with those reinforcements for the regiment annually dispatched at that season from the recruiting depôt; and the presence of this dignitary was the signal for renewed activity, whereof the object was the erection of more permanent and commodious quarters. Here it is requisite to apprise the non-professional reader that the efficiency of troops depending as much on that of their commissariat and quarter-master’s departments as upon the bravery or discipline of the men, it is primarily necessary that they should be clothed, fed, and housed, and that there should be distinct organisations to effect those ends. Not only in every regiment, but in every detachment of the United States’ Army, officers are detailed for these special purposes, with a staff of subordinates selected from the ranks, and directly responsible to the head-quarters of their respective departments. The commissary receives from thence and issues to the troops clothing and subsistence stores. The quarter-master similarly provides, by indents on the quarter-master general, or in certain cases by private contract with civilians on behalf of government, means of transportation and tents, with all the variety of implements and materials required in the erection or repair of buildings used for military purposes. When their services can be made available all the employés in these departments are soldiers; and a considerable proportion of the enlisted men are thus continuously engaged as clerks, mechanics, and teamsters; receiving for their services a liberal consideration, which is a premium on good conduct and diligence. On this account, at recruiting offices, mechanics are preferred to ordinary labourers, and the first enquiry made of an aspirant to glory is as to his particular craft.
This having been premised, it will be easily understood that, when extensive and permanent works were contemplated, the first preliminary was to ascertain, by reference to the regimental descriptive book, what and how many mechanics were available for the public service; while the next was to assign all masons, bricklayers, plasterers, smiths, sawyers, carpenters, joiners, &c., to extra duty in the quartermaster’s department. The remainder of the force was destined for that ruder labour wherein “muscle” is demanded rather than any special intelligence or skill, and which accordingly receives no additional payment.
The force suddenly recovered its wonted activity, rising at réveillée to pursue the daily labours in various directions, and returning at retreat, i. e., sunset, to repose. According to their several qualifications, men were assigned to the offices as clerks or storekeepers; to the yard as drivers or stable-men; and to the workshops as mechanics. A large party, well armed, was permanently detached for the purpose of cutting pine-timber in the distant forests; and other parties were constantly in the coal-pits and stone-quarries of the immediate vicinity. A saw-mill of forty horse-power was erected, the engineer being a soldier, and thereat the lumber daily arriving rapidly assumed the form required by the carpenters and builders. A certain number of veterans was reserved for military duties, furnishing guards for the post and escorts for the trains continually passing to and fro.
When off duty, the leisure of these last was employed in forming staff and company gardens on the fertile flats along the river; and the horticultural labours of these amateurs were so successful that the wild shortly became luxuriant with all the vegetation required for culinary purposes, and their melon, strawberry, and cucumber patches might have challenged comparison with the long-lamented ones of Forts Washita, Smith, Gibson, and Towson. Roads radiated from the fort in various directions over the prairies, and they were easily formed, for it was sufficient that a line of loaded waggons should once pass over the soft ground to leave thereon a clearly defined track. Constant as public labour was, it was never excessive, ample time being allowed for refreshment and repose. It was, in fact, precisely the amount of exercise demanded by health, it was liberally recompensed, and its ultimate object was the personal comfort of those engaged therein. A single afternoon was weekly set apart for battalion-drills, with especial view to the improvement of the younger soldiers.
With this exception, only on Sundays had the place a military aspect. Then, all labour having been thrown aside, the soldiery rose Antæus-like, reinvigorated by contact with mother-earth, and resumed joyously the garb and functions of their proper profession. The customary inspection at morn, and the parade at even, were inflexibly enforced; but, as yet, to the general delight, no chaplain had been appointed by the kind and paternal solicitude of the government; and consequently the intervening hours were devoted to amusement, reading, repose, or cheerful conversation on what had been effected during the previous week, and other little local matters personally affecting the interlocutors, who thought little of the world without their immediate circle.
At the expiration of two years from the exodus, a stranger would have been astonished by that which had been done by so small a force. To the south of the first quadrangle, the buildings of which had now a very ricketty and dilapidated appearance,—though they had been thatched with prairie grass, and occasionally otherwise repaired,—five ranges of company quarters had been erected in order of echellon, each 120 feet in length and 40 feet in width, and with a detached building corresponding to it 40 feet by 30 feet, for a kitchen and mess-room. Parallel to this series of quarters, there had also arisen a granary 150 feet by 40; a commissariat, 120 feet by 40, and three stories high; and a magazine 40 feet square. These were all built of cut sandstone, roofed with shingles in default of slate,—with the exception of the magazine, which had an elliptical stone roof,—and all with numerous well-glazed windows. The quarters were fitted up with that number of massive oaken bedsteads required by the organisation of the company, i. e., 84 in each. On a gentle rise of the ground, commanding these buildings, a line of officers’ houses had been built—ten in number—all constructed of wood, six-roomed, plastered within and without, and thatched with prairie-grass, having precisely the appearance, with their
