22 Brigade drill. Regular humbug! Intolerable nuisance. Its general uses.
1. To keep the men from enjoying a little rest, which they so much need:
2. To take out the sick men that the surgeon always refuses to excuse from duty (tho’ they are scarcely able to walk) that our Cols & Gen’s may have the gratification of seeing them faint & fall in the broiling sun.
3. To make the men careless in drill that the officers may have the pleasure of speaking to them as to negroes.
4. To exasperate the men beyond the endurance of patience, that they may curse & swear so the devil will reap the greater harvest in eternity.
5. That the Gen. and his aides may show their uniform suits; and tho’ they know it not, their ignorance.
“O was some power the gift to gi’ us,
To see oursel’ as others see us;
It was from many a blunder free us,
And foolish notion.”
This day will also ever be memorable on account of Gen. Hill’s humane order to shoot southern men for losing their guns and accoutrements, and buck them for straggling. Thus they treat the southern army.
