The Fun Of Being Wounded

A correspondent trom the army cotnmunicates the lollow'mg to the Springfield Repullican : " This is a bitter cold night. It will e a bard one for picket and guard duty. 3ow the poor sentincls will doublé quick t back and forth over their tedious beat, o keep from freezing ; . and how tho )lood will chili in the veins of the lonely videttes, as they stamp first one foot then the other, and thump their arras and wring and twist, on their post, in vigorous cflorts to hve it through till the cext rolief. But this is a botter nighl than one of last week, when a cold sleöt storm orustod everything with ice, wetting and chilling at the same time. The seutinel Defore our headquarters lcoked in the morning as if he was just hatching out from a large glass egg. Icicles hung down from bis cap, ice matted bis hair, ice covered his clothing, bis eqr.ipments and rifle, his faco and his hands. He glistened and dripped, as he paced to and fro, like an animatud crystal of the first water. He was marely a repreecutative of many thousands of real sufferers during that dismal uight, along the Uuiou lines, and about the Union caraps. Yet neither ho nor any othor of those sufferers were reported on a roll of honor for tho sacrifica tbey made for their country, as they would have been had they lost a single drop of blood in a skirttiish with the foe. Blood ! that is the price to pay for honor uow-adays. The public mind demands blood. Without loes of blood a soldier is rarely a hero. This the soldier is uiado to understand by the tone ot thü public press, by every personal letter that touches on the subject, and especially by all that he sets aud hears if he is at the North on a furlough. The consequence is, that a desire tobo wouuded is general amoüg the officers in the arinj, merely to meet the requirements of hotne sentiment. They know that no faithful service, no daring bravery, no unwavering endurance is so likely to win theni praise at the far rear as is an entry ot their name ou the list of casualties. They know that those who were slightly wouuded in the first fight o] last spring, in Mead's or Butler's army and have been siuce absent on sick leave, are to-day given ten times more honor iu their native town than their fellows who remained at tho front, and were ten times moro exposed to the flying bullets and bursting shell, while suflering al the severe privations and hardshipsofthe fearfu.' six months ot unintermitted bat tle and campaigning. They know thai the bullet which breaks the skin counts more than the exposure which breaks the heart. They are ambitious, else they would be unfit tbr officers, aud their am bitioii prompts tliem to crave a wounc that tbey rnay wia respect at home. I they are good officers, they don'i want a aevere wound - not enough to take them off duty, but just enough to eount to their credit, I hare heard officers boast of a wound, and others speak enviously of a wounded comrade, or bemoan their lack of at least a scratsh íor the surgeon to report. During an engagement lus Bummer, while mun wore falling on every side, a brave and gallant, genera carne hurriodly to our colonel with a hall disappoiuted, half-provoked look on his face, and snapping his fingers with an excited flourisn, said, '.' I declare I've just seen one of your men with t a wound that I'd give him a hundrec dollars for this minute. It's a beauti ful wuund,right aloDgside the forehead and not bad enough to keep him lak up " Thon he added, as if to complain of his ovvn hard lot : " I don't knuw why I can't get wounded. IVe triec hard enough, I've been right into tho thickest of thu fights ever since I en tered service, and I've never had scratch." " Have you seen Capt. f.' wound ?" was a question asked ove and over agaiu in his brigade after th battlo of Drury's Bluff; and then th wound was described with so muc gusto. " A capital wound just abov tne temple ; öüows uncler tüe nair ; Du doesu't tnake a bad scar. That set biui up." I saw a noble officer - a br; gade comiuander - in hospital quito sic fïoni exhaustion alter a hurd campaign He spoko cheerfully of everything unt aoaiö wounded officera wero ïiainuc Then bis pity seenjed moved - not fo them but Lor himaelf. " O, duar !" ho said, " If I coujd ooly have been wounded. Aod I bad the same chance that any of them had., J was 0110 of tho ñrst men in the Chapin's Bluif fort, whilu men wera being killed all around ; but I wasn't hit. Aud hero I atu ia al aick !" The tone in which he uttcr d thü last word was that of ineftablo isgust. Hu vvould apparontly havo uther lost both legs in battle, than bu jrought dowu by disease to uutitness 'or diity. Ha kuow just how the two bingH were viewed rt-latively at home. I didn't use to care mnch about being wounded, until I went home," suid a jrave youug captain who had risen 'ram tli" rauks, and Was on the fonrth rear of active service with one óf the lardest iighting regimenta in tbc entire rmy. " I found they don't eount a nau anytbing if ho hasn't been hit. i'hey'd hardly boliove I'd been ia real jattle, 'juoause I'd uothing to show for :. No'w, I want sorne scar to tako ïomo." Poor ftóllow ! His regiment vas blown up in Fort Fisher. He was jrobably sufficiently mangled there to uiit the most exacting northeru censor.