One colonel of the Florida regiment told us that one-third of his men had never fired a gun.

They live on the ground; there are no rain trenches around the tents, or gutters along the company streets; the latrines are dug to windward of the camp, and all the refuse is burned to WINDWARD.
Half of the men have no uniforms nor shoes.

I pointed out some of the unnecessary discomforts the men were undergoing through ignorance, and one colonel, a Michigan politician, said, "Oh, well, they'll learn.

It will be a good lesson for them." Instead of telling them, or telling their captains, he thinks it best that they should find things out by suffering.

I cannot decide whether to write anything about it or not.
I cannot see where it could do any good, for it is the system that is wrong--the whole volunteer system, I mean.