Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 January 1885 — A Recruit’s First Experience. [ARTICLE]

A Recruit’s First Experience.

My first uniform was a bad fit; my trousers were too lopg by three or four inches; the flannel shirt was coarse and unpleasant, too large at the neck and too short elsewhere. The forage cap was an ungainly bag, with pasteboard top and leather visor; the blonse was the only part which seemed decent; while the overcoat made me feel like a little nib of corn amid a preponderance of husk. Nothing except “Virginia mud” ever took down my ideas of military pomp quite so low. After enlisting I didn’t seem of so much consequence as I expected. There was not so much excitement on account of my military appearance as I deemed justly my due. I was taught my facings,and at the time I thought the drillmaster needlessly fussy about shouldering, ordering, and presenting arms. The musket, after an hour’s drill, seemed heavier and less ornamental than it had be. The first day I went out to drill, getting tired of doing the same things over and over, I said to the drillsergeant: “Let’s stop this fooling apd go over to the grocery.” His only reply was addressed to a corporal: “Corporil. take this man ont and drill him like h —land the corporal did. I found that snggestions were not as well appreci .ted in the army as in private life, and that no wisdom w s equal to a drill-master's “Right face," “Left wheel,” and “Right, oblique, march.” It takes a raw recruit some time to learn that he is not to think or suggest, but obey. Some never do learn. I acquired it at last, in humility and mud, but it was tough. Yet I doubt if my patriotism, during my first three weeks’ drill, was quite knee high. Drilling looks easy to a spectator, but it isn’t. Old soldiers-Who read this will remember their green reernithood and smile

assent. After a time I had cat doom my uniform so that I oculd see oat of it, and had conquered the drill sufliciently to see through it. Then the word came: On to Washington I— The Century. atP