The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-04-12
The BugIer's Story.

Hrom advance sheets OF volume ~ W.
laies Dy Or. Isaac l. Mitchell. OF Dam
vile, md, soon 10 be pubiIshed1
One warm spring morning. seated on a
goods box, after the manner Of the
neishborly village folk among whom our
lot in life is cast, listened to one of the
dear 'old boys" as he fell into the rem
iniscent mood on the personal side ~
his army experience. AS he talked
wondered whether. among all that was
written OF the deeds and impressions OF.
generals, colonies and captains. the vast
acres OF "boys in blue" had been taken
into account properly for the modest acts
without which the general, the colonel
and the captain would have had no place
in history. He was ''onIy a buEler,p and
he claimed no credit beyond his yolun-
tary presence at some of the scenes of
action" which have made Of us the
greatest nation on the footstooI. AS he
passed from one memory TO another his
face glowed with animate interest in his
theme, and he was far away on the fields
OF the sunny South; and his story unfold
ed in bright, poetic vein OF reconections
OF the camp. Lifting his face to mine,
he began:
AT the sound of the buele each comrsd.
Like an arrow, released from the strain of
The dark future yelled. with its fortunes un-
known. t.Ttt1S5
Hangs sIos over the field ~ tpe busle i.
Then. after short ,tpatise, during
which a thoughtful smile played over his
features. he continued: .etl
MY earliest impressions OF fnilItary life
was formed away back fnkthe forties.'
when Capt. Louis Peacock Drilled the
militia on muster days. Z can see him
now as with soldieriy strfde he, came out
onto the commons knee-deep in the
blooming dogfennel. with the clank of his
warlike trappings, his gofgeous coat Of
blue and yellow. and his Revolutionary
cap with pompons and chin strap, -four
fishing his sword and crying cut his COM
mands, while streams of perspiration cut
muddy channels down through the dust
on his sunburnt cheeks, and my young
heart fairly popped out of my mouth
with military zeal and patriotism as /
listened to the fife and drum and saw
the huge, dense cloud of dust moving up
and down the road. with the soldiers in
the midst of it. How longed to be in it
then. 1 couldn't sit still: I'd spring to
my feet and mark time to the rattle of
the music, and
Feel that swelling of the heart
You ne'er can feel again.
''Since then I've been in it sure enough;
there's a difference between being in it
for fun and being in for business. Many
of the old boys have noticed that I'm
not what you. might call a 'clean-cut'
talker. but rather the reverse; rather
synoptical and rambling, and / shall,
therefore. give facts without any special
regard for sequence.
when Col. Lew Wallace was making
up his regimentaI Jewels at Camp Nc
Ginnis. near indianapolis, where in after
years the famous Young murder took
place, and while his mind was yet tenn
ing with the details of preparation for
the great national struggle, which was
destined later to shape the minds of a
peace-loving people for the reception of
'Ben-Hur,' l. together with nine of my
comrades, was ordered to appear at his
quarters, where We were drawn ND into
line. while Colonel Wallace himself took
a Ratchet andsknocked the lid from box
containing ten beautiful new bugles.
Talk about a boy with his first red-top
bootsi tell you, he wasn't in it with
me as 1 began to realize the purport of
this act of the Colonels, and, as 1
glanced down the line of expectant faces
and saw the boys nudging one another
anxiously and slyly, / dubbed over with
laughter. The Colonel handed bugle
he -, If = line
with the command Blow it, then the
ninth, and the eighth, and SO on, till by
the time / received mine the accumula-
ton of grotesque attitudes and barbar-
Gus sounds and fiery, swollen faces and
bullying eyes was too much for my self
control, and each. time 1 Cvercame my
commissions enough to moisten my lips
and 'pucker' for good blow a glimpse
of that ludicrous aggregation of effort
and agony reduced me again to a state
of utter helplessness / don't know where
'Bedlam' is, but do know that If any
of the birds or beasts in the remote
woods where we were posted off to prac-
tice had been suddenly plunged into
'Bedlam' they must have died from sOli
fude Oh it was awful Awful And
for the sake of any nervous person who
might chance to hear this story 1 will
say that I was the only one of the ten
who outlived the bugle practice and was
turned over for duty on a bugler's COM
mission. Inc OIner poor fellows WOIheu
zealously and sanxiously to learn, but 1t
was no use. They couldn't make it go
any more than a hare-lipped man could
have DONE so they dropped out one after
another and exchanged their pretty
bugles for muskets, and there were vol
umes of sadness in the regretful look OF
farewell they cast after the brazen toy
as it was hidden away from their sight
forever.
"Our regiment was the Eleventh Indi-
ana Colonel Wallace wanted the bugle
corps to be first-class, and, with this OBJ
feet in view, he had endeavored TO secure
musicians for the places. Grapevine
telegraph, was responsible for almost all
the reports in camp in those days, 'and
was therefore not surprised when heard
that had once been the leader OF one
of the best bands in the State. II is an
erroneous notion, however, that because
a man can blow an E-fiat in brass
band he must necessarily be a bugler in
embryo Many a teacher in brass has
been compelled to acknowledge himself
defeated by a bugle. / could whistle
Dixie and The Girl Left Behind Me-
fairly we'll, but didn't know one note
of music from another, and think that
this latter fact helped me most OF all,
,.,a,,f ~ that bl1Qio with an inward