blished, with a more rigid
discipline than before, and boards of examination, with all the
experience of the past before their eyes, have been organized. Old and
incompetent officers have been dismissed, or have slunk away before this
incisive catechism, giving way generally to intelligent, young, and
efficient men, who, placed at the heads of regiments and brigades, give
promise of success in the struggles that await us.

The Rebel cavalry under Stuart has long been organized into an efficient
body, which, at times, has sneered at our attempts to match them; and
yet they have been made to feel, on some occasions, that we are a
growing power, which time and experience may develop into something
formidable. But the general successes of the Rebel army have made them
all very insolent, in the hope that final victory is already in their
grasp.

_February 11._--My old friend and comrade, Sergeant Theodore May, of
Pittstown, New York, died this afternoon at two o'clock, after a brief
illness, of typhoid fever, which is a great scourge throughout the army.
The death of this valiant fellow-soldier casts a deep gloom over the
entire command, in which he has so faithfully served. When we entered
the army together at the organization of the regiment, he came a perfect
stranger, but his gentle manners and soldierly deportment soon made for
him hosts of warm friends. By his gallantry on the field of battle, as
well as by the gentleness of his manners and his unblemished conduct in
camp, he has won the respect, and even admiration, of all who knew him.

The patriotic motives which induced Sergeant May to quit his pleasant
home in the beautiful valley of the Tomhannock, for the privations,
hardships, and dangers of military life, have always proved him to be a
true and warm sympathizer in his country's cause. It was evidently not
the mere love of adventure, or the mere pageantry or glory of war, that
led him to make the great sacrifice. He has been with us in every
conflict, and shared with us the varied fortunes of the Harris Light.
His death, which he would rather have met on the field of strife,
battling manfully against traitors, was reserved for the calm and quiet
of the camp, where he spent his last moments urging his comrades to
"cheer up and fight on," offering as his dying reason, that "our cause
is just, and must triumph." Such a death is a rich legacy to a command.
"He being dead, yet speaketh." We would emulate his virtu