Saturday, July 25, 2015

Colonel William F. Bartlett: February 21, 1863

Camp Banks, Baton Rouge,
February 21, 1863.

. . . . I am gradually getting this regiment into shape. Field, staff, and company officers report to me every morning immediately after reveillé as we of yore did to “Little Bill Lee,” and you. All the little “dodges” that we picked up together I am working in. Any first sergeant knows, that if he should appear on guard-mounting or dress parade, with his white gloves soiled, he would have to take that lozenge out of his chevrons. I have only had to reduce two first sergeants since I took the regiment. That for “absence without leave.” Ben sends me an orderly every morning, resplendent with brass and blacking. . . . .

SOURCE: Francis Winthrop Palfrey, Memoir of William Francis Bartlett, p. 66

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