The American Army is regarded as formidable because “its bayonets
think.” That they thought and acted to some purpose was shown in many
exigencies of the Civil war, as the following, told by Gen. Carl Schurz:
One of General Butler’s staff-officers told me a little story
which illustrates the character of our volunteer regiments.
When our troops took possession of Annapolis, there was but one
locomotive in the railroad shop, and that locomotive had been
partly taken to pieces by the “rebel sympathizers” of the place,
in order to make it unfit for use. A volunteer regiment was
drawn up in line, and men who thought themselves able to repair
a locomotive were called for. A dozen or more privates stept
forward, and one of them exclaimed: “Why, that locomotive was
built in my shop!” In a short time the locomotive was again in
working order.
(1650)
=Intelligence in Storks=--See FAMILY OFFENSE IN STORKS.