the regiment during the early part of its term of service. It seemed at
one time as if the regiment was raised for the sole purpose of giving
those who were to become colonels of other Rhode Island regiments an
opportunity to perfect themselves in battalion drill and other military
movements before assuming command elsewhere--a sort of stepping-stone, as
it were, to something which was considered more desirable. There was, for
instance, Colonel Edwin Metcalf, who went out with us and who left us to
take command of the Third Rhode Island. Then there was Colonel Horatio
Rogers, who came to us from the Third regiment and remained less than two
weeks, leaving us to take command of the Second Rhode Island. The next to
put in an appearance was Colonel George E. Church, who had previously
served as lieutenant-colonel of the Seventh Rhode Island. He remained
with us until the expiration of our term of enlistment.

It is not within the province of a private soldier--more especially a "raw
recruit"--to criticise his superiors, and consequently I will not attempt
it, notwithstanding this is the "piping time of peace," and all fear of
the guard-house has forever vanished. I will say, however, that all of the
officers named had their peculiarities, and that our lieutenant-colonel
was peculiarly peculiar; and yet I believe him to have been every inch a
soldier--at any rate, there was no such word as fear in his dictionary. He
was in command when the regiment came the nearest to being in an
engagement, and I fancy I see him now, mounted on his horse and riding at
the head of the column, wearing a moth-eaten blouse and an exceedingly
dilapidated straw hat, with a very black "T. D." clay pipe stuck in his
mouth, the bowl downwards. He looked more like the "cowboy" of modern
times than the pictures of military heroes which I used to see in my
school-books when a boy. This was our lieutenant-colonel--John Talbot
Pitman. He had good "staying qualities." He never threw up his commission,
nor did he die. He remained with us to the last, and rose considerably in
the estimation of the men after his appearance at the head of the regiment
at the time I have just mentioned. Men everywhere--especially
soldiers--admire pluck. Our lieutenant-colonel had pluck, even though at
times his heart seemed somewhat lacking in tenderness. He never winked at
any breach of discipline on the part of an officer or a private while he
was in command of the regiment.