FROM HEADQUARTERS

ODD TALES
PICKED UP IN THE VOLUNTEER SERVICE

BY

JAMES ALBERT FRYE

BOSTON
ESTES AND LAURIAT
1893

Copyright, 1892
BY
JAMES ALBERT FRYE

TO THE
FIRST INFANTRY
M.V.M.

[Pg v]

PREFACE.

In the odd though truthful tales here brought together—of which, bythe way, some already have been in print—there is not the slightestattempt at pen portraiture, nor is there any pretence to the accuracyof the military historian; in other words, this is a collection ofchance yarns, and not a portrait gallery—and no one is asked tobelieve that either the Nineteenth Army Corps or the "Old Regiment"ever were found in any situations like those in which they here findthemselves placed.

This book, perhaps, may fall into the hands of one of those—andthey are far too many—whose habit it is to scoff at the volunteerservice, and to look askance at all[Pg vi] who enter it. I sincerely trustthat it may, for I wish to say—and in all earnestness—that themilitia of today is not the militia of thirty, twenty, or even tenyears ago; that nowadays the incompetent and the vicious are allowedto remain in civil life, and are not given places in the ranks of thevolunteers; and that those who take the solemn oath of enlistment doso with the full understanding that they will be required to devotetheir time, their money, and their best energies to the service, andthat they have assumed an obligation to fit themselves carefully andintelligently for the duties of a soldier.

The volunteer service of the present time means, to those who findthemselves enrolled in it, something more than a mere pastime; andif those who hold it in small esteem could but know of the faithful,conscientious, and untiring work that, from year's end to year's end,is being done in armory and camp, they would leave unsaid, it seems[Pg vii]to me, the half-contemptuous words that too often come to the ears ofthe hard-working, long-suffering, and unrewarded citizen-soldier.

It has been said that the best is none too good for the service of theCommonwealth. If this be true,—and who can question it?—the stigmaof whatever blemishes have been found in the militia must be borne bythose men of ability and position who, while ever ready to point outweaknesses and faults, negligently have left to hands less competent,or, it may be, less worthy, the work which they themselves were inhonor bound to do.

J. A. F.

[Pg ix]

CONTENTS.