accordance with the army regulations. The officers, so far, had simply happened.

The diverse effect of all these new clothes was remarkable. Of course there was no such blaze of glory as that which now appears upon the Avenue on occasions of official display; but compared with the sober drabs of civil life, the blue cloth with the gold buttons and the new shoulder-straps were comparatively gorgeous. Some whose youth was more easily affected by the unusual display assumed airs of importance; others wore their honors with meekness, and some went about with a settled determination expressed upon their faces to attend to business and to ignore as far as possible these honors and glories thus suddenly thrust upon them. The camp put on a military appearance, and the regiment, if not a lion, was at least clothed in the skin of that formidable beast. Arms and equipments were procured for two companies, and there were feeble attempts to drill. Company K, blessed with an officer of some experience, went forward with a bound, and the blind leaders of the blind in other companies groped on. A drum corps was organized, if that could be said to be organized in which every member drummed or fifed independently of all others.

The Adjutant and Sergeant-Major were made out of the same raw material, and in a few days the regiment reached that astounding perfection of drill which permitted it to get into line and go from line into column and the reverse. The sound of men counting off, "1, 2," "1, 2," "1, 2," was heard throughout the camp, and that wonderful complication in which No. 2 was perpetually stepping to the right of No. 1, was a daily occurrence, and finally came to be understood. Of course the line was not at first the shortest distance between two fixed points, and the process of going from line into column resembled a convulsion.

In this advanced stage of the drill, the Colonel determined to hold a dress parade. With much running to and fro and much discord under the theory of drumming and fifing, from the drum corps on flank, much exhortation on the part of the line officers, much right-dressing and left-dressing, the regiment was gotten approximately into line. The Colonel was in his place in front, with his war visage on, and filled with energy and disgust, when suddenly and prematurely the drum corps broke loose and began to ramble down the line uttering discords galore. It was very far from "sonorous metal blowing martial sounds." Then came the first order of the Colonel which, as faithful history must record, was the beginning of the military history of the regiment as a battalion. The order was: "Captain Bangs, stop that damned drumming." The order was directed to Captain Bangs from local considerations, he being the Captain nearest to the point where the confusion had broken out. It is needless to say that neither Captain Bangs nor the drum corps heard the order. They would not have heard it had it been uttered through a megaphone, and megaphones had not then been invented. The Colonel, the noise continuing, and the drum corps continuing, grew more and more wrathy, and finally charged upon that musical body sword in hand. It was an unfair advantage, justifiable only on the ground of military necessity. The Colonel was armed and the drum corps had only drums and fifes, formidable for offence but not for defence. Instantly they were routed and fled, and disappearing around the nearest flank, took refuge in the rear. It was the first victory in the regiment. It could not be said that this charge reduced things to order; it only tended to suppress disorder.

What became of the drum corps on that day I do not now remember. I have the impression that they retired to the guard-house for recuperation. Certainly they appeared no more upon the scene that day, and the dress parade proceeded as a school of instruction, which the Colonel administered partly to the regiment as a whole, and