=Col. Cooke and Lot Smith.=--On another occasion, (while the Battalion was at Santa Fe) Col. Cooke ordered Lot Smith to guard a Mexican corral, and having a company of United States cavalry camped by, he told Lot if the men came to steal the poles to bayonet them. The men came and surrounded the corral, and while Lot was guarding one side, they would hitch to a pole on the other, and ride off with it. When the Colonel saw the poles were gone, he asked Lot why he did not obey orders and bayonet the thieves? Lot replied, "If you expect me to bayonet United States troops for taking a pole on the enemy's ground to make a fire of, you mistake your man." Lot expected to be punished, and he was placed under guard, but nothing further was done about it. =The Colonel, the Mule and Bigler.=--"Col. Cooke called upon W. H. Bigler as a provost guard one day to guard his tent. The colonel had a favorite mule, which was fed some grain on a blanket. One of the freight mules came up and helped to eat the grain. The Colonel drove him off several times, but he would follow him again, until the colonel got vexed, and said to Bigler, 'Is your musket loaded?' 'No sir.' 'Then load it and give it to me.' Brother Bigler is the last man on earth that any one acquainted with him would have supposed would have played any tricks on the colonel. But he took out a cartridge and bit off the ball end, which he dropped on the ground. He then rammed the powder and paper down the gun, capped it and handed it to the colonel. Several of the officers of the Battalion stood looking on. As the mule came back to get the grain and had arrived within a rod of him, the colonel fired the charge into its face; but the only effect that it had upon the mule was to cause it to give a snort, wheel around and kick at him, and then run off a few rods, after which it turned to come back again. This created a good deal of amusement with the lookers on. The only remark the colonel made, as he handed back the musket to Brother Bigler, was, 'Young man, that gun was not properly loaded.'" =Wire, Wire, Damn You Sir.=--"Col. Cooke had rather more sternness than familiarity in him. When he gave an order, if he was not fully understood by the soldiers, they did not like to question him. On one occasion he wanted some wire to fix up his tent. He ordered one of the soldiers to go to a certain man and get some wire, but he did not speak plainly and the soldier did not understand what he said. Nevertheless the soldier started to go on the errand, but began to think that he could not tell what to ask for. So he went back to the colonel and asked him what he had told him to get. The colonel said, 'Wire, wire, wire, damn you sir.' The soldier went to the man and asked for some wire for Col. Cooke. But the man had not got any wire. 'What did you ask for?' inquired the colonel, when the man returned. 'I asked for wire, wire, wire, damn you sir.' 'That will do, that will do, young man. You may go to your tent.'"