   mon ups
r' From iho IUirt»enth Restm.-wt. wards of lil'ty and children of six wero ofieii
Through the courtesy of a friend in ibis ' "' ^^^ ^'""" '¦''*''^'    ^" °"**  instance I ob-
vilhigo, we are permitted to :i-.ake the foi- 1 '^'^^"^^ '^ mother and son in tho same class.
Five I '°'^'"P extract from a letter written by an    ^^^^ '^^¦^' ^" "'""" ^^'-'^ *'" '''^'^ ^" ^'""^ "P""
officer in   the   l.^th Wiscon.-An   Regiment, (j'^ ^'"'''^^ ^'-''''"^'"'^ "'-^'^^^"  »" order to hiok
I which has been  quartered   in Kaiious du- j "''^'^ '''''' '"-'•    ^"'' ^" K'^'^ ^'^« ''^^^e fel-
ring tho past three months: ^ '"'^ ^'"^ '^'^^ ^^ '"¦'^^   •''«  brigbte.st scholar
HEA..oe.vnTi:R8 o, rii, T«oo«. in K^^s.^8. ) I "^ ^^''''] ""' ''"'^ '^^""^'^ ^^'^'» ''^'^^ '»'« '""^^'•
Dq.attiimiii ..f ihcMis.M^.tippi,          L ; er reading.    Besides SDeUinc and readinir,
FOKT gci.TT, .Mitrcli'^4111, lov2. J I     i-   i                    i      ,    .             .      ,               ,        ,
Mv   ni-ii, l.\....v-,       «•             -.¦ 'I which arc made their particular study, the
M\   uivAU rKiicvn:—bmcii wnliiig you I    ,   ,     ,       .             ...
—<--»    ' -                                                         i I   r. .,   1 1         -11.         T                    1    . whole class is occasionallv unitoil in a oron-
received orders (as Ilearncd this morning)    ^;'^;'-'^^^^^^^^^^^^               from Leavenwoilh to ^^^ ^^^^^^^^              Geography o    M-L
to move from here to Springfield, a distance I ^^'«" ^'-•"""1 "i st'ipe  80  crowded that I ...                J.           "    |) ly or  . it i uu of 70 miles  from   Fort   Scott.    The   12th i ™"''^ *''"'» 0"ce scratched somebody else's
and ISlh Wisconsin aro anxiously waiting for an opportunity to n.ove from hferc to the land of Dixie, where they can be u.^oful in suppressinf? the'trbfllion. Tbeir ambi¬ tion is stimulated by anxiety from the re¬ cent achi -.v(>mpnt3 of our army.
Thia division in Kansas, is now under «he commanit. of Gen. Ualleck, and will in all probability bo drawn out of the state.
leg for my own Ihat was itching. A "Con¬ cord hack," in Kunsus, is thought to be a most felicitous vehicle of travel, equal to u railway train or a steamer in America, and for case and comfort second not even to Neptune's cart itself. On approaching a habitation they invariably '' turn out thc Guard"—old man, old woman, ibe childi-en and the baby—to   see   the   rotary wonder,
Arithmolic. Their aptness at answering the promiscuous questions put them in> duced the remarl< from an officer near mc, " Thcy beat mo. 1 never learned so fast as that.'' 1 think thc most skeptical pro- slavery mind could hardly fail to be con¬ vinced, afier visitinn this school, that there is something human in the negro; that ai least ho possesses an iulell<ict susceptible to cultivation.