The Republican 4-19-1889

Connecting with History

The Bugle Notes from the Fort column was written by soldiers living at Fort Niobrara along what is now the Niobrara National Scenic River in the 1880's and 1890's in "The Republican" newspaper published in Valentine, Nebraska. Fort Niobrara became a National Wildlife Refuge in 1912 when troops were moved elsewhere in the United States. Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge protects and conserves the wildlife, plants, and habitats of the Nebraska Sandhills and Niobrara River Valley. Visitors can explore the land that the soldiers trod many years ago now protected as the Niobrara National Scenic River and the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge.

Microfilm 1 of 2 of The Republican 4-19-1889, Bugle Notes from the Fort Column.

City of Valentine, Public Library.

The Republican 4-19-1889
Valentine, NE

Bugle Notes from the Fort
Editor The Republican

A batch of eight colored recruits from Jeffreyson barracks arrived here last Friday.

The remains of General Hatch were interred in the National cemetery at Leavenworth on Monday.

Privates Kelty and Dunn went on a hunting trip on Wednesday. Their furloughs are for one month.

The family of Hospital Steward Fensch set out for their new home in Atlanta, Georgia on Monday. Fensch will remain here until relieved.

We had a battalion drill on Tuesday for the first time this year. There was a big turn out, but we cannot congratulate ourselves on the expedition of our movements. It will take some time to familiarize the companies with drilling together.

Private Moore, 9^th calvary, was sentenced to two years imprisonment on Tuesday. He had a quarrel with a citizen some time ago. Moore threatened to shoot the citizen and chased him into the house of Lient. Hyde, with that intention. Some think the sentence severe, but severe or not severe, those who put themselves in the way of trouble are nearly always sure to get there.

Cruel fate and the railroad locomotive separated two fond lovers this week, and one of our Knights of Thimble has been left to perch on his lonely board and keep time with his mournful musing to the noiseless stitch of the needle and thread. He has been trying in vain to drown his sorrows with sour beer and bad whiskey. But cheer up amorous youth. You have the consolation that Uncle Sam grants furloughs and the locomotive runs at forty miles an hour. Think of the reunion that a government pass and a railroad trip will bring about. Never let present griefs obscure the star of hope.

Soldiers are always learning something. Private Gen. Greer, of C company is one of those refined mortals who believes that it is possible for a man to be a soldier and a gentleman. On Wednesday night he observed an officer coming towards him accompanied by a lady, a “conundrum” presented itself to his mind on the instant. The conventionalities of etiquette say: acknowledge the lady by raising your hat, and everyone knows that it is the duty of a soldier to salute an officer. If he could have passed between them he would have saluted with one hand and raised his cap with the other, but he decided to give the lady the preference and lifted his cranium cover with a grace that would have done credit to a dancing master. Alas, for poor George’s gentlemanly habits, the officer returned the compliment by sending him to the guard house next morning.

We were much flattered with Mr. Billy Barlow’s compliments last week. There is only one thing we could have appreciated more. If he could have seen fit to bring himself to a level of a politician and called us an unmitigated liar, and a presumptuous humbug, or some of those polite little things that our great men say about each other; or even if he had condescended to say that we were a brainless knock-kneed growling soldier who sneaked out of Scottland to escape hanging, and enlisted for fear of the “white caps,” we would have been greatly tickled and it would have proven that Mr. Barlow was possessed of some genius and it would have given opportunity of paying him back with interest. As it is we are highly flattered with having your Niobrara Mills correspondent as our friend and well-wisher.

On Thursday 18^th inst., at the residence of G. S. Cruikshank, by the Rev. Dawson, Valentine, Mr. John Lutz and Miss Maggie Coleman were united in wedlock. The 8^th Infantry band serenaded the couple, rendering some beautiful and appropriate airs. No less a personage than our Drum Major takes to himself a wife and not a gun is fired nor a single flag raised to herald the event. Perhaps it was the bridegroom’s modesty and hatred of bombast that caused him to keep the joyful news so much a secret. May the sun of love shine bright and constant as they journey up the untried path to which the nuptial finger-post directs them. May white winged peace go on before and strew sweet flowers across their path. May health, hope and joy be near to bless their future years.

When a soldier is to be tried by court martial, someone generally swallows a dictionary and then makes out the charges against him, and the bewildered soldier on bearing the high-sounding jaw-crackers launched at his head, does not know whether he is being tried for committing murder or missing a roll call. We heard a good joke this week. A soldier was tried the other day. Amongst a rigamarole of rival charges, made to sound terrific with long-tailed words, was one of having said something to somebody with stripes on. There was nothing criminal in the words he used, but the ingenious clerk who made out the charges had it that the soldier uttered them in a “supercilious” manner. When the Lieut asked him if he did speak ‘superciliously”, it is needless to say that our unfortunate private looked up in helpless astonishment. Probably he was thinking of “sypernumerary.” The gallant Lieut. no doubt enjoying the joke, volunteered an explanation and the soldier relieved to hear that the thundering adjective only meant haughty. This hardly comes up to the lady who called her thimble a “diminutive argentious truncated cone, convex on its summit, and semi-perforated with symmetrical indentations.”

TAM O’SHANTER.

Microfilm 2 of 2 of The Republican 4-19-1889, Bugle Notes from the Fort Column.

City of Valentine, Public Library.

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Textual Note:

"Bugle Notes from the Fort" articles were transcribed to reflect the original text in grammar, spelling, and formatting. Errors are true to the original text and reflect the historic context of their authorship.