were greatly
interested in listening to his recital of some of his experiences as
agent in Europe for purchasing army supplies for the Confederate States
during the Civil war.

So impressed were they by this unique bit of history that they
succeeded, after much urging, in inducing him to write it, believing
that it should be preserved, and knowing that no one else could furnish
it.

His four years' experience would, if fully told, fill a large volume,
but this brief recital is all that can be hoped for.

If the cost of publication is not met by the nominal price charged for
this pamphlet, the satisfaction of preserving the record in print will
compensate for any loss sustained by the

TWO FRIENDS.

_August, 1904._

REMINISCENCES

On my return in May, 1860, from a six months' leave of absence spent in
Europe, I found an appointment as professor of chemistry and commandant
of cadets in the University of Alabama awaiting my acceptance. During my
absence the President of the University and a committee of the Board of
Trustees visited West Point and the Virginia Military Institute and,
pleased with the discipline of both institutions, decided to adopt the
military system, and applied to Colonel Delafield, then the
Superintendent at West Point, for an officer to start them. Col.
Delafield gave them my name but was unable to say whether or not I would
resign from the army. I was then a first lieutenant of artillery; and,
as such, was on the rolls of the garrison of Fort Sumter.

I accepted the position and began my duties in September. My leave of
absence had expired in May; but the authorities of the University,
fearing that I might regret severing irrevocably my connection with the
army--which I had entered as a cadet at sixteen--obtained from the
Secretary of War an extension of the leave till May, 1861, when I was to
resign if all was satisfactory at that time.

It is proper to mention here that the introduction of military drill and
discipline at the State University had no connection whatever with any
secession movement in Alabama, and the fact that a Massachusetts-born
man and of Puritan descent was selected to inaugurate the system, will,
or ought to be, accepted as confirmatory of this assertion.

Discipline was almost at an end at the University, and in seeking ways
and means for restoring it, the attention of the Faculty and Trustees
was directed to the Virginia Military Institute which had