He carried his dinner in a little tin pail
with a cover on it. When the days were short he had to start very early,
and when he returned it would be in the evening, I recollect very well
some things that he worked at. The arsenal and other buildings were up
when we came here. They built a large brick wall from building to
building, making the yard square. The top of the wall was about level. I
think this wall was built twelve or fifteen feet high, it incloses three
or four acres. There thousands of soldiers put on their uniforms and with
their bright muskets in their hands and knapsacks strapped upon their
backs drilled and marched to and fro. There they prepared themselves for
the service of the country and to die, if need be, in defending the old
flag of stars and stripes which waved there above their heads. Little
thought they that the ground under their feet, so beautiful and level
inside that yard was made ground, in some places for six or eight feet
deep, and that it was done at Uncle Sam's expense for the pleasure of his
boys in blue. It was their school yard in which to learn the science of
war.
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