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John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life, chapter 10 (search)
es, to form in line for the final roll-call of the day, known as Tattoo. But this was Tattoo in the artillery. A somewhat more inspiriting call was that of the infantry, which gave the bugler quite full scope as a soloist. Here it is:-- Ere the last tone had died away, we could hear, when camped near enough to the infantry for the purpose, a very comical medley of names and responses coming from the several company streets of the various regiments within ear-shot. It was Jones! --Brown! --Smith! --Joe Smith! --Green! --Gray! --O'Neil! --O'Reilly! --O'Brien! and so on through the nationalities, only that the names were intermingled. Then, the responses were replete with character. I believe it to be among the abilities of a man of close observation to write out quite at length prominent characteristics of an entire company, by noting carefully the manner in which the men answer Here! at roll-call. Every degree of pitch in the gamut was represented. Every degree of for
John D. Billings, Hardtack and Coffee: The Unwritten Story of Army Life, chapter 12 (search)
soldier mailed a letter home to mother, father, wife, sister, or brother, setting forth in careful detail what he should like to have sent in a box at the earliest possible moment, and stating with great precision the address that must be put on the cover, in order to have it reach its destination safely. Here is a specimen address:-- Sergeant John J. Smith, Company A., 19th Mass. Regiment, Second brigade, Second Division, Second Corps, Army of the Potomac, Stevensburg, Va. Care Capt. James Brown. As a matter of fact much of this address was unnecessary, and the box would have arrived just as soon and safely if the address had only included the name, company, and regiment, with Washington, D. C., added, for everything was forwarded from that city to army headquarters, and thence distributed through the army. But the average soldier wanted to make a sure thing of it, and so told the whole story. The boxes sent were usually of good size, often either a shoe-case or a co