stores in the town with an order to have supplies that were needed furnished at once. Only a meagre portion of the requisition could be obtained, supplies in stock being most inadequate to the demands. But a greater difficulty than this, even, confronted the Hospital Department. It seems that soldiers in the regular army by self-imposed fines and by saving their rations, accumulate a fund with which to purchase delicacies for their sick. Volunteers in this, as in other matters, suffer from their inexperience. Soon it was found that sick men needed something. more than medicines, and that convalescents even could neither relish nor assimilate bacon, beans and hard tack. A serious condition soon confronted the regiment. We were in a country where milk was difficult to procure and ice not to be had in large quantities. The latter had to be made artificially, and the large number of troops poured into the little town of Lake land demanded daily more than the limited plant could supply. It had not rained for six months. There was no grass to be seen anywhere in the fields, and such thin cows as were trying to graze had nothing withal to squeeze from their udders. After consulting with the Surgeon the Chaplain telegraphed to several of his parishioners and friends of the regiment in New York, who immediately and generously responded to such an extent that within a week the hospital stores resembled a grocery shop, and anybody in the regiment needing other food than that provided could be liberally supplied with malted milk, in powder or tablet form; bouillon capsules, beef extract, lime juice, soups of every sort, jams, biscuit and crackers of various kinds, whiskey of the best quality, condensed milk and quantities of Dover's powders and bismuth, Sun Cholera Mixture, and many other things which the liberal hearts devised. Among these general contributors from New York city may be mentioned: Mrs. Walter H. Wagstaff, Mrs. Emmet R. Olcott, Mr. Lyman B. Garfield, Mr. Cleveland H. Dodge, Mr. Eugene Conklin, representing the Seventy-first Veteran Association; Mrs. Archibald Watt, Colonel Henry P. Martin, War Colonel of the Seventy-first in '61, and Mr. Irving P. Fisher. Many others, no doubt, contributed whose names do not here appear, notably parishioners of St. Andrew's, Harlem, and the Broadway Taber nacle, Thirty-fourth street. The regiment will hold these in lasting remembrance; they certainly ministered unto our necessity. Sick calls lessened the moment these goods arrived; and all felt that the painstaking labors of the Surgeons were now properly supplemented with needed medicines and foods. For the last few evenings before the breaking up of the camp at Lakeland, to avoid the terrific dust of the neighboring fields, the regiment was paraded and reviewed by the shore of the lake, and, while to do this in the somewhat constrained quarters it was necessary for the staff to stand perilously near, if not into, the water during parade and the regiment to pass in review by columns of fours, the picturesqueness of the scene at sunset caused every inconvenience to be overlooked, leaving a memory sweet to recall. On the evening of the 30th of May there was given by the Lakeland Lodge of Free Masons a reception and banquet to the Masonic brethren of the regiment, and, though it was the night before the regiment was to break camp and many found it impossible to leave, about thirty officers and twenty men attended. The exercises were exceedingly interesting. Addresses were made by the Worshipful Master and an old member of the Lakeland Lodge, and responses to these were given by Dr. H. Eugene Staf ford, Assistant Surgeon, and Chaplain Van Dewater, of the Seventy-first. Recognition of the spirit which had prompted the men to leave their homes and volunteer for foreign war, together with an especial tribute to the worth of the Seventy-first Regiment, was much appreciated by the visiting brethren. It would be interesting to know how many Masons there are in the regiment. Most all the officers are members of the order, and, it is believed, also many of the men. It has even been suggested that a warrant be obtained from the Grand Lodge of New York for a traveling lodge, with power to hold official communications and confer Masonic degrees. In due time news came, both by personal letter and through the public press, that the President had nominated our former Adjutant, William G. Bates, to be a Captain of Volunteers; that the Senate had confirmed the nomination, and that he had been assigned to the position of Assistant Adjutant-General upon the staff of Brigadier-General Greene, and that both were on the way to San Francisco to report to General Merritt and proceed to the Philippines. By this transfer of Mr. Bates the Seventyfirst Regiment lost a most efficient officer. Coming from K Company of the Seventh, Mr. Bates served as Adjutant of the Seventy-first during the six years of Colonel Greene's administration. It is safe to say that never did this or any other regiment have an adjutant who worked harder, or who did his work better than he. Those of us who had served long in the staff, proud as we were to see our friends promoted, ready as we always are to welcome new and worthy men to our companionship, sighed deeply as we recalled recent losses of men like J. Kennedy Tod, Commissary; J. Kensett Olyphant, Quartermaster; E. T. T. |