you
wa'n't ordered down here to inspect the quartermaster's department!_"
Colonel Rogers was, indeed, peculiar.

In an excellent paper which was read by Captain Charles H. Parkhurst, of
Company C, at a recent reunion of the Eleventh regiment, he thus
contrasted Colonel Metcalf and Colonel Rogers:

"Colonel Metcalf, as a rule, commanded without saying anything about it.
When Colonel Rogers commanded he couldn't help saying something about it.
No one seeing Colonel Metcalf off duty, or un-uniformed, would have
suspected that he had any command, while the most casual observer looking
at Colonel Rogers, even when asleep, would instinctively know that even
then the colonel, at least, thought that he was in the exercise of
authority."

Our last commanding officer, Colonel Church, was a thorough soldier and,
like Colonel Rogers, whom he succeeded, a strict disciplinarian. He was,
apparently, a favorite with the officers of the regiment, but his ways
smacked too much of the regular army to have ever made him popular with
volunteer soldiers. It is, however, due Colonel Church to say that while
under his command the regiment attained a high degree of proficiency in
all that characterizes good soldiership, and won for itself much praise
from those who were even superior in rank to its colonel.

Speaking of the peculiarities of Colonel Church, for he had them too,
perhaps nothing created a greater dislike for him on the part of his men
than the severity of his discipline in regard to very small matters. To
illustrate: The sending of a man to the guard-house because in his
exasperation he so far forgot himself as to raise his hand to brush a fly
off of his nose when on dress parade, was not relished. It might have done
for a holiday, but not in time of war. At any rate, that is the way the
boys looked at it.

CHAPTER IX.

Suffolk was our last regular encampment. From there we went to Yorktown,
expecting to take transportation home, as our term of service had nearly
expired. After remaining there a few days we were, very much to our
surprise, ordered up the peninsula. Somebody evidently made a mistake in
his reckoning, for when we arrived at Williamsburg, only twelve miles
distant from Yorktown, we were ordered back, an order which was not
reluctantly obeyed, although had there been urgent need for the regiment's
services for a longer period, I feel sure that they would have been
cheerfully rendered.

Upon our retur