rleton. Learning the poems,
he declaimed them in schools and lyceums. The first week in June,
which was not only election time, but also anniversary week in
Concord, with no end of meetings, was mightily enjoyed by the future
war correspondent. He attended them, and listened to Garrison,
Thompson, Weld, Stanton, Abby K. Foster, and other agitators. The
disruption of the anti-slavery societies, and the violence of the
churches, were matters of great grief to Carleton's father, who began
early to vote for James G. Birney. He would not vote for Henry Clay.
When Carleton's uncle, B. T. Kimball, and his three sons undertook to
sustain the anti-slavery agitator, and also interrupter of church
services, in the meeting-house on Corser Hill, on Sunday afternoon,
the obnoxious orator was removed by force at the order of the justice
of the peace. In the disciplinary measures inaugurated by the church,
Mr. Kimball and his three sons and daughters were excommunicated. This
proved an unhappy affair, resulting in great bitterness and
dissension.

Carleton thus tells his own story of amateur soldiering:

"Those were the days of military trainings. In September, 1836, came
the mustering of the 21st Regiment, New Hampshire militia. My brother
Frederic was captain of the light infantry. I played first the
triangle and then the drum in his company. I knew all the evolutions
laid down in the book. The boys of Boscawen formed a company and
elected me captain. I was thirteen years old, full of military ardor.
I drilled them in a few evolutions till they could execute them as
well as the best soldiers of the adult companies. We wore white frocks
trimmed with red braid and three-cornered pasteboard caps with a
bronzed eagle on the front. Muster was on Corser Hill. One of the boys
could squeak out a tune on the fife. One boy played the bass drum, and
another the small drum.

"We had a great surprise. The Bellows Falls Band, from Walpole, New
Hampshire, was travelling to play at musters, and as none of the adult
companies hired them, they offered their services to us free.

"My company paraded in rear of the meeting-house. My brother, with the
light infantry, was the first company at drill. He had two fifes and
drums. Nearly all the companies were parading, but the regimental line
had not been formed when we made our appearance. What a commotion! It
was a splendid band of about fifteen members,--two trombones, cornets,
bugles, clarionets, f