Page:Address of J. Wilson Gibbes at the Home-Coming Banquet of Citadel Alumni (1924).djvu/12

 my tent, and one trunk held the goods and chattels for the quintette. For bed clothing we had one pillow, two sheets, one blanket and two comforts apiece. We stuck a bayonet in the floor and put a candle in the socket. With one blanket between us and the boards we slept the sleep of the tired, and dreamed of unbounded honors and hard tack.

Wednesday morning reveille at 5:30. After breakfast we sallied forth in our gray suits and shining brass buttons to capture Savannah and its fair girls. But to our great surprise we didn't capture anyone. For 24 hours after our arrival we were barely noticed. We were South CaroliniasCarolinians [sic], and they don't stand a chance in Georgia.

At 6 p. m. the whole camp (some 5,000 men) were ordered out for dress parade. We marched in "columns of fours," four "dudes" abreast, another four behind, and so on. When we got into the arena the command "fours left, march," was given, thus bringing us, 108 strong, into a straight line perpendicular to the grand-stand. It was magnificently done—108 cadets marching abreast for a hundred yards and preserving an arrow-like line. It was then that the tide changed, and we captured the town.

The next morning we gave an exhibition drill with 24 men, the judges having refused, after our splendid performance of the day before, to let us compete for the prize of $2,500. The people went into raptures over the drill, and from then we were the lions of the hour. Our reputation was made, and that afternoon when we gave a special dress parade the grand-stand of 25,000 persons and the various military organizations from all over the South went wild over our whole battalion "fixing bayonets" as one man.

Can you do it, Mr. Shean?

Thursday we participated in the parade and exercises commemorative of the unveiling of some tablets in honor of General Nathaniel Greene. The dust flew around us like hail, while the mud in some places where they watered the streets was a foot deep, and we had about five miles of it.

After the parade we marched as we were, dust and mud and all, to the city hall, where President Jefferson Davis held a reception for us, each one of us shaking the grand old gentleman's hand, and paying special attention to Winnie, the "Daughter of the Confederacy."