Produced by David Widger from page images generously provided by The Internet Archive A BOY TROOPER WITH SHERIDAN By Stanton P. Allen First Massachusetts Cavalry Illustrated Boston Lothrop Publishing Company 1899, A BOY TROOPER WITH SHERIDAN CHAPTER I. _More than He Bargained for--The War Fever and How it Affected the Boys--A Disbanded Cavalryman--Going to School in Uniform--Cousin Tom from Shiloh?--Running Away to Enlist--The Draft--In the Griswold Cavalry--Habeas Corf used._ [Illustration: 9009] N the local columns of the Troy (N. Y.) Daily Times of September 1, 1863, the following news: MORE THAN HE BARGAINED FOR. “A few days ago one Stanton P. Allen of Berlin, enlisted in Capt. Boutelle's company of the twenty-first (Griswold) cavalry. We are not informed whether it was Stanton's bearing the same name as the Secretary of War, or his mature cast of countenance that caused him to be accepted; for he was regarded as nineteen years of age, while, in reality but fourteen summers had passed over his youthful, but ambitious brow. Stanton received a portion of his bounty and invested himself in one of those 'neat, but not gaudy' yellow and blue suits that constitute the uniform of the Griswold boys. A few days intervened. Stanton's 'parients,' on the vine-clad hills of Berlin, heard that their darling boy had 'gone for a sojer.' Their emotions were indescribable. 'So young and yet so valiant,' thought his female relatives. 'How can I get him out?' was the more practical query of his papa. The ways the ways and means were soon discovered. A writ of _habeas corpus_ was procured from Judge Robertson, and as the proof was clear that Stanton was only fourteen years old, he was duly discharged from the service of the United States. But the end was not yet. A warrant was issued for the recruit, charging him with obtaining bounty and uniform under false pretenses, and a release from the military service proved only a transfer to the civil power. Stanton found that he had made a poor exchange of 'situations,' and last evening gave bail before Judge Robertson in the sum of five hundred dollars.” In order that the correctness of history may not be questioned, the subject of the above deems it expedient to place on record an outline of the circumstances leading up to the incident related by the _Times_. At the breaking out of the war my father resided in Berlin, N. Y., on the Brimmer farm, three miles or so from the village. I was twelve years old, but larger than many lads of sixteen. I was attacked by the war fever as soon as the news that Fort Sumter had been fired on reached the Brimmer farm. Nathaniel Bass worked for my father that year. The war fever got hold of Nat after haying was over, and one night along in the latter part of August, he said to me: “I'm going to war.” “You don't mean it, Nat?”