“A Soldier in the Field” writes the following communication to the Hawk-Eye, which embraces some pertinent and important enquiries:
EDITOR OF HAWK EYE:– As the Legislature is in session and will undoubtedly be investigating several things relative to the conducting of the war, it might perhaps be well enough for the Investigating Committee to enquire how it came that the troops at Camp McClellan, Davenport, were paid off in a kind of scrip or certificates signed by the Quartermaster General Price; which certificates could only be cashed by the soldier at from 15 to 50 percent. discount. They were so cashed at the State Bank and other shaving shops. Somebody will make what the soldier lost. Who is it, and by whose authority were the soldiers so paid? The pay rolls of the soldiers are made out from the time they enlisted, and if they had not been put through this shaving operation, they would have been paid by the United States Government at their first payment the full amount of gold or convertible funds.
– Published in The Dubuque Herald, Dubuque, Iowa, Friday Morning, February 7, 1862, p. 1
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