The Continental Monthly, Vol 6, No 5, November 1864: Devoted To Literature And National PolicyVarious
History
The Continental Monthly, Vol 6, No 5, November 1864: Devoted To Literature And National Policy
Various
Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; United States -- Politics and government -- 19th century -- Periodicals
And for another example there was a regiment which called itself the
'Swishtail Carbines,' after a beastly ornament in the hats of its men;
the 'Shine Musketoons,' after their lieutenant-colonel; the '289th
Pennsylvania Volunteers,' after the State series of numbers, which began
with 280 or thereabout; and the 'First Regiment of the Pennsylvania
Volunteer Reserve Corps, Breech-Loading Carbineers,' and doubtless by
other names, though I don't remember them.
Besides this tremendous host--we had never seen so large a force
together, and thought it the most invincible of armadas--we had a
battery of artillery, composed of three or four different kinds of guns,
as the fashion was in the good old days of our company posts, wherefrom
we were just emerging in a chrysalis state, and also two companies of
cavalry; one a real live company of regulars, commanded by Captain
Cautle, of the Third Dragoons, the other led by Captain (he called
himself major, and his company a battalion) Cutts, formerly and since an
enterprising member of the firm of Cutts & Dunn, who made my uniform,
and who will make your clothes, if you wish, my dear reader, and charge
you rather less than three times their value, after the manner of
Washington tailors; which charge will appear especially moderate when
you remember that the clothes will almost fit, and won't wear out so
very soon after all, as is the way with Washington clothes. Indeed, as
the tactics say, 'this remark is general for all the deployments;' and
the same may as well be said of all bills and things made in the great
city of sheds, contractors, politicians, dust, and unfinished buildings.
But is this a description of Washington? We are at Chickfield, where the
loyal Maryland farmers come to us to protect their loyalty, to charge a
dollar a panel for old worm fences thrown down by 'the boys,' to sell
forage at double prices, to reclaim runaway negroes, and to assure us of
the impossibility of subjugating the South. And here, in the peaceful
village of Chickfield, the object of our expedition having been happily
frustrated by the newspapers, we enjoy our ease for a week or ten days,
and our first camp experiences. Oh! that first experience of unboxing
tents smelling loudly as of candle grease, of finding the right poles,
of vainly endeavoring to pitch them straight, of hot and excited
officers rushing hither and thither in a flurry, trying to instruct the
different squads in their work, and straightway frustrated by the thick
heads, or worse, by the inevitable suggestions of those remarkably
intelligent corporals, who seem to consider themselves as having a
special mission direct from heaven to know everything except how to do
what they are bid. And oh! the first camp cookery, when everything is
overdone except what is underdone; when the soup is water, and the
coffee grounds, and the tea (we had tea in the _three_-months!) senna!
And after a day of worry, hurry, confusion, and awful cooking, the first
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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