ken by the company authorities, which, by some, has been
thought unjust. When the remnant of the company was gathered, there was
no non-commissioned officer present of higher rank than corporal, and
only four of that rank were on company duty. Privates were obliged to
perform the duties of sergeants and corporals. None seemed willing to
take the responsibilities, discharge the duties, and, in case of error,
bear the blame of these officers, without the pay and honor which belong
to them. Besides, it was constantly a matter of uncertainty, who should
be detailed, as sergeant or corporal, and feelings of jealousy were
daily excited by what was supposed to be the partiality of the officer
who made the detail. The privates themselves soon began to desire that
some of their number might be promoted, to end the occasion of such
feelings. In order to do this, it was both expedient and necessary that
the non-commissioned officers among the prisoners should be reduced to
the ranks. This measure was taken in November, and there can hardly be a
doubt that it was right and just. Indeed, it rather seems that no other
course could have been so. No man had a natural right to any office in
the company. If expediency, because of superior qualifications, rendered
it right that certain men should occupy certain positions before their
capture, then, certainly, after that capture, which disqualified them
for the discharge of official duty, the same cause rendered it right
that others who were qualified by their presence, should be promoted.

[Sidenote: Gauley Bridge.]

The fragments of companies, A, E, F, K, and C, went into camp at Gauley
Bridge. Picket duty each alternate day and night, characterized the stay
here. One aggressive movement, however, was made to Dogwood Gap, sixteen
miles eastward. Nothing of note occurred but the repeated confiscations
of native mountain pigs, and a hasty return to camp the next day. The
excellent water privileges, boat riding, rafting-in of potatoes, and
gathering of paw-paws and persimmons, rendered Gauley Bridge a
comparatively pleasant place to do soldier duty.

On the 16th of October, the regiment was ordered to Charleston. It
marched down the river ten miles, to Cannelton, and there took a
steamer.

Sixteen members of Co. C will long remember their tedious ride down from
this point with Major Casement, in an old oil flat-boat, during the
cold, rainy afternoon of that day, without shelter for the