A DISCIPLINARIAN 177 



faced and shrunken as by fear, he said tremblingly, "That is 

 Satan ; that is Satan." It was at least the best semblance of him 

 I have ever seen. At this time I served for a period with Major 

 Thompson in inspecting fortifications. One day we examined 

 a considerable set of works commanded by a volunteer colonel. 

 In his ignorance of his duty this officer permitted the inspection 

 to be made in great detail, without having required of us any 

 evidence of our authority. He had no proof save our uniforms 

 as to our right to make it; for all the fellow knew, we might 

 have been Confederate spies and much such work was done 

 by chaps who had a mind to take the risk. By the bland look 

 of his face and his soft voice, I saw that my chief took in the 

 situation, and meant that it should go hard with the unhappy 

 colonel. We had given him the parting salute and were riding 

 away before it got through his dull wits that he had made a 

 fool of himself. When we were perhaps a hundred yards away, 

 he shouted to us to halt. Major Thompson affected not to hear 

 him and it was not my part to interfere. The troubled colonel 

 then called on his guard to fire on us. As they missed, I 

 doubt if they intended to hit, we went on at a brisker pace; 

 then more shots from other guards kicked up the dust about us. 

 By this time we were on the run and nearing an outpost where 

 a dozen men, taking in the situation, were making ready. I 

 was now riding by him, when I too took in the situation and 

 said that I did not mean to be shot to gratify his fury and 

 reined up, as he did shortly with a word of reproach for my not 

 helping him to "break" that pretence of a soldier. He left it 

 to me to take the orders back to the commander of the works. 

 Major Thompson had won his promotion at Malvern Hill, 

 where with his battery he had broken the Confederate assault. 

 I was told by one of his subordinates that as the charge came 

 on supported by a heavy artillery fire, Thompson was standing 

 by the side of a brick building watching the advance with his 

 field-glasses and conning the fire of his gunners. A shell shook 

 the building and in the dust and smoke he was lost to view; 



