Our campaign around Gettysburg: Being a memorial of what was endured, suffered and accomplished by the Twenty-third regiment (N. Y. S. N. G.) and other regiments associated with them, in their Pennsylvania and Maryland campaign, during the second rebel invasion of the loyal states in June-July, 1863 — John Shaqi
Our campaign around Gettysburg: Being a memorial of what was endured, suffered and accomplished by the Twenty-third regiment (N. Y. S. N. G.) and other regiments associated with them, in their Pennsylvania and Maryland campaign, during the second rebel invasion of the loyal states in June-July, 1863Lockwood, John
History
Our campaign around Gettysburg: Being a memorial of what was endured, suffered and accomplished by the Twenty-third regiment (N. Y. S. N. G.) and other regiments associated with them, in their Pennsylvania and Maryland campaign, during the second rebel invasion of the loyal states in June-July, 1863
Lockwood, John
Gettysburg Campaign, 1863; United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Regimental histories; United States. Army. New York Infantry Regiment, 23rd (1861-1863)
proceed presently to make an investigation. You peep in; another joins
you; then another; and soon there is a crowd. All make themselves at
once quite at home, sitting down on the edge of the tent, on each
other, on the ground, anywhere. The master of the feast is by this time
overflowing with the milk--the wine rather--of human kindness. He feels
no dismay now at the sight of his uninvited guests, but greets them
with cordial and good humored welcome, not noticing in his mellow mood,
as you do, coolly surveying matters, that another of the aforesaid
laughs will come in presently. His self-love all a-glow with
satisfaction, he offers you a "glass of wine," (in a tin cup). You take
the bottle also, and pass it around. He makes absurd speeches at which
he laughs with boisterous glee, and at which you laugh too, and all
laugh. He sings absurd medleys for which you improvise absurd choruses
which make things go along as pleasantly as possible. Meanwhile the
bottle is returned empty. He takes it, insists upon re-filling your
"glass" from it, and tips it up over your cup. Then with a comical leer
at you at the idea of attempting to pour wine from an empty bottle, he
turns, dives into his cellar and fishes up another. You bid him go on
with that capital song, offering to save him the trouble of unsealing
and dispensing the jolly red wine. All grow rapidly merry, and so flows
with a like looseness the song and the solace, till both are exhausted;
and as the hour of "taps" approaches you bid your duped and fuddled
host good night. The crowd follows suit, and soon the five small
strokes of the drum find the company street deserted, lights
extinguished, and each tent tenanted by its own for the night, though
there still lingers in the air a suppressed murmur of drowsy song and
laughter. (_Moral_:--A knowing campaigner never builds him a wine
cellar.)
To our tent city we gave the name of Camp Couch in honor of our
aforetime fellow-citizen of Brooklyn, the distinguished Major-General
commanding the department. In acknowledging this honor the General
remarked that he "was not unmindful of the great service rendered by
our regiment and the troops of New York in so promptly responding to
the call of our commanders to assist in repelling the threatened
invasion of Pennsylvania." The life of duty we led there is well
outlined in the following programme for each day, published in General
Orders:--
"4.50 A.M. Drummer's call.
5.00 A.M. Reveille:--when roll will be called by the First Sergeant,
(superintended by a commissioned officer,) on the company parade,--the
troops parading without arms. Captains will report absentees without
leave, to the commanding officer.
5.30 A.M. Police call:--when the quarters will be policed, as also the
grounds immediately around them.
7.00 A.M. Breakfast call.
8.00 A.M. Guard mounting:--at this time the police party will parade
without arms and police the grounds.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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