ills as in others.

A more deliberate prank was played with the field artillery. These
light pieces, being of the nature of cannon rather than muskets,
obtained more deference, being recognized as of the same genus with
the great guns which then constituted a ship's broadside. On one
occasion they were incautiously left out overnight on the
drill-ground. Between tattoo and taps, 9.30 to 10 P.M., was always a
half-hour of release from quarters. There was mischief ready-made for
idle hands to do. The guns were taken in possession, rushed violently
to and fro in mock drill performance, and finally taken to pieces, the
parts being scattered promiscuously in all directions. Dawn revealed
an appearance of havoc resembling a popular impressionist
representation of a battle-field. Here a caisson with its boxes,
severed from their belongings, stretched its long pole appealingly
towards heaven; the wheels had been dispersed to distant quarters of
the ground and lay on their sides; elsewhere were the guns, sometimes
reversed and solitary, at others not wholly dismounted, canted at an
angle, with one wheel in place. As there were six of them, complete in
equipments, the scene was extensive and of most admired confusion;
ingenuity had exhausted itself in variety, to enhance picturesqueness
of effect. How the lieutenant in charge accounted for all this
happening without his interference, I do not know. Certainly there was
noise enough, but then that half-hour always was noisy. The
superintendent of that time had, when walking, a trick of grasping the
lapel of his coat with his right hand, and twitching it when
preoccupied. The following day, as he surveyed conditions, it seemed
as if the lapel might come away; but he made us no speech, nor, as far
as I know, was any notice taken of the affair. No real damage had been
done, and the man would indeed have been hard-heartedly conscientious
who would grudge the action which showed him so comical a sight.

I once heard an excellent first lieutenant--Farragut's own through the
principal actions of the War of Secession--say that where there was
obvious inattention to uniform there would always be found slackness
in discipline. It may be, therefore, that our habits as to uniform
were symptomatic of the same easy tolerance which bore with such
extravagances as I have mentioned; the like of which, in overt act,
was not known to me in my later association with the Academy as an
officer. We had