tions as high-flown as the name of their company. One of
their number, named Dunlap, was ashamed of his name, because it had a
plebeian sound to his ear. So he solved the difficulty and gratified
his aristocratic ambitions by writing it d'Unlap. This may serve as a
sample of the stuff of which the company was made. Dunlap was by no
means useless; for he invented hifalutin names for the camps, and
generally succeeded in proposing a name that was, as his companions
agreed, "no slouch."

There was no real organization, nobody obeyed orders, there was never a
battle. They retreated, according to the tale of the humorist, at every
sign of the enemy. In truth, this little band had plenty of stomach for
fighting, despite its loose organization; and quite a number fought all
through the war. Mark Twain is doubtless correct in the main, in his
assertion that he has not given an unfair picture of the conditions
prevailing in many of the militia camps in the first months of the war
between the states. The men were raw and unseasoned, and even the
leaders were lacking in the rudiments of military training and
discipline. The situation was strange and unprecedented, the terrors
were none the less real that they were imaginary. As Mark says, it took
an actual collision with the enemy on the field of battle to change them
from rabbits into soldiers. Young Clemens, according to his nephew's
account, was first detailed to special duty on the river because of his
knowledge acquired as a pilot; it was not long before he was captured
and paroled. Again he was captured, this time sent to St. Louis, and
imprisoned there in a tobacco warehouse. Fearing recognition and tragic
consequences, perhaps courtmartial and death, should he, during the
formalities of exchange, be recognized by the command in Grant's army
which first captured him, he made his escape, abandoned the cause which
he afterwards spoke of as "the rebellion," and went west as secretary to
his brother Orion, lately appointed Territorial Secretary of Nevada by
the President.

A very credible and interesting biography of Mark Twain might be
compiled from his own works; and Roughing it is full of autobiography of
a coloured sort, though in the main correct. His joy in the prospect of
that trip, the exciting details of the long journey, are all narrated
with gusto and fine effect. In the "unique sinecure" of the office of
private secretary, he found he had nothing to