Those early days in which we were being transformed from civilians into soldiers were full of trial and hardship. The officers were sometimes bumptious and unduly severe--I am entering a plea in my own behalf now. [Laughter.] The soldiers had not yet got to understand why a camp guard should be established, why they should not be at perfect liberty to go to town as they were when on the farm and the day's work was over. It was supposed that an army was composed of so many men, but we had not learned at that time that it was absolutely necessary that all those men should be at the same place at the same time, and that they could not be scattered over the neighborhood. There were a good many trials of that sort while the men were being made soldiers and the officers were learning their duties, and to know the proper margin between the due liberty of the individual and the necessary restraint of discipline. But those days were passed soon, and they passed the sooner when the men went into active duties. Camp duties were always irksome and troublesome, but when they were changed for the active duties of the march and field there was less need of restraint. I always noticed there was no great need of a camp guard after the boys had marched twenty-five miles. They did not need so much watching at night. Then the serious time came when sickness devastated us and disease swept its dread swath, and that dreadful progress of making soldiers was passed through when diseases which should have characterized childhood prostrated and destroyed men. Then there came out of all this, after the sifting out of those who were weak and incapable, of those who could not stand this acclimating process, that body of tough, strong men, ready for the march and fight, that made up the great armies which under Grant and Sherman and Sheridan carried the flag to triumph.