Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1908-02-21
their strong position on the night of
July 2"
A Bold Bluff,

horses, aIter CWenIy-elSnI DAYS SAIL
from Portland. During the voyage the
boys Ead dieted on that familiar cpl
curean army dish, bean swagen,"
and large amount of rations had ac-
cumulated, which the officers of the
regiment were anxious to see safely
housed
The reglmental quartermaster Of the
Fifteenth Maine was Worthington S.
Locke: his assistant was the redoubt
able down-east embryo warrior, invet-
crate wag and incarnation Of Yankee
assurance and shrewdness, Lieut. Sam
uel D. Leavitt, later General Leavitt.
Locke and Leavitt were prancing
about on the wharf, the latter shout
ing to the adjutant on the deck of the
vessel to send him a fatigue party to
unload his rations.
Sam was no red-tape man; indeed,
he was so Independent of any circum-
lOcutiOn office that he went to the other
extreme and gave off his orders as if
he were the commandant Of the post.
AS might have been expected, the
omnipresent Butler was suddenly on
hand and the assumption Of authority
by this Eastport disciple Of Mars we'll
nigh dazed him. He watched the per-
Torrance a while, then, stepping up to
tie offender, and, focusing his peculiar
eye upon him, gruffiy demanded:
"WhO are you, STRIP
Mr. Leavitt coolly looked Butler
squarely in the face, and, as uncon-
cerned as though the terrible Car was
merely company orderly drawled
out, in his peculiar tones:
"Who am /? I'm Lieut.. Leavitt."
"And who the deuce is Lieut. Leay-
ltt?" quoth the irate commander.
TIE pseudo commandant of Ship
Island Strengthened up to his full pro-
portions, and, in deliberate, well-meas-
ured grandiloquent language, drawled:
Lieut.. Samuel D. Leavitt, OF East
port, Washington County, State of
Maine, and present assistant commits
sary of subsistence, Fifteenth Maine
Volunteers"
and who, sir, made you assistant
commissary of subsistence" earnestly
and excitedly, his voice fairly trem-
bling with rage.
This was poser.
Leavitt green as he was in military
knowledge, we'll knew that no such
rank was recognized in volunteer regi-
ments; the title was a reminiscent
flash from his SOCIOLOGY reading of
the earlier American war which had
come to him with Buffers first inter
rogatory.
But he was ever fertile in expedi-
ents, and after moments hesitation
he audaciously replied:
Gen. Taylor"
"And who the deuce is this General
Taylor you so profoundly quote?'
haughtily demanded the general.
But Sam Leavitt paled not.
The crisis had come, but he was
equal to the occasion.
With a mock heroic bow Chester
fieldian suavity and quiet :mpudence,
he coolly responded:
"Ah! excuse me- general! | forgot
you were a volunteer officer, and not
familiar with tie names of our regular
army officers; but l beg leave to in
form you, sir, that Gen. Taylor has
been commissary general Of the United
States army for the last twenty
years.
The climax was reached and on the
countenances of Leavitt's comrades in
arms blank dismay was depicted.
Major Shorey remarked: ''They ex-
pected that he would be marched off
by a squad of men and summarily
SHOT
But Leavitt's impudence saved his
head Butler threatened him with dire
vengeance, but the more he thought
over it the more 1t tickled his sense Of
the ridiculous, and the humor of sun
sEine soon pierced the clouds of execu-
tive wrath. Sam was let off with q
fatherly admonition to go and sin no
more; and ever after Sam D. Leavitt,
late assistant commissary of subsist-
ence,' was the recipient of favors at
Buffers headquarters when other Off
GERS were CURLY refused.-Boston
Globe.
Hero of the Civil War.