Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1902-07-02
CHAPTER vi.
AT LAST

4
NG1 NE night MS we were
Ky falling asleep just after
AA taps the first sergeant
n n V came to our tent and
sM said:
sauNA ZA "All men turn out to
XEW draw revolvers and am
XD munition. The whole
regiment starts on scout
d right after breakfast in the morning.
ghe horses will reach camp tonight"
md that glorious, soul thrilling Or
was delivered In MS careless tones
the sergeant had merely come in
pan to carry wood for the cook.
5ae up my mind that the sergeant
- not the man for his place and that
the captain showed himself unfit for
bis business by appointing such man.
nevertheless hurried to the SER
geant's tent, and my soul thrilled with
patriotic. joy as saw the great wood
en- box fall Of revolvers Of the heaviest
caliber. knew something about re-
volvers, my father having invented
one and allowed me to help him in
some Of his experiments. 1 mentally
made the calculation right there that
II each man in the regiment fired only
one shot at close quarters, which is all
the revolver ia at for in war, there
would be about 1000 few effective
men in the Confederate army by the
time we returned.
Besides the revolver each man receiy.
ed holster, to be worn at the belt, a
n0rtrtdoyn hov mr. n hov %n
caps, for this was before the days of
metallic cartridges. When the ser
geant began to issue ammunition, how.
ever, his language suddenly beanie un-
1T for publication. for the department
quartermaster, who was 30 or 40 miles
away, had by mistake sent carbine car
tridges, which, of course, were far too
large for revolvers.
The sergeant reported the fact to the
captain, while big Pat Callahan, of
whom I had seen as little as possible,
recalled old times by saying It was "all
the goy'ment's fault, an II the gov'-
ment's brains was turned into gunpow-
der there wouldn't be enough to blow
1t to"-perdition. The captain used
language which proved that he was not
member Of the church. but suddenly
ne dived into the big box in which the
pistols had come and drew forth q bull.
let mold
Does any one here know how to
load revolvers with loose ammuni.
ton" he asked.
aye. aye. sir" said Cloyne, touching
bis hat
II. too" said l.
"And l." said Hamilton,
Good" said the captain. "You three
break up carbine cartridges, make a
fire, remold the bullets and load all IL
pistols. Six shots apiece will be better
than none. Sergeant, collect the re-
yplyers."
Then the men returned to their tents,
more than half of them joining big Pat
Callahan in cursing the government.
Hamilton and began breaking car
tridges. while Cloyne started fire near
the cookhouse and looked for some
thing in which to melt the lead. After
much searching he settled on one OF
the cooks frying pans. Then he had to
boil the bullets in water to get the
grease from them, so an hour passed
before we had any new bullets.
That job OF loading pistols hung on
amazingly. Some of the cylinders did
not work well, 80 we had to nurse
them, for it would never do for any
man to be without n pistol in the face
of the enemy. l became so sleepy that
I had to pinch myself to keep awake.
Once in awhile Cloyne did not close
the mold tightly before pouring the
lead, so the balls would be little too