Page:From Yauco to Las Marias.djvu/32

22 contrast to his blunt, impetuous, and fiery second in command, Lieutenant-Colonel Burke. But, so far as I am aware, perpetual harmony reigned between them and both were beloved by their men. The battalion of artillery was commanded by Captain Frank Thorp of Light Battery "D," my own outfit. He was best known in the ranks as "Side-wheeler," from a peculiarity of gait, and, though well on in years, was at all times gallant, courageous, and capable. A stiff disciplinarian, he kept his guard-house well filled from week to week; but he was as quick to reward as punish, when warranted by circumstances. It is worthy of note that although he took each day enough medicine to lay an ordinary man on his back, or in an early grave, yet he was well and fit from start to finish.

Captain Macomb of the Fifth Cavalry is not an easy man to describe in cold ink. Handsome, stalwart, and grave; black-haired, black-eyed, a scarf of yellow knotted at his throat, — he was Custer without the vanity or Lancelot devoid a Guinevere.