d of life where a man becomes simply a cog in a wheel.

We had been in camp about two weeks when we learned the Barre company was
to be known as Company K, and that the regiment was to be the 21st
Regiment of volunteer infantry from Massachusetts. We had wall tents with
floors, and very good bunks to sleep on. If nothing else could be got a
chip or a quart bottle made a candlestick, but a bayonet which could be
stuck in the ground was more reliable. A large potato flattened on one
side and a hole dug out for the candle, or a cake of soap were also pretty
serviceable. When I enlisted at Barre I received a military cap, it was
one of the caps of the Barre Militia Company. It was the only garment of a
military character I had until I received my United States uniform just
before leaving Worcester for the front. The color was navy blue and it was
trimmed with a red cord. It was a French type of cap, but it was
afterwards known as the McClellan cap throughout the army.

Drilling was, of course, the principal work of the day, at first in
marching, company drill, platoon drill, squad drill, all to familiarize us
with the movements of soldiers in two ranks. After a time we received
muskets and then began the exercises in the manual of arms. Those muskets
were of the most horrible kind imaginable, but they answered to drill
with. That, however, was all they were good for excepting old junk. The
name of our first captain was Parker. He was about six feet, six inches
long. I think he was elected captain on account of his great length. He
had been in the militia, I believe, but he knew as much about drilling or
military matters generally as a South Sea Islander. As time went on, it
was probably realized at headquarters that Captain Parker was not a
suitable man to command a company in actual service, and he was never
sworn into the United States service, and when we left Worcester for the
front, the company was commanded by Thomas Washburn, a Worcester man. The
first lieutenant was a Methodist minister, a schemer and a shark. He
expected to be made chaplain of the regiment and failing in that, soon
left us, taking with him about $90.00 of the company's funds. The second
lieutenant was a man by the name of Williams, a Barre man. I remember him
as a man with a very large beard. A tall, slim man who was something of a
drill master used to come over to camp, from the city and drill us
occasionally. He wore a military uniform, stood very