Friday, January 14, 2011

The Reason Why

It is said the reason why our boys in the 16th regiment have never received any pay is that Col. Chambers refused to sign the pay roll.  The reason why he refuses to do this is that some one, while the regiment was at Benton Barracks, shaved the mane and tail of his favorite horse.  We have heard of extremely unpopular officers being shot by their own men in the course of an engagement.  There was a time while the First Regiment was camped at Keokuk that this same man, Chambers, dared not show his face in camp Ellsworth for fear of the boys whom he cheated out of half of their rations.  A mob, which intended to leave camp in the night and tar and feather this same chap, was only suppressed by the most vigorous measures on the part of the officers. – {Muscatine Journal.

– Published in The Burlington Weekly Hawk-Eye, Burlington, Iowa, Saturday, May 24, 1862, p. 2

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