My first day on duty as
corporal of the guard. Two hours on and four off duty gives me lots of time to
write, and as it may interest our folks to know what guard duty really is, I
will describe it as best I can. An officer of the guard, a sergeant of the
guard, four corporals, and four times as many privates as there are posts to
guard, are detailed the night before. In the morning at 8 A. M. the fife and
drum sounds the call for guard-mount, and the whole detail reports at guard-headquarters,
which is wherever the call is sounded from. Three quarters of the detail go on
duty and the other quarter, called supernumeraries, have nothing at all to do,
unless a man on duty is taken sick, when a supernumerary takes his place. The
corporal then on duty goes with the one just going on with the first relief,
and marches to post No. 1, where the guard calls out, "Who comes
there?" The corporal says, "Relief." "Advance Relief,"
says the guard on post, when he is replaced by a man from the new guard, and he
takes his place in the rear, marching on to the next post, where the same
ceremony is repeated until the last post is reached. The new guard is then on
duty and the corporal marches the old guard to headquarters, where they are
discharged and are free from all duty for the next twenty-four hours. The
corporal of the relief now on post remains at guard headquarters for two hours,
unless some trouble on the line happens, in which case the guard cries out
"Corporal of the guard!" giving the number of post. The corporal then
goes direct to that post, and if the trouble be such as he cannot cope with, he
calls "Sergeant of the guard!" In case it be too serious for the
sergeant, the officer of the guard is called in the same way, and he is
supposed to be able to settle the trouble, whatever it may be. At the end of
two hours, the second relief goes on, and then the third in its turn, after
which the first relief goes on again. This keeps on until 8 A. M. the next
morning, when a new guard is mounted and the old one goes off. This gives each
corporal and his relief four turns of duty of two hours each, and sixteen hours
to lie around headquarters and do pretty much as he pleases. The sergeant and
the officer of the guard rarely have anything to do but pass away the time in
any lawful manner. But they must be ready, on call, at all times.
Train-load after train-load
of troops keeps going past. The North must get empty and the South get full at
this rate. Mosquitoes and flies are very troublesome. We must cover up head and
hands at night, or if the blanket gets off we must scratch all the next day.
Some don't mind it, but the most of us do, and if the pests would go where they
are often told to go, they would get a taste of what they are giving us.
We have a sutler now. No
peddlers are allowed on the camp grounds. It is buy of him now or go without.
For change, he uses cards with his stamp on, good for from three to twenty-five
cents, at his tent, and good for nothing at any other place. Report says we are
to have a chaplain by next Sunday, and that it is the Rev. Mr. Parker, who
preached for us at Hudson. I hope he will bring along all his patience and
forbearance. He will need it. Bad as we are, I don't suppose we are worse than
the average, but I think we must average pretty well up. We will know if he
comes, and won't have to watch the almanac to tell when Sunday comes.
SOURCE: Lawrence Van
Alstyne, Diary of an Enlisted Man, p.
26-7
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