How To Fool The Drill Sergeant

[Shantyman]

"It was the private soldier who taught me not to step on the heels of my file closer.
He also taught me how to make a feather bed of two oak rails.
How to grind coffee in a tin cup with the shank of a bayonet.
How to boil roasting ears in the their own husks in the ashes.
How to drink boiling coffee without blistering my throat.
How to conceal my person behind a sapling not half so thick as my body.
How to fill my canteen from a warm pond and let the water cool in the sun on a hot day.
How to march eighteen or twenty miles over rough roads day after day without getting an ache in my feet.
How to make one day's rations last three days without going hungry.
How to get a refreshing drink of water without swallowing a drop.
How to lift a nervous hen from the bosom of her family without any outcry from herself or relatives.
How to fool the sergeant on roll-call – once. That trick was like a limited ticket, good "for this day and this train only."How to "explain things" to the captain.
How to launder one's linen, which was woven of the coarsest flannel, in cold water.
How to make one's self clean when it was muddy, and how to look fresh when it was dusty.
How to divide the last pint of water in your canteen so as to get a drink and a sponge bath and have enough left for coffee.
How to make two month's pay – twenty six dollars – last till next pay-day, two or three months away, after you had sent half of it home and spent half the remainder.
How to keep awake on picket all night when your dry eyes ached and burned for sleep.
How to sleep like a tired working man under the guns of a battery shelling the enemy's lines.
How to light a fire in the woods with wet twigs in a pelting rain and a fretful wind with your last match."[Burdette, "Drums of the 47th" ppg. 113-114]

Any idia what "How to fool the sergeant on roll-call – once. That trick was like a limited ticket, good "for this day and this train only." was all about?

Any other documentation of the use of practical jokes in the army during the Civil War?

[Lone Guard]

Re: How To Fool The Drill Sergeant

Mr. Flibotte,

If you are looking for period pranks, the books by Bell Wiley (Life of Bill Yank/Johnny Reb) have some good examples.

The accent and unusual ways of foreigners often made them the victims of mischievous acts. Men of a New York artillery unit slipped a mouse into the little tin box which a German comrade used for carrying his fine plug tobacco-and then hid near his tent to hear the oaths that came when he reached for a chew

-Page 172, Life of Billy Yank

[Pvt.Tyler]

Re: How To Fool The Drill Sergeant

One prank I have heard of is when a regiment was having a church service in winter quarters some men threw gun powder in to the fire place.
Tyler McHone

[10TnVI]

Re: How To Fool The Drill Sergeant

here's one for you-from "For Cause, Country, and Leader" the Civil War Journal of Charles B. Haydon-2nd Michigan Inf.
In an entry dated Oct. 30, 1861 in reference to another company

"After they all get in at night they pass at least one man 'in review' as they term it. This performance consist, as near as I can learn, in stripping a man and passing him two or three times around the tent, all ends uppermost and in no very gentle manner. The tents are pretty large, designed for twenty men and it is no small affair to be "passed in review"."

"Thgey usually lie in wait near the edge of the tent and grab some luckless passer by the legs and pull him in. Sid(Prentice-a friend in the other company) has a terror of this "passing in review"

Another joke I read about, for which I have lost the cite, took place in South Carolina during the final days of Sherman's march. A mess, that usually pooled it's coffee and sugar ration, had one member who had a habit of using more than his fair share of sugar. One day while nooning they replaced the sugar in the container with some local sand that was extremely similar in appearence. The messmate started spooning the "sugar' into his coffee while they watched in mirth. Since it never seemed to get sweet the messmate kept absentmindedly adding it until his cup was about half full of sand.

[Rmhisteach]

Re: How To Fool The Drill Sergeant

[QUOTE=Shantyman;89536]"It was the private soldier who taught me not to step on the heels of my file closer.
He also taught me how to make a feather bed of two oak rails.
How to grind coffee in a tin cup with the shank of a bayonet.
How to boil roasting ears in the their own husks in the ashes.
How to drink boiling coffee without blistering my throat.
How to conceal my person behind a sapling not half so thick as my body.
How to fill my canteen from a warm pond and let the water cool in the sun on a hot day.
How to march eighteen or twenty miles over rough roads day after day without getting an ache in my feet.
How to make one day's rations last three days without going hungry.
How to get a refreshing drink of water without swallowing a drop.
How to lift a nervous hen from the bosom of her family without any outcry from herself or relatives.
How to fool the sergeant on roll-call – once. That trick was like a limited ticket, good "for this day and this train only."How to "explain things" to the captain.
How to launder one's linen, which was woven of the coarsest flannel, in cold water.
How to make one's self clean when it was muddy, and how to look fresh when it was dusty.
How to divide the last pint of water in your canteen so as to get a drink and a sponge bath and have enough left for coffee.
How to make two month's pay – twenty six dollars – last till next pay-day, two or three months away, after you had sent half of it home and spent half the remainder.
How to keep awake on picket all night when your dry eyes ached and burned for sleep.
How to sleep like a tired working man under the guns of a battery shelling the enemy's lines.
How to light a fire in the woods with wet twigs in a pelting rain and a fretful wind with your last match."[Burdette, "Drums of the 47th" ppg. 113-114]

Any idia what "How to fool the sergeant on roll-call – once. That trick was like a limited ticket, good "for this day and this train only." was all about?


I read the Drums of the 47th . Interesting account. The obvois answer is to have another man say here for you. while you sleep or are up to something else. The once or for this train and day only means ( IMHO) that you would get by with it once but trying it twice would be much too risky.
My.02

RM