Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 January 1876 — Ready Skill of Volunteers. [ARTICLE]

Ready Skill of Volunteers.

One of the hardest things for a civilian W comprehend in connection with the condition of an army in the field is how it manages to get along without the services of men skilled in various trades and callings. Conceding in the first place that the soldier’s life on campaign must, be ohe of hardship, the ouestion still occurs, how can he entirely dispense with tlie tailor, t|ie shoe-maker, “ the butcher, the baker, the candle-stick-maker”—with all those whose services we find indispensable at home? The answer is quite easy: he doesnot dispense with them at all. Our volunteer armies, it must be remembered, were drawn from the people, and embraced about all the occupations that the people find it necessary to pursue. Before experience had accustomed me to the thing it seemed very odd that in a regiment of soldiers whose uniform* apparently destroyed all individuality there was always to be found a man or a score of men ready and capable when any special or skilled service was called for; but the ease with which such demands ■were answered soon made it quite commonplace. Thus every regiment, often every company, had its tailors and shoemakers; and on long campaigns, where issues of clothing and shoes were impossible, their services were in continual demand. Most of the companies had a barber, often a professional one, who found steady and sometimes profitable employment. “ Company cooks”—two to each company—were recognized and allowed by the army regulations. There was never any difficulty in finding the right men for this most useful duty; Put in my own experience some of them were quite competent to serve on the cuisine of a first-class boarding-house. I once found a private soldier repairing a watch for a comrade. “ This was my business at home,” he said, “ and I have the tools with me to make any ordinary repair.” It generally happened that these hardy fellows had their tools with them; they had brought them from home with the idea that they might be in demand. Farriers and veterinary’ surgeons were found in the ranks and put in their proper places, as were carpenters, clerks and all the many special servants that the vast business of the Chief Quartermaster and Chief Commissary required. I must speak more in detail of the services of the carpenters. At New Iberia and Franklin, La., and in the vicinity of Winchester, Va., in the winters of 1863-4 and 1864-5, tlie winter quarters of the Nineteenth Corps w’ere a lot of villages of log hugs, each with a brick chimney, and as comfortable and picturesque as could be desired. This was entirely the work of the soldiers themselves, done under the direction of the many carpenters aud masons who were among them. These huts were not merely comfortable; many of them were fitted up with conveniences that would have done no discredit to a modest house in town; and they were the surprise and wonder of the many civilian visitors who saw the cantonments.

In Western Louisiana in the campaign of 18G3 beef cattle were abundant and were freely slaughtered fdr the use of the army. The carcasses ■were as neatly and as cleverly dressed and prepared for the cooks as though the work had been done in a city slaughtering establishment. In December, 1862, the steam transport Thames, carrying a detachment of the 114th New York volunteers, left Fortress Monroe with a fleet of transports for New Orleans. They were caught in a terrific storm off Cape Hatteras, which swept the deck of the Thames clean of everything on it; and tossed that ill-con-ditioned craft about like an egg-shell. In the greatest fury of a gale’hat last fortyeight hours the engine became disabled, and the Thames literally rolled about at the mercy of winds and waves. The Captain was disabled and the crew shorthanded. In this emergency two firstclass seamen came forward from among the soldiers and volunteered their services, whieh were most thankfully accep.ed. With their aid the vessel was kept afloat till the tempest moderated, and she was taken in tow by one of the large steamers, and a great share of the credit of saving her and her freight of 400 souls was cheerfully given, to these two opportune volunteers. But what civilian would have thought it possible that such help could come from the soldiers on board?

The minor annals of the war abound in the incidents of soldiers stepping from the ranks on call to act as telegraph operator, engine-driver and type-setter. There was no end to the capacity of one of our volunteer armies with such constituents. The fame ot Col. Bailey, a volunteer from Wisconsin, who devised the novel Red River dam in 1864, by means of which the shallow waters of the river were compressed into a narrow channel, and our fleet, imprisoned on the shallows, was released,.is justly preserved by the historians of the war.— Cor. N. Y. Timet. - ■ 8 Qs A new industry has started into being at the Halles Centrales, Paris. Large wagons loaded with fresh vine leaves arrive early every morning. A crowd of old women dressed as peasants surround them, purchase the leaves, wrap them tastefully about lumps of tallow, adroitly and then go from door to door and sell the stuff as fresh butter. I Good girls for household work can be secured at wages lower by about fifty cents per week than the prevalent prices paid before the hard times began. They are still well paid as a body, and no class in the community are more independent, and, it may be added, mere ready to assert their independence.— Botton Traveller.