red
stripes in the shape of a V, joined at the top by as many broad red
arcs, all beautifully set off by the lithe and active figure of
Sergeant-Major William Jenkins? As for Mary, who protested that she
never could learn the difference between all these grades, or make out
the reason for them, she was for her part convinced that not even the
colonel himself, certainly not that fat Major Heavysterne, could be
grander, or handsomer, or more important than her William. So I forgave
her for sewing on my chevrons upside down, although it was at the time
an infliction grievous to be born, inasmuch as the fussy little
quartermaster-sergeant was thereby enabled to get a day's start of in
the admiration and envy of our old company. How they envied us, to be
sure! But I had one consolation: Oates' were all straight; mine were
arched. And _she_ sewed mine on. His were done by Cutts & Dunn's
bandy-legged foreman.

There never was such a uniform as ours. Not even the 'Seventh'
itself--incomparable in the eyes of the _three_-months'--could vie in
grand and soldierly simplicity, we thought, with the gray and red of the
9th Battalion, District of Columbia Volunteers. Gray cap, with a red
band round it, letters A S, for 'American Sharpshooters' (Smallweed used
to say he never saw it spelt in that way before, and to ask anxiously
for the other S), gray single-breasted frock coat, with nine gilt
buttons, and red facings on the collar and cuffs. Gray pantaloons, with
a broad red stripe down the outer seam. The drummers sported the most
gorgeous red stomachs ever seen, between two rows of twenty little
bullet buttons. The color rendered us liable to be mistaken for the
rebels, it is true; but this source of anxiety to the more nervous among
us was happily prevented from leading to any unfavorable results by the
fatherly care displayed by poor old General Balkinsop, under whose
protection, we were sent into the field, in always keeping at least a
day's march from the enemy!

When we non-commissioned staff officers were first promoted, we felt
badly about leaving our companies; wanted to drill with them still, and
so on. But this soon wore off under the pressure of new duties. For my
part, I soon found that the adjutant, Lieutenant Harch, regarded it as
quite a natural arrangement that the sergeant-major should attend to the
office duties, while the adjutant occupied himself exclusively with what
he was pleased to style the military part o