Life with the Forty-Ninth Massachuseets (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos or missing text. Not indexed. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1864. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... fined to what we have always considered the merest necessaries. Happy soldiers if (his does not prove the buttered side of our living. Tolerably flushed with money, we supplement our meals at the sutler's stand, which, is placed so conveniently near the tables as to lead to the conclusion that the profits of the former are in an inverse ratio to the superfluities of the latter. We march to the tables in military order--there, order ceases; our tin cups and plates make excellent table bells to attract the attention of the waiters. When any luxury (?) such as butter, cheese, or cake, makes its appearance, it is greeted with three cheers and a tiger, and honest criticism leads to groans when we notice any great deficiency. Men are detailed each day to help in the culinary department. It is not conducive to a vigorous appetite to watch the minutiae of that department; but one thing is certain, the detail of cooks always come back with clean hands. The officers have a mess of their own, where, at five dollars per week, they find that position does not merely mean honor, but increased comfort also. The drum calls us up about sunrise, that most witching time for sleep. No parleying, up we get, springing from our planks like Minerva from Jupiter, ready armed and clothed. Our hasty ablutions over, we attend roll-call, and generally drill-an hour before breakfast. After breakfast, our streets are cleaned up, and at 8 A. M. we have guard mountings. The guards appointed the previous morning are substituted by fresh ones, who are divided into three parts, called reliefs. Each relief serves two hours on duty, and have four hours for rest, or as we call it, " two hours on and four hours off."" We are furnished with rusty fire-locks, and a true soldier never allows his g...