Brief description:
A story regarding the long term impact on West Point from the Battle of Chippewa, July 5, 1814
"Farmer by name and farmer by nature,” said Lukes, not hiding his sneer. -“You’re belly-achin’ like a weaning calf when you’d ought to be proud of wearing the uniform of your country.”
“Uniform, hell!” exploded Zack Farmer. “Look at it! Gray instead o’ blue and you call it a uniform?”
“You’ll never make a sojer, that’s sure.”
“I didn’t ’list for this kind o’ sojering.” Tow—headed, with mild blue eyes in a round face, Farmer glowered. “What is it anyhow? Support arms, load in twelve motions, stick in your belly, fasten that collar, charge with the bayonet—arrgh! We been here four months at one blasted thing after another, over and over again. I didn’t enlist for chilblained feet and a headache/from a tarbucket hat.”
.....
Full summer had come to the Niagara frontier, between New York and Canada. The spring, here around fire-blackened Buffalo, where the army for the invasion of Canada was encamped, had been cold and stormy until the end of May. June turned fair and warmish. July promised better. But in this warm sunset, the heart of Farmer was full sore; so were his feet.
....
Farmer grunted, “If I’d known there wasn’t any blue cloth left for this new army, and we had to be trussed in Quaker gray from Philadelphy, I sure wouldn’t have ’listed. But the rest of you got to wear it too.”
“Oh, us old hands have our blues tucked away to go home in,” said Lukes. He regarded his own sober gray uniform with a grimace. “Gen’ral Scott’s idee is that the rank and file have got to be uniformed alike. He’s hell for looks — allows sojers fight better when they're smart dressed and smart drilled."
“I’m sick o’ being drilled like militia on a common,” Farmer growled. “All this bayonet exercise—yah! I don’t see much sojer glory in being butchered like venison. Nor use in it, neither. Did you ever work close quarters with the bayonet?”
“Many’s the time, many’s the time,” and Lukes wagged his head as he bragged. “Cold steel don’t scare me. All you do is stick the other feller first..
NOTE: In memory of the Battle of Chippewa and in honor troops there engaged, the uniform of the cadet corps of the United States Military Academy shall be gray.
"Farmer by name and farmer by nature,” said Lukes, not hiding his sneer. -“You’re belly-achin’ like a weaning calf when you’d ought to be proud of wearing the uniform of your country.”
“Uniform, hell!” exploded Zack Farmer. “Look at it! Gray instead o’ blue and you call it a uniform?”
“You’ll never make a sojer, that’s sure.”
“I didn’t ’list for this kind o’ sojering.” Tow—headed, with mild blue eyes in a round face, Farmer glowered. “What is it anyhow? Support arms, load in twelve motions, stick in your belly, fasten that collar, charge with the bayonet—arrgh! We been here four months at one blasted thing after another, over and over again. I didn’t enlist for chilblained feet and a headache/from a tarbucket hat.”
.....
Full summer had come to the Niagara frontier, between New York and Canada. The spring, here around fire-blackened Buffalo, where the army for the invasion of Canada was encamped, had been cold and stormy until the end of May. June turned fair and warmish. July promised better. But in this warm sunset, the heart of Farmer was full sore; so were his feet.
....
Farmer grunted, “If I’d known there wasn’t any blue cloth left for this new army, and we had to be trussed in Quaker gray from Philadelphy, I sure wouldn’t have ’listed. But the rest of you got to wear it too.”
“Oh, us old hands have our blues tucked away to go home in,” said Lukes. He regarded his own sober gray uniform with a grimace. “Gen’ral Scott’s idee is that the rank and file have got to be uniformed alike. He’s hell for looks — allows sojers fight better when they're smart dressed and smart drilled."
“I’m sick o’ being drilled like militia on a common,” Farmer growled. “All this bayonet exercise—yah! I don’t see much sojer glory in being butchered like venison. Nor use in it, neither. Did you ever work close quarters with the bayonet?”
“Many’s the time, many’s the time,” and Lukes wagged his head as he bragged. “Cold steel don’t scare me. All you do is stick the other feller first..
NOTE: In memory of the Battle of Chippewa and in honor troops there engaged, the uniform of the cadet corps of the United States Military Academy shall be gray.
Publication
Adventure Magazine, July 1937