bulk of its toils. This indeed
seems the hardest lesson for every one but soldiers to learn. Few but
those who have had actual experience know how small a part fighting
plays in war; how little of the soldier's hardships and privations, how
little of his dangers even are met upon the battle field. Tame as
stories of barrack life must seem when we are thrilling with the great
events for which that life furnishes the substratum, it is worth our
while, for the sake of this lesson, to give them also their page upon
the record, to spread these neutral tints in due proportion upon the
broad canvas. It is partly for this reason that I turn back to sketch
the trivial and monotonous scenes of a winter in barracks. It is well to
remind you, dear young friends, feminine and otherwise, at home, that a
great many days and nights of patient labor go to one brilliant battle.
When your loudest huzzas and your sweetest smiles are showered on the
lucky ones who have achieved great deeds and walked through the red
baptism of fire, remember also how much true courage and fortitude have
been shown in bearing the daily hardships of the camp, without the
excitement of hand-to-hand conflict.

The new uniforms came at last, and all the slang epithets with which our
regiment had been received were duly transferred to the newly arrived
squads of the next in order. Then we began to speculate on the time and
mode of our departure. It was remarkable how keenly the most contented
dispositions entered into these questions. There is in military life a
monotony of routine, and at the same time a constant mental excitement,
that make change--change of some sort, even from better to worse--almost
a necessity. I had already stretched myself in my bunk one evening, and
was half asleep, when I heard joyful voices cry out, 'That's good!' and
unerring instinct told me that orders had come for the ----th to move.
On the third day again we stood in our ranks upon the muddy esplanade of
the Benton Barracks, patiently waiting for the A. A. A. G. and the P. Q.
M. to get through the voluminous correspondence which was to result in
quarters and rations. At least twenty thousand men were crowded at that
time into this dismal quadrangle. Perseverance and patience could
overcome the prevalent impression at the commissary that every new
regiment was a set of unlawful intruders, to be starved out if possible,
but could not conquer the difficulty of crowding material bodies