11
That night we went to a reception given to "C" company by our sponsor, Miss Virginia Fraser. She and the maids of honor had conspicuous seats during the drill, with the colors displayed near them by the color guard. The other sponsors were mere candles beside the sun-like beauty of ours. Miss Fraser is considered by many the loveliest young lady in Charleston. She certainly eclipsed anything I saw in Savannah. Our maids of honor were Misses Bissell and Legare, of Charleston, and Misses Heyward and Lamar, of Savannah, all sweet and pretty as pictures.
On Saturday reveille was at 5.30, and this military crowd over here heard the real thing when Sergeant Condon (with nine gold stripes on his arm, each one representing five years as a drummer in the U. S. Army) and old black Mitchell put on their fancy drum and fife music—"The Jaybird Died with the Whooping Cough," "The Dandy Corporal of the Police Force," "Roast Beef," "Peas on a Trencher," etc.
Not one of us but who loved them both! I know they are adding sweet strains to the music of the celestial band!
The trip was no picnic, and a good many of the boys are in the hospital—some sick, some only tired. Dr. Parker's discerning eyes can always tell which, so I suppose that Archie China, the hospital steward, got a good many of the regulation orders for the latter cases: "China, give him two number two's."
The trip has done the Academy an incalculable amount of good. Nine boys from Georgia have already applied for warrants of appointment for next session. The "Dude Factory" will certainly profit by the trip. People are wild in their praises and the General [Superintendent Johnston] says we have "covered ourselves with glory." We certainly could have roped in that $2,500 if they had let us enter the contest. There was nothing there that could compare with us.
"The Citadel of the Eighties!" This morning I went on a pilgrimage to its tenantless halls and deserted cadet rooms, and as I gazed down the aisles of the past there came to my lips these lines of Longfellow's:
This is the place. Stand still my steed—
Let me review the scene,
And summon from the shadowy past
The forms that once have been.
