Autobiographical Passages 53 



squad to a distant currier's where a sheep skin was selected, 

 bargained and paid for in seed potatoes. After it had been 

 prepared and mounted, the drummer and fifer practiced at 

 the store every night, Sundays except ed, until the day of the 

 muster. 



On the Sunday before, some of the officers appeared 

 at meeting in partial uniform. It was questioned at dinner 

 whether this was a good custom ; whether it did not minister 

 more to personal vanity than to any good. The parson, how- 

 ever, regarded it as a suitable mark of respect to the 

 house of God and remarked that the military arm of the 

 republic had no strength except in its dependence on the 

 Almighty. The approaching occasion was remembered in 

 his prayers. 



When the day came and the long roll was beaten in front 

 of the meetinghouse, about fifty true yeomen 1 fell in and 

 answered to their names. Nearly all wore parts of what had 

 once been uniforms. Very few were without a black and 

 red plume bound on the left side of their hats. The privates 

 all had muskets, but I have an impression that the non- 

 commissioned officers or some of them carried lances or hal- 

 berds. The commissioned officers were in full military suits, 

 not that these had been made to fit them, for I think that 

 they had been obtained for a consideration from their pre- 

 decessors and dated back to the last war. They had swords 

 and enormous chapeau bras with plumes and also wore leather 

 stocks and silk sashes. The company was drilled, marched, 

 counter-marched, dismissed for dinner, reassembled and, 

 at length, late in the day, a sergeant with a guard of honor 

 was sent to the parsonage and the minister escorted to the 

 ground. On his arrival he was duly saluted by the Company 

 which then formed in hollow square, the minister, com- 

 missioned officers, "music" and the Company flag in the 

 centre. The minister delivered a short discourse, made a long 



1 Mr. Olmsted was fond of the word ' ' yeoman. " This was the signature he 

 used for his Southern letters to the Times. 



