The following letter from Col.
Hitchcock, of the army, and addressed to the Hon. Mr. Black, of
South Carolina, has reference we presume, to the subjoined extract
from Mr. Black’s report in the House of Representatives on the
militia. The complimentary strain of the latter portioa of the
extract is well calculated to elicit the thanks of the
officers of the army.
“ From superannuated officers,” says
Mr. Black in his report, “the country can hope for but little of
that efficiency which might be in keeping with the gallantry of
their youth; and while the committee would be the last to deny to
them the gratitude and care of the country for past services, yet
experience teaches that the public safety forbids a reliance upon
them in the hour of danger. The subalterns are younger men, and, at
a heavy cost, are scientific; but it must not be forgotten that
entering the army in times of profound peace, many of them are
encumbered with families, and all more or less enervated by the ease
and luxury of a peace establishment. They are but ill calculated
for the active duties of the field, or for anything more than dull
sergeants or men of mere routine.”
Here is Col. Hitchcock’s letter:
Camp Corpus Christi, March 8, 1846.
Dear Sir:
I have recently had the pleasure to read your very able report in
reference to the military, in which you take occasion to speak of
the army, and cannot do justice to my own feelings without
expressing the high appreciation I entertain of your distinguished
talents, fairness and patriotism. The very flattering
picture you exhibit of the officers of the army, both old and young,
cannot fail to be highly gratifying to the members of the
profession, particularly those removed from the populous parts of
the country and stationed at military posts among the Indians on the
frontier. It is fortunate that the army has so generous a friend in
Congress as yourself, and pleasing, indeed, to reflect that the
report on the militia, so complimentary to the regular service, was
drawn up by one who has himself been a member of the army — though I
think it is many years since you served with any part of it. Your
recollections of service are doubtless very vivid, and the facility
with which you appear to have drawn the picture can only be
explained by supposing that you referred to your own experience and
sat for the picture yourself – if I may be excused for adopting the
idea of a noble hand.
In order to aid your future efforts in
defense of the army, it may not be amiss to say that the far greater
portion of it has been in the field several successive years of
late, and as duty is generally equalized as far as possible, one of
two examples may be given simply for illustration. One of the
regiments, now in this camp, has been under canvass, and very bad
canvass, too, or in temporary huts erected by themselves, ever since
1840, excepting a period of twelve months at Jefferson Barracks,
where, with the 4th Infantry – which, like other
regiments, has itself been whole years under canvass – it was
carried through an entire course of infantry military instructions
under the direction of Col. Kearny, of the 1st Dragoons,
who made, last season, an expedition to the Rocky Mountains with a
portion of his fine regiment, himself an officer of the last war: —
but I presume you must have seen his report of that expedition.
More than half of the whole army has been over six months encamped
at this place, having just passed through one of the most inclement
winters ever known in this country, with a very slender supply of
fuel and necessarily using the worst of water, sometimes even
brackish, by which many have died and all have suffered. “The ease
and luxury” of this mode of life is not so easily understood at
Washington City as at this place, and hence there is some
misapprehension on the subject; but it is quite consoling to those
of us who are suffering every privation incident to camp life, to
feel that our services and sacrifices are appreciated in the capital
of the country, and that generous men, like yourself, are willing to
stand up in our defense.
I regret that I have not the means of
making my acknowledgments extensively known, but possibly you might
find or make an opportunity of exhibiting this letter in the House,
as a feeble testimony of the feeling so naturally excited by your
laudable endeavors to do justice to an entire class of men,
generally so scattered over an extensive frontier as to be wholly
dependant upon others for spreading accurate information in
relation to them, and so exposed, as the army is, to ____________
from demagogues, often so destitute of honor and honesty themselves
as to have all that is noble and virtuous in others.
I have the honor to be, very
respectfully, your obedient servant,
E. A. Hitchcock,
Lt. Col. 3d Infantry.
