Foremost and fairest of all visions that please,
Will be happy remembrances of my old Reveilles.
Let them go while a tear drop in memory flows
Gently down from my eye-lid and rests on my nose,
But little they’ll reck of my sorrow or pain,
Nor of my longing to get them again.
While over their resting-place cold winds scatter leaves
Where they peacefully sleep—Farewell, Reveilles!
Artillery drills come in each year of the four. The first year the drill is on foot at the light battery; the next year with horses at the light battery; the third year on foot at the siege, mortar and sea-coast batteries, and the last year first classmen act as assistants to the instructors. Light battery drill with horses is one that all cadets thoroughly enjoy. There are six pieces (each with its caisson) in the battery, and there is great rivalry between the cadets and drivers at each piece, especially in executing some maneuver that ends with firing.
In my day the target for mortar drill was a barrel on a post, placed at the foot of Cro’ Nest, 1,000 yards or more from the mortar battery, near “Trophy Point.” One day I was “gunner” of a piece and was fortunate enough to knock the barrel from its post, a feat rarely accomplished, as it is very difficult to strike a small object with a mortar.