human
Jehosephat, sighed Shorty.
gpt
I wish I had as many dollars as he has style. Must be one of old Abe's body guards, sent out here with Grant's commission as Lieutenant-General. Expect that red star passes him on the railroads and at the hotels. I'd like to play him two games out o' three, cut-throat, for it. I could use it in my business.
human
No, said the Orderly to Si, with a strong Yankee twang,
gpt
I don't know a mite about the 200th Ind. Leastwise, I don't remember it. Everybody down here's from Indiana, Ohio or Illinois. It's one eternal mix, like Uncle Jed Stover's fish--couldn't tell shad, herring nor sprat from one another. It seems to me more like a 'tarnal big town-meeting than an army. All talk alike, and have got just as much to say; all act alike. Can't tell where an Indiana regiment leaves off and Ohio one begins; can't tell officer from private, everybody dresses as he pleases, and half of them don't wear anything to tell where they belong. There wasn't a corps badge in the whole army when we come here.
human
Corps badges--what's them?
gpt
Corps badges? Why this is one, said the man, tapping his red star.
human
This shows I belong to the Twelfth Corps--best corps in the Army of the Potomac, and the First Division--best division in the corps. We have to wear them so's to show our General which are his men, and where they be. Haven't you no corps badges?
gpt
Our General don't have to tag us, said Shorty, who had come up and listened.
human
He knows all of us that's worth knowin', and that we'll go wherever he orders us, and stay there till he pulls us off. Our corps badge's a full haversack and Springfield rifle sighted up to 1,200 yards.
gpt
Well, you do fight in a most amazing way, said the Orderly, cordially.
human
We never believed it of such rag-tag and bobtail until we saw you go up over Mission Ridge. You were all straggling then, but you were straggling toward the enemy. Never saw such a mob, but it made the rebels sick.
gpt
Well, if you'd seen us bustin' your old friend Long-street at Snodgrass Hill, you'd seen some hefightin'. We learned him that he wasn't monkeyin' with the Army o' the Potomac, but with fellers that wuz down there for business, and not to wear paper collars and shine their buttons. He come at us seven times before we could git that little fact through his head, and we piled up his dead like cordwood.
human
Well, you didn't do any better than we did with Early's men at Gulp's Hill, if we do wear paper collars, returned the other proudly.
gpt
After we got through with Johnston's Division you couldn't see the ground in front for the dead and wounded. And none of your men got up on Lookout Mountain any quicker'n we did. Paper collars and red stars showed you the way right along.
human
My pardner's only envious because he hain't no paper collars nor fine clothes, said Si, conciliatorily.
gpt
I've often told him that if he'd leave chuck-a-luck alone and save his money he'd be able to dress better'n Gen. Grant.
human
Gen. Grant's no great shakes as a dresser, returned the other.
gpt
I was never so surprised in my life as one day when I was Orderly at Division Headquarters, and a short man with a red beard, and his clothes spattered with mud, rode up, followed by one Orderly, and said, 'Orderly, tell the General that Gen. Grant would like to see him.' By looking hard I managed to make out three stars on his shoulder. Why, if Gen. McClellan had been coming you'd have seen him for a mile before he got there.
human
If Gen. Grant put on as much style in proportion to what he done as McClellan, you could see him as far as the moon,
gpt
Well, we're not gettin' to the rijimint, said the impatient Si.
human
Le's rack on. So long, Orderly. Come and see us in the 200th Injianny and we'll treat you white. Forward, march!
gpt
There's a couple of boys comin' up the road. Probably they kin tell us where the rijimint is,
human
No, they said,
gpt
Gone away, said Si, scanning the abandoned camp sadly;
human
No, the boys assured him.
gpt
They broke up camp completely. All that wasn't able to march was sent to the hospital in Chattynoogy. Every mite of stuff was loaded into wagons and hauled off with 'em. They never expected to come back.
human
That camp ground don't look as it'd bin occupied for two weeks, said Shorty.
gpt
See the ruts made by the rain in the parade ground and the general look o' things. I don't believe the rijimint only left there yisterday. It don't look as if the 200th Injianny ever had sich a camp. It's more like one o' the camps o' them slack-twisted Kaintucky and Tennessee rijimints.
human
If Oi didn't belave that Si Klegg and Sharty was did intoirely, and up home in Injianny, Oi'd be sure that was their v'ices,