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Bull Run, Va. (Virginia, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
is not done. It needs an artist's eye to make a perfect drill-master. Yet the small points are not merely a matter of punctilio; for, the more perfectly a battalion is drilled on the parade-ground, the more quietly it can be handled in action. Moreover, the great need of uniformity is this: that, in the field, soldiers of different companies, and even of different regiments, are liable to be intermingled, and a diversity of orders may throw everything into confusion. Confusion means Bull Run. I wished my men at the review to-day; for, amidst all the rattling and noise of artillery and the galloping of cavalry, there was only one infantry movement that we have not practised, and that was done by only one regiment, and apparently considered quite a novelty, though it is easily taught,--forming square by Casey's method: forward on centre. It is really just as easy to drill a regiment as a company,--perhaps easier, because one has more time to think; but it is just as essen
Massachusetts (Massachusetts, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
t much labor to bring them to any uniformity in their drill. There is no need of this; for the prescribed Tactics approach perfection; it is never left discretionary in what place an officer shall stand, or in what words he shall give his order. All variation . would seem to imply negligence. Yet even West Point occasionally varies from the Tactics, --as, for instance, in requiring the line officers to face down the line, when each is giving the order to his company. In our strictest Massachusetts regiments this is not done. It needs an artist's eye to make a perfect drill-master. Yet the small points are not merely a matter of punctilio; for, the more perfectly a battalion is drilled on the parade-ground, the more quietly it can be handled in action. Moreover, the great need of uniformity is this: that, in the field, soldiers of different companies, and even of different regiments, are liable to be intermingled, and a diversity of orders may throw everything into confusion.
Kansas (Kansas, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
mention Caesar and Pompey, Hercules and Bacchus. A moving life, tented at night, this experience has been mine in civil society, if society be civil before the luxurious forest fires of Maine and the Adirondack, or upon the lonely prairies of Kansas. But a stationary tent life, deliberately going to housekeeping under canvas, I have never had before, though in our barrack life at Camp Wool I often wished for it. The accommodations here are about as liberal as my quarters there, two wallet in de clar, where the men off duty can dry themselves and sleep comfortably in bunks afterwards. We have also a great circular school-tent, made of condemned canvas, thirty feet in diameter, and looking like some of the Indian lodges I saw in Kansas. We now meditate a regimental bakery. Our aggregate has increased from four hundred and ninety to seven hundred and forty, besides a hundred recruits now waiting at St. Augustine, and we have practised through all the main movements in battalio
Charleston (South Carolina, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
lso, and has entire charge of the prisoners and of the daily policing of the camp. He is a man of distinguished appearance, and in old times was the crack coachman of Beaufort, in which capacity he once drove Beauregard from this plantation to Charleston, I believe. They tell me that he was once allowed to present a petition to the Governor of South Carolina in behalf of slaves, for the redress of certain grievances; and that a placard, offering two thousand dollars for his recapture, is still to be seen by the wayside between here and Charleston. He was a sergeant in the old Hunter regiment, and was taken by General Hunter to New York last spring, where the chevrons on his arm brought a mob upon him in Broadway, whom he kept off till the police interfered. There is not a white officer in this regiment who has more administrative ability, or more absolute authority over the men; they do not love him, but his mere presence has controlling power over them. He writes well enough to p
Hilton Head (South Carolina, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
ast bank of rosy suffusion; it grew dark; after tea all were on deck, the people sang hymns; then the moon set, a moon two days old, a curved pencil of light, reclining backwards on a radiant couch which seemed to rise from the waves to receive it; it sank slowly, and the last tip wavered and went down like the mast of a vessel of the skies. Towards morning the boat stopped, and when I came on deck, before six,-- The watch-lights glittered on the land, The ship-lights on the sea. Hilton Head lay on one side, the gunboats on the other; all that was raw and bare in the low buildings of the new settlement was softened into picturesqueness by the early light. Stars were still overhead, gulls wheeled and shrieked, and the broad river rippled duskily towards Beaufort. The shores were low and wooded, like any New England shore; there were a few gunboats, twenty schooners, and some steamers, among them the famous Planter, which Robert Small, the slave, presented to the nation.
