The "City Guard": A History of Company "B" First Regiment Infantry, N. G. C. During the Sacremento Campaign, July 3 to 26, 1894: Including a Brief History of the Company Since Its Organization March 31, 1854, to July 3, 1894California. Infantry. First Regiment. Company B
History
The "City Guard": A History of Company "B" First Regiment Infantry, N. G. C. During the Sacremento Campaign, July 3 to 26, 1894: Including a Brief History of the Company Since Its Organization March 31, 1854, to July 3, 1894
California. Infantry. First Regiment. Company B
California -- History -- 1850-1950; California. Infantry. First Regiment. Company B; Railroad Strike, Calif., 1894; Railroads -- United States -- Employees
We had arrived and formed at 8:00 and marched at about 8:30. The
train stopped at Twenty-first and R streets, and our line of march to
the armory was as follows: North along Twenty-first to P, along P to
Eleventh, along Eleventh to N, along N to Tenth, along Tenth to L and
along L to the armory on the corner of Sixth, in all fully three miles.
Never before did the Old City Guard participate in such a 4th of July
“parade.” After a long night of unrest, trudging along block after
block through the sweltering heat, without the enlivening sounds of
drums or fife, our heavy packs growing heavier at every step, the salt
perspiration blinding our eyes, and looking up only to see the heat
dancing along the road in front of us, we felt little inclination to
joke or notice the open-mouthed wonder of many of the onlookers. Still
we could hear the remarks of the bystanders, that they “guessed the
strikers felt sick this morning,” or of the apparently less impressed
small boy who “reckoned de strikers would pop off dat fatty fust.” The
betting was even as to whether he meant Kennedy or Sieberst, but the
rival claimants “co-operated” by rendering a decision.
Worn, weary, and hungry we arrived at the Armory at 9:15, and found the
Sacramento troops, Companies E and G of the Second Infantry, already
under arms. Stacking arms on L street, and a strong guard being left
at the stacks, we were marched in column of twos into the armory
drill-hall where the now world-renowned “ample breakfast” supplied by
Adjutant General Allen, late Second Lieutenant Commissary Department
Missouri State Volunteers, awaited us. This, according to General
Allen, “ample breakfast,” consisted of coffee strong enough “to run for
Congress,” and bread. Certainly a very “ample” breakfast for men who
had been awake and traveling all night, many without dinner the evening
before, and executed such a trying march that morning. Ample, too, when
it is considered that this was intended to serve both as breakfast and
lunch, and, it might be dinner.
Thus is a lesson in economy given by the military heads of this great
State to the civil heads who may wish to profit thereby.
Thus is the frugality of our forefathers, in their great battle for
home and freedom on the shores of the Atlantic, exemplified on the
distant shores of the calm Pacific by our ever to be remembered
Adjutant General, late Second Lieutenant Commissary Department Missouri
State Volunteers.
However, despite our foolish doubts as to the amplitude and quality of
our meal, the shade of the hall and the relaxation from the fatigue of
the march were very welcome.
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