three other officers of that line came to us and questioned us respecting our unsoldierlike conduct, (as he termed it;) we told him he needed not to be informed of the cause of our present conduct, but that we had borne till we considered further forbearance pusillanimity; that the times, instead of mending, were growing worse, and finally, that we were determined not to bear or forbear much longer. We were unwilling to desert the cause of our country, when in distress; that we knew her cause involved our own; but what signified our perishing in the act of saving her, when that very act would inevitably destroy us, and she must finally perish with us. "Why do you not go to your officers?" said he, "and complain in a regular manner;" we told him we had repeatedly complained to them, but they would not hear us. "Your officers," said he, "are gentlemen, they will attend to you, I know them, they cannot refuse to hear you. But," said he, "your officers suffer as much as you do, we all suffer, the officers have no money to purchase supplies with any more than the private men have, and if there is nothing in the public store we must fare as hard as you. I have no other resources than you have to depend upon; I had not a sixpence to purchase a partridge, that was offered me the other day. Besides," said he, "you know not how much you injure your own characters by such conduct.—You Connecticut troops have won immortal honour to yourselves the winter past, by your perseverance, patience, and bravery, and now you are shaking it off at your heels. But I will go and see your officers, and talk with them myself." He went, but what the result was, I never knew.—This Colonel Stewart was an excellent officer, much beloved and respected by the troops of the line he belonged to. He possessed great personal beauty, the Philadelphia ladies stiled him the Irish Beauty.
Our stir did us some good in the end, for we had provisions directly after, so we had no great cause for complaint for some time.
About this time there were about three thousand men ordered out for a particular field day, for the Prussian General Baron de Stuben to exercise his manœuvreing functions upon. We marched off our regimental parades at dawn of day, and went three or four miles, to Morris-