Surinam (Surinam) (search for this): chapter 2
the broad river rippled duskily towards Beaufort. The shores were low and wooded, like any New England shore; there were a few gunboats, twenty schooners, and some steamers, among them the famous Planter, which Robert Small, the slave, presented to the nation. The river-banks were soft and graceful, though low, and as we steamed up to Beaufort on the flood-tide this morning, it seemed almost as fair as the smooth and lovely canals which Stedman traversed to meet his negro soldiers in Surinam. The air was cool as at home, yet the foliage seemed green, glimpses of stiff tropical vegetation appeared along the banks, with great clumps of shrubs, whose pale seed-vessels looked like tardy blossoms. Then we saw on a picturesque point an old plantation, with stately magnolia avenue, decaying house, and tiny church amid the woods, reminding me of Virginia; behind it stood a neat encampment of white tents, and there, said my companion, is your future regiment. Three miles farther br
New England (United States) (search for this): chapter 2
ow buildings of the new settlement was softened into picturesqueness by the early light. Stars were still overhead, gulls wheeled and shrieked, and the broad river rippled duskily towards Beaufort. The shores were low and wooded, like any New England shore; there were a few gunboats, twenty schooners, and some steamers, among them the famous Planter, which Robert Small, the slave, presented to the nation. The river-banks were soft and graceful, though low, and as we steamed up to Beauforto have been for me but one step from the camp of a Massachusetts regiment to this, and that step over leagues of waves. It is a holiday wherever General Saxton's proclamation reaches. The chilly sunshine and the pale blue river seem like New England, but those alone. The air is full of noisy drumming, and of gunshots; for the prizeshooting is our great celebration of the day, and the drumming is chronic. My young barbarians are all at play. I look out from the broken windows of this fo
Connecticut (Connecticut, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
26, 1862. The day passed with no greater excitement for the men than target-shooting, which they enjoyed. I had the; private delight of the arrival of our much-desired surgeon and his nephew, the captain, with letters and news from home. They also bring the good tidings that General Saxton is not to be removed, as had been reported. Two different stands of colors have arrived for us, and will be presented at New Year's,--one from friends in New York, and the other from a lady in Connecticut. I. see that Frank Leslie's illustrated Weekly of December 20th has a highly imaginative picture of the muster — in of our first company, and also of a skirmish on the late expedition. I must not forget the prayer overheard last night by one of the captains: O Lord! when I tink ob dis Kismas and las' year de Kismas. Las' Kismas he in de Secesh, and notin‘ to eat. but grits, and no salt in 'em. Dis year in de camp, and too much victual! This too much is a favorite phrase out of th
Georgetown, S. C. (South Carolina, United States) (search for this): chapter 2
to ask no further questions. We are the war. It saves a great deal of trouble, while it lasts, this childlike confidence; nevertheless, it is our business to educate them to manhood, and I see as yet no obstacle. As for the rumor, the world will no doubt roll round, whether Burnside is defeated or succeeds. Christmas Day, 1862. We'll fight for liberty Till de Lord shall call us home; We'll soon be free Till de Lord shall call us home. This is the hymn which the slaves at Georgetown, South Carolina, were whipped for singing when President Lincoln was elected. So said a little drummer-boy, as he sat at my tent's edge last night and told me his story; and he showed all his white teeth as he added, Dey tink de Lord meant for say de Yankees. Last night, at dress-parade, the adjutant read General Saxton's Proclamation for the New Year's Celebration. I think they understood it, for there was cheering in all the company-streets afterwards. Christmas is the great festival of t
Fayal (Portugal) (search for this): chapter 2
en almost anything else, I verily believe, at that moment of high tide. It was shouted across by the pickets above,--a way in which we often receive news, but not always trustworthy. January 3, 1863. Once, and once only, thus far, the water has frozen in my tent; and the next morning showed a dense white frost outside. We have still mocking-birds and crickets and rosebuds, and occasional noonday baths in the river, though the butterflies have vanished, as I remember to have observed in Fayal, after December. I have been here nearly six weeks without a rainy day; one or two slight showers there have been, once interrupting a drill, but never dress-parade. For climate, by day, we might be among the isles of Greece,--though it may be my constant familiarity with the names of her sages which suggests that impression. For instance, a voice just now called, near my tent,--Cato, whar's Plato? The men have somehow got the impression that it is essential to the validity of a marria
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