d I
dare venture to say never a commander had under him at a critical moment,
such as this certainly was, so many pig-headed recruits.

Only once during the brief meal was Sergeant Corney asked for
information, although the word had passed around the encampment that he
and I were but just come from Fort Schuyler, and then it was that the old
soldier gave those insubordinate men such a tongue-lashing as they
deserved and I dare say had never before received; but, storm as he might,
it seemed as if all the arguments he brought up in favor of General
Herkimer's carrying out the plans suggested by Colonel Gansevoort, only
served to make those imitation soldiers more fixed in their opinions.

And for all this unseemly wrangling, when it was almost a crime to raise
one's voice against an order of the commander, I lay the blame upon the
two colonels, Cox and Paris, who, instead of holding their men firmly in
check, as was their duty, openly declared that General Herkimer was in the
wrong; thus fomenting what promised to be a most serious disturbance, and
what was finally paid for over and over again in blood.

It was perhaps half an hour after daybreak when Colonel Cox, the same
officer who by injudicious use of his tongue had well-nigh compassed the
death of us all during the powwow with Thayendanega, approached General
Herkimer while the latter was walking slowly around the encampment as if
on a tour of inspection, and said, in a tone so loud that all in the
vicinity might hear it:

"Are we to go forward, sir, as men should who set out to relieve a
besieged fort, or must we loiter here until the enemy has worked his
will?"

For an instant the general made no reply, and Sergeant Corney whispered to
me, angrily:

"That man deserves to be shot, an' all the more so because he is high in
command. I've seen troops in many a tight place durin' my life, but never
before heard any thin' that quite come up to that."

When, after a pause of fully a moment, General Herkimer spoke, it was to
ask:

"Do you know that messengers have come from Gansevoort, asking that we
hold our hands until he shall give the signal?"

"I have heard that it is pretended such a message has come," Colonel Cox
replied, in a most offensive tone, and I could see Sergeant Corney
clenching his fists tightly, as if thereby the better to hold himself in
check, for surely were we two entitled to make reply to such an implied
accusation.

"The garrison wil