Volunteered at __________, __________ 18__,
By __________ Regiment of __________
__ enlistment; last served in Company (__________) __ Reg’t of __________.
Discharged __________ 18__.
CONSENT IN CASE OF MINOR.
I, __________ do certify, That I am the father of __________, that the said __________ is __ years of age; and I do hereby freely give my consent to his volunteering as a Soldier in the Army of the United States for the period of three years.
Given at __________ the __ day of __________ 186_.
Witness: __________
How often in later years did the disappointment I experienced at not obtaining membership in the company I at first decided upon recur to me, and how grateful I always felt for the fate which thus controlled my enlistment. For the lot of a recruit in an old company was, at the best, not an enviable one, and sometimes was made very disagreeable for him. He stood in much the same relation to the veterans of his company that the Freshman in college does to the Sophomores, or did when hazing was the rule and not the exception. It is to be remembered that he was utterly devoid of experience in everything which goes to make up the soldier, the details of camping, cooking, drilling, marching, fighting, etc., which put him at a disadvantage on all occasions. For this reason he easily became the butt of a large number of his company—not all, for there were some men who were ever ready to extend sympathy and furnish information to him, when they saw it was needed, and did what they could to raise him to the same general plane occupied by the old members. But many of the veterans seemed to forget how they themselves obtained their army education little by little, and so ofttimes bore down on recruits with great severity.