as little less than a crime for any
officer to compel his subordinates to expend such dangerous ammunition.
It was reported that the men seized the balance and either buried or
otherwise destroyed it. What a travesty on preparing men for battle! If
_such intensive training_ was employed in these Cantonments to fit men
for fighting, with a war already on, what could be expected of the
Instructors, employed in that kind of work, who had got to taste the joy
of battle? This matter was not made public, but was either concealed,
camouflaged or treated so lightly as to suggest a case of "whitewash."
Men were sent on "hikes" over hard, frozen roads, covered with snow and
ice--in old, worn out shoes--their feet nearly bare; all under protest
from their new, untried officers--who naturally wondered at such
training and the necessity for it,--also the risk in the face of an
epidemic of "_flu_"--

The True Test-Out--Acquiring the Fighting Sense

The writer, the youngest of four brothers, was mustered into the
volunteer service, Aug. 5, 1862, at the age of 16 years, having been
rejected the year before on account of age and an over supply of men.
His regiment, the Twenty-second Mass. Vol. Infantry (Henry Wilson
Regiment), was a fighting regiment from Boston and vicinity. Only 45
Union Infantry regiments lost 200 and upwards in killed and died of
wounds on the field during the Civil War. The Twenty-second lost 216 and
stands 27 in that list. In a list of all Union Infantry regiments that
lost over 10 per cent in killed on the field, it stands number 13--with
a percentage of 15.5 per cent--and, based upon a maximum percentage of
enrollment (1393 men), it stands number 16--("Fox's Regimental
Losses")-- Its service was in the First Brigade--First Division--Fifth
Corps, Army of the Potomac. We recruits arrived on Arlington Heights to
join this fighting regiment, en route (whereabouts not located) from the
"seven days' battles" on the Peninsula. The officer in charge of us had
given us no drills--no training of any kind. He was returning from
leave, and spent most of his time _rusticating_ around the "Old
Willard". We joined the regiment at Halls Hill, Va. (near Falls Church),
bivouacked in a battle line as it was marching into the defences of
W---- from the second battle of Bull Run. The noise of battle was on; a
spluttering picket firing was in evidence a few hundred yards from us.
During our stay here of two days--a first class dri