SOLDIER 13 



of the captain, George H. Napheys. The regiment was 

 mustered into the service of the United States November 

 11, and three days later sailed from Hartford to Centre- 

 ville on Long Island, the rendezvous of an expedition to be 

 commanded by Major-General N. P. Banks, destination 

 unknown. 



There is no place that reveals the real character of a man 

 so quickly and so clearly as a shelter tent in an army in 

 the field. All there is in him, be it noble or base, strong 

 or weak, is brought to the front by the peculiar experiences 

 of the soldier. This test Goodell could stand, and it has 

 been said by one who had a good opportunity to know, that 

 "he was, from first to last, a favorite with every officer and 

 private in the regiment." This means that he was the same 

 in the field that he was before he left the state, and that he 

 made himself respected as a disciplinarian because he was 

 one. No private under his command could make the com- 

 plaint of Birdofredum Sawin: — 



I don't approve of tellin' tales, but just to you I may state 

 Our ossifers ain't wut they wuz afore they left the Bay-State. 



The experiences of life in a camp of instruction are tedi- 

 ous and wearisome, but when a regiment starts for the field 

 under a government not prepared for war and unused to 

 handling and providing for large bodies of men, the real 

 trials of the soldier begin. Even under these circumstances, 

 however, his cheerfulness did not desert him. When the 

 regiment arrived at the camp at Centreville after a march 

 of about ten miles, they found that no provision had been 

 made for them, and it was the last of November. The next 

 morning he writes that he "slept in the guard-house on the 



