Page:The woman in battle .djvu/67

Rh I accordingly went to this German tailor, and ordered two uniform suits, for which I agreed to pay him eighty-five dollars each. As he took my measure he eyed me pretty close, and seemed to imagine that something was not quite right. I was dreadfully afraid he would discover me to be a woman, but resolved, if he did, that I would endeavor to silence him with a handsome bribe for a few days, until he got my suits done and I could leave the city, trusting to be able to disguise my self thereafter so effectually that he would not recognize me again, even if he saw me. "Ah," said the tailor, looking at me rather sharply, "what you want to go to war for? You is too young for the fightin'; isn't you? What your mammy say to that, eh?"

I replied, with as careless an air as I could possibly assume, that I was twenty-two years of age, and was a graduate of West Point, following up this information with other fictitious statements which it somewhat staggered me to utter, and which, if he had been a trifle sharper, he would have had some difficulty in crediting. He, however, was satisfied, or appeared to be, and promised to have the clothing ready in two days. I was afraid to tell him to pad the coat all around in such a manner as to conceal my feminine shape; this I was compelled to do myself after I got possession of the clothing. With a little alteration, how ever, the coats and pantaloons made by the German tailor at Memphis answered my immediate purpose, and enabled me to get under way with my grand scheme, but my disguise was really not perfected until I reached New Orleans, and was able to command facilities greater than Memphis afforded.

As this seems to be a very proper point in my narrative for a description of the means adopted for the concealment of my sex, while I was doing duty in the Confederate army as an officer, I will gratify the curiosity of the reader in that matter before proceeding any farther with the story of my adventures. My coats were heavily padded in the back and under the arms to the hips, until I reached New Orleans. This served to disguise my shape; but the padding was very uncomfortable, and I soon made up my mind that it would never do for a permanent arrangement. So soon as I got to New Orleans, I