The lieutenant presented a ludicrous appearance, bare-headed and in his mud bedraggled uniform as he saluted and explained: “You see Cap’n,” said he “I lost me latitude and longitude when I left the bridge.” The captain laughed. The men shouted and ever after that he was known as “old latitude and longitude.” FAKING DISABILITY. In a regiment of 1,000 men it is not to be wondered at that there are some few who are deficient in the qualities that make good soldiers. Perhaps they had enrolled their names because they had been carried away by the enthusiasm of a “war meeting” where it was always pictured out as being an act of heroism to volunteer. Then the chances of promotion and the opportunities to see the country were always depicted in their most glowing colors by speakers who in most cases were very careful to not put their own names down. After the recruit has become an atom of a thousand he realizes that he is not of as much consequence as he expected to be, and it is not strange that now and then there was one who had not the “sand” to stand up like a man and be just as good a soldier as he could. In that case he resorted to all sorts of ingenious devices to procure his discharge from the army. In the summer of 1862 our surgeon--we used to call him “Old Symptoms”--was puzzled by the numerous cases of fever sores that he had to treat; finally he “got onto” their game by the accidental discovery of a man wearing a copper penny bound on his leg for the purpose of producing one. “Weak heart” was frequently feigned by a candidate for discharge and all sorts of deceptions were attempted on the surgeons, who had to be pretty good judges of human nature in order to detect the true from the false. The case of a man in our regiment, whom we will call Jackson, baffled the cunning and skill of “Old Symptoms” when we were in the forts near Fairfax seminary. Jackson pretended to be out of his head and the officers got so they did not exact any duties of him, not even to answer roll call. He came and went and did as he had a mind to. Near the fort was a large farm which he pretended he had bought and he used to spend most of his time down there working and ordering about the men, who humored him in his notions. Finally his case was passed upon by a board of surgeons and his discharge ordered. As he was leaving camp for home one of the boys asked him what he was going to do with his farm and he winked as he replied, that he thought the Watkins family could run it without his help. I recall the case of another young man who became demented. He would not eat or leave his tent unless driven out. His clothes and person became filthy and finally the old surgeon ordered two men to take him to a stream and give him a good scrubbing in almost ice cold water, for it was in a winter month.