te institutions, and held out faithfully to the end,
cooking the rations away in the rear, and at the risk of life carrying
them to the line of battle to their "young mahsters."

[Illustration]

Reduced to the minimum, the private soldier consisted of one man, one
hat, one jacket, one shirt, one pair of pants, one pair of drawers, one
pair of shoes, and one pair of socks. His baggage was one blanket, one
rubber blanket, and one haversack. The haversack generally contained
smoking tobacco and a pipe, and a small piece of soap, with temporary
additions of apples, persimmons, blackberries, and such other
commodities as he could pick up on the march.

The company property consisted of two or three skillets and frying pans,
which were sometimes carried in the wagon, but oftener in the hands of
the soldiers. The infantrymen generally preferred to stick the handle of
the frying pan in the barrel of a musket, and so carry it.

The wagon trains were devoted entirely to the transportation of
ammunition and commissary and quartermaster's stores, which had not been
issued. Rations which had become company property, and the baggage of
the men, when they had any, was carried by the men themselves. If, as
was sometimes the case, three days' rations were issued at one time and
the troops ordered to cook them, and be prepared to march, they did cook
them, _and eat them if possible_, so as to avoid the labor of carrying
them. It was not such an undertaking either, to eat three days' rations
in one, as frequently none had been issued for more than a day, and when
issued were cut down one half.

The infantry found out that bayonets were not of much use, and did not
hesitate to throw them, with the scabbard, away.

The artillerymen, who started out with heavy sabres hanging to their
belts, stuck them up in the mud as they marched, and left them for the
ordnance officers to pick up and turn over to the cavalry.

The cavalrymen found sabres very tiresome when swung to the belt, and
adopted the plan of fastening them to the saddle on the left side, with
the hilt in front and in reach of the hand. Finally sabres got very
scarce even among the cavalrymen, who relied more and more on their
short rifles.

No soldiers ever marched with less to encumber them, and none marched
faster or held out longer.

The courage and devotion of the men rose equal to every hardship and
privation, and the very intensity of their sufferings became a source