was decided, assisted me in tying up a red horse blanket with a piece of clothes line so that it could be thrown across the shoulder, prepared some provision consisting of a piece of cheese, several boiled eggs, with sundry slices of bread and butter which were put in one of the boys' school satchels, and a tin cup fastened upon the strap, and thus accoutred, I bade all good-bye, except grandfather who was out in the field, and hastened over to town. In the meantime the departure of the company had been postponed until evening, and being formed in ranks by McCord, we marched through the borough in the dust to the sound of the fife and drum, and returning to the hotel held an election for officers, in which John D. Jenkins was chosen Captain, Jos. T. McCord, 1st Lieutenant, and A. L. Chalfant, 2d Lieutenant. The captain had been in the Mexican war, was a long while High Constable, and had the reputation of being very brave and determined, but was entirely unacquainted with the modern drill, and it seems to me, rather slow in thought and action.
McCord was along time in Company G. First Reserves, participated in the Peninsular battles — was thoroughly booked up in Hardee, thought by many to be of a tyrannical disposition but I preferred him to any of the others. Chalfant was in Mexico and now keeps a kind of a saloon in Phoenixville.
After the election we were dismissed with orders to meet at the same place at four P. M. I bought some necessary articles, a flannel shirt and a large knife and went home to dinner more deliberately than before. At the appointed hour we left Ullman's and marching down to the depot filled a special car which had been procured. As we passed Dr. Whitaker's, Andy's mother called to him that he must not go, but he continued with us.
