 |
| Going to water. |
This text is part of:
Table of Contents:
[188]
The music for this was arranged in three parts, and when there were three bugles to blow it the effect was quite pleasing.
The name Retreat was probably given this call because
it came when there was a general retiring from the duties of the day. This roll-call corresponded with the Dress Parade of the infantry.
Uniformity of dress was a necessity at this time with the latter, and quite generally too in the artillery; but the commanders of batteries differed widely in taste and military discipline.
A company of soldiers was what its captain made it. Some were particular, others were not, but all should have been in this matter of dress for at least one roll-call in the day. At this parade all general orders were read, with charges, specifications, and findings of courtsmartial, etc., so that the name of E. D. Townsend, Assistant Adjutant-General, became a household word.
At this time, too, lectures on the shortcomings of the company were in order.
The lecturer employed by the government to do this was usually the officer of the day, though now and then the captain would spell him. A lecturer of this kind had two great advantages over a lecturer in civil life; first, he was always sure of an audience, and, second, he could
Scanned printed text.
This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.