History of the Sixteenth Regiment New Hampshire Volunteers

er oath, certainly with the oaths of some of the boys, that a barrel of ink could be made from each overcoat. This attempted imposition, however, miscarried, for our men absolutely refused to be mustered into service until there was an exchange of overcoats. The governor of the state pleaded with the men not to make trouble; but they were resolute and firm as the hills surrounding them. A few days later the exchange was made. The judgment may seem severe but was freely expressed that the manufacturers of those goods and the ones who attempted to palm them off upon the government ought to have been court-martialed and shot. II. DEPARTURE. The intensest sufferings during our civil war were not on the field of battle, but in the home circle ; not amid the rattle of musketry and boom of cannon, but in noiseless heart throbs, when the gray-haired father, with choking voice said to his son, "Go, my precious boy, and God bless you" ; when the devoted mother prayed and wept all night long after her son's enlistment; and when, amid farewell words, and dn ring the months that followed, wives, and young women who had pledged their affections to their lovers, suffered the agony of many deaths. ln consequence of these distressing experiences there sank into the grave prematurely a whole generation of those who saw no field of battle, who heard no report of musket or cannon, but who remained, in tears, with aching hearts and sleepless nights, among the qui...