showing for Little Rhody, over two thousand men in line, and so
finely officered, armed and equipped. The Washington papers were
enthusiastic in their praises of our soldierly appearance. In this
parade we marched full company front, three ranks deep. The Hardee
tactics were then in use in the army, but on this occasion we
observed the three-rank formation prescribed in the Scott tactics
previous to the war. The old General was highly pleased to see troops
thus formed, as he was the originator of the three-rank formation,
and I do not think he ever before or after saw so many troops
arranged in that manner. We returned to camp at 5 P. M., and at
evening parade Colonel Burnside complimented the troops highly for
their soldierly bearing and general behaviour while in the city that
day.

Soon after the arrival of the 2d Regiment, a change was made in the
detail for camp guard. Previous to this there were ten men and a
non-commissioned officer detailed every day from each company, for
guard duty. But owing to the increased size of the camp, it was
necessary that more men should be detailed, consequently an order was
issued that a full company from each regiment be detailed every day
for that duty. This new order of things was the occasion for
considerable argument among the members of Company F, and we had men
with us who were always ready for an argument, particularly if they
believed they would be benefited by it. Albeit, while most of the
company were ever ready and willing to obey every order emanating
from proper authority, there were yet some who always reserved the
right, as they thought, to growl. Some contended that it was contrary
to army regulations, and that Company F could not be thus detailed,
they were the color company of the regiment, and in case of an alarm,
if the entire company were detailed for extraneous duty the colors
would be without a guard. The matter was finally referred to Colonel
Burnside, who at once decided that the color guard of eight men were
exempt from general guard duty, but the balance of the company would
mount guard. It would seem as though this should have settled the
matter, but such was not the fact; in a few days Company F was
detailed for guard duty, and at the proper time we were marched upon
the parade ground, the customary evolutions pertaining to guard mount
gone through with, and the order was given to march the guard off to
the guard-house. Off we started, the band playin