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I am in no hurry for a commission. I am willing to remain Orderly six months if the Colonel does not recognize me as possessing the material for an officer. . . . . If I have to wait for my commission till after a fight, I shall be quite as well satisfied.He had been promised a lieutenancy in a New Jersey regiment, but he preferred not to leave his own; and he was at length rewarded, as appears from the following extract from a letter of Lieutenant-Colonel Underwood:—
I always thought your son did a noble thing when he preferred to go into the service at once in the ranks to waiting on the uncertainties of a commission which had been promised him some time. His conduct has been uniform with this start, and the other day he showed himself quite as high-minded in preferring to stay as a Sergeant in his own regiment to going elsewhere with a commission. I have once or twice called the Colonel's particular attention to him and recommended him. I am very happy to inform you that the Colonel has recommended him to the Governor as second lieutenant to fill the last vacancy, and by this time he is probably commissioned. I wish we had many more young men like him.The commission soon arrived, and Arthur writes, ‘I am much gratified to receive a commission in this regiment, in which I have a pride and an interest.’ He was soon after detailed for duty in the provost guard, but disliked the easy and monotonous life, and was impatient to be again with his company and on the advance; and about the 10th of May he was relieved. Then followed a campaign which is pleasantly described in his letters.