St Johns College - Yearbook (Annapolis, MD)

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i . .4 ,,,, .'1.,..Q,,,!M i ,,,Zm,,Q,,,W IRVY HEISE Infantry Band, and marched to our trains. In a few short l10Ll1'S liiagle Pass would be a memory. Our last farewells we1'e given and we pulled out, amid the cheers of the First Tennessee, for dear old Maryland. NVe will not dwell upon our trip home. VVe were far too glad to be coming home to pay much attention to the details of the trip. After eight days of riding we heard the word Baltimore l and our journey was ended. Baltimore greeted us royally, but we we1'e seasoned veterans UD and acted as reserved as possible. NVithin ten days the magic words, You are hereby released from the service of the National Guard and of the United States, ended our Border service. Then it was farewell to our captain-a man who helped to make our Border service as attractive as possible, a man with the biggest heart in the service- Capt. Samuel B. Riggs. We of St. .Iohn's who served under him will always remember him as OUR captain. VVe thank him for all that he taught us, and for all that we learned under him, and hope that if ever we are called out again, it will be under his guidance. 'UZ li HOME SWEET Home 170

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,,,, Then came payday. Ah! the most pleasant day of all. Forgotten were our troubles, the heat, mules and all. Money verily worketh charmsfl Pres- ents from far away Texas began to travel homeward. After payday, another month. But the months seemed to go faster now. St. John's began to become well known in liagle Pass. First one, then two, then four, six, a dozen of our number began slipping away in the evening to call upon some pretty senorita. liagle Pass became a pretty good spot, after all. Lucky were they who knew a little Spanish. They could enter into conversa- tions forbidden to the others. Many parties were given by the fair young ladies of the town. One had an automobile, which was in demand most every evening. There was never any argument as to who should occupy the front seat beside the fair lady, for we knew that it was no other than our corporal, namely, Bobby Sheetz. , Gradually our stay in Texas became longer and longer. VVe began to turn longing eyes toward the North. Although the attractions of Eagle Pass were very fascinating, those of home were more so. At' last, on October 5th, the long-looked-for orders to leave came. The regiment went wild with enthusiasm. But before we could leave we must needs take a farewell hike--a big one this time, supposed to last a week. W'e took it. In looking back over our stay on the llorder this last hike will always remain the most prominent thing in the memory of our Border service. It lasted eight days. All the troops of liagle Pass, ten thousand in number, participated in the meneuvers. Battles were fought every day, in addition to our scheduled length of march, usually from fifteen to twenty miles. At last it was over. Our ,liorder service we knew was ended when, upon returning to liagle Pass, we saw our fifty Pullman cars waiting for us. On October 17th we left our camp site, preceded by the Thirtieth - ' -g X fl rf? ' L E , M . llll - Ti U . . V1-f11 'ff'effe EAGLE PASS 169

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