roop "A" had bays; "B" browns; "C"
greys; "D" blacks; and so on. This arrangement did not last long. A few
months' service sufficed to do away with it and horses thereafter were
issued indiscriminately. The effect, however, so long as the distinction
could be kept up, was fine. It was a grand sight when the twelve hundred
horses were in line, formed for parade or drill in single rank, each
troop distinguishable from the others by the color of the horses.

When the Fifth Michigan cavalry was mustered into the United States
service at Detroit there was one supernumerary troop. This was
transferred to the Sixth Michigan, then forming in Grand Rapids, and
given the letter "A" without competition. This entitled it to the
position on the right flank in battalion formations, and made its
commanding officer the senior captain of the regiment. The officers
were, captain, Henry E. Thompson; first lieutenant, Manning D. Birge;
second lieutenant, Stephen H. Ballard; supernumerary second lieutenant,
Joel S. Sheldon. Before they left the service, Thompson was lieutenant
colonel; Birge, major; Ballard, captain; and Sheldon, regimental
commissary. This troop attracted a great deal of attention from the time
of its arrival in camp for, having been organized some two or three
months, it was fairly well drilled and disciplined, fully uniformed, and
the officers were as gay as gaudy dress and feathers could make them.
They wore black hats with ostrich plumes, and presented a very showy as
well as a soldierly appearance. The plumes, like the color arrangement
of horses, did not last long. Indeed, few if any of the officers outside
of "A" troop, bought them, though they were a part of the uniform
prescribed in the books. Two officers who came to the regiment from the
Second Michigan cavalry, and who had had over a year's experience in the
field, gave the cue that feathers were not a necessary part of the
equipment for real service and served no useful purpose.

One of these two officers I met on the day of my arrival in the
temporary camp. It was that wet, drizzly day, when I was sitting in the
tent of the "commandant" awaiting orders. With a brisk step and a
military air a young man of about my own age entered, whose appearance
and manner were prepossessing. He looked younger than his years, was not
large, but had a well-knit, compact frame of medium height. He was alert
in look and movement, his face was ruddy with health, his eyes bright