l know always precedes his quaint and original utterances.
I fancied that my martial air and my dexterity in handling my musket,
although I knew it did bob around considerably when carried at "support,"
or perpendicularly, was to evoke from my old friend and schoolmate a
compliment. But judge of my surprise when instead he opened upon me as
follows, his every word being punctuated with one of those peculiar
chuckles to which I have referred: "Nickerson,--I--admire--your--
patriotism,--but--I--swear--I--can't--compliment--you--on--your--
soldierly--bearing."

I confess that I experienced considerable difficulty in learning to keep
step, but, like the raw Irish recruit, I stoutly maintained that the
trouble was with "the other b'ys; they wouldn't kape step wid me."

CHAPTER II.

It was on the afternoon of the sixth of October, 1862, when we kissed our
wives and sweethearts, and

"With our guns upon our shoulders,
And our bayonets by our sides,"

left Camp Stevens for the seat of war. We were in anything but light
marching order when we broke camp. To this day the remembrance of those
back-breaking knapsacks makes me weary. Feminine ingenuity seemingly
exhausted itself in conjuring up all sorts of things, describable and
indescribable, that could make life a burden to a "raw recruit," a
wheelbarrow being needed for their transportation. But the size of those
knapsacks grew "beautifully less" shortly after leaving home, a blanket
and overcoat being all that were absolutely needed in active service, and
often one of these proved a burden rather than a necessity. In addition to
clothing enough to have overstocked one of the numerous Palestine
merchants on Chatham street, in New York, there were, among other things,
family Bibles, pocket Testaments, prayer-books and dictionaries,
Pilgrim's Progress, Old Farmer's Almanac, photograph and autograph albums,
ambrotypes and daguerreotypes, diaries, razors, mirrors of various sizes,
boxes of blacking, button-hooks, collars and cuffs, corkscrews, tooth
powder, brushes for the hair, teeth and boots, whisk brooms, clothing and
hat brushes, combs, shaving utensils, slippers, clothes-wringers,
frying-pans and patent coffee-pots, soap, towels, napkins, pins, needles
and thread, buttons of various dimensions, boots and shoes, both thick and
thin, hair oil and pomade, matches, pipes, tobacco, plug and fine cut,
rolls of linen bandages and bundles of lint, Pain Killer, Jamaic