er, they took it in good part, and remained my
friends, as they always had been. And the plain truth is, too, which
may have reconciled these sergeants somewhat, the position of first or
orderly sergeant, as we usually called it, was not an enviable one, by
any means. His duties were incessant, involving responsibility, and
frequently were very trying. He had to be right with his company every
hour in the day, and it was not prudent for him to absent himself from
camp for even ten minutes without the consent of his company commander,
and temporarily appointing a duty sergeant to act in his place while
away. Among his multifarious duties may be mentioned the following:
Calling the roll of the company morning and evening, and at such other
hours as might be required; attending sick calls with the sick, and
carefully making a note of those excused from duty by the surgeon;
making out and signing the company morning report; procuring the
signature of the company commander thereto, and then delivering it to
the adjutant; forming the company on its parade ground for dress
parade, drills, marches, and the like; making the details of the men
required from his company for the various kinds of guard and fatigue
duty; drawing rations for the company, and distributing them among the
various messes; seeing to it that the company grounds (when in camp)
were properly policed every morning;--and just scores of little matters
of detail that were occurring all the time. It was a very embarrassing
incident when sometimes a boy who was a good soldier was, without
permission, absent at roll call. He might have strolled up town, or to
a neighboring camp to see an old-time friend, and stayed too long. On
such occurrences I would, as a general rule, pass rapidly from his name
to the next--and just report the boy present, and later talk to him
privately and tell him not to let it happen again. It is true,
sometimes an aggravated case occurred when, in order to maintain
discipline, a different course had to be pursued, but not often.
Speaking generally, I will say that it was bad policy for the orderly
to be running to the captain about every little trouble or grievance.
The thing for him to do was to take the responsibility and act on his
own judgment, and depend on the captain to back him (as he almost
invariably would) if the affair came to a "show-down." Beginning as far
back as the summer of 1862, I had frequently temporarily acted as
orderl