Why, General Carroll! Sit down here and join us! I believe that we've more than enough lobster salad and crackers to go around, and General Weir's pockets are deep this day for the drinks, although I suppose that I ought to support the flailing worth of those CSA banknotes with a little Yankee gold.
Much of what you may have heard about the "Red Drawers Affair," of course, has become distorted, twisted and blown out of proportion; but I will attempt to provide you with the actual events as I recall them. Forgive me if I get carried away in the telling of it, as some of what I'm about to relate still rankles and disturbs me.
(Ah, General Weir, you've a bit of lobster and crumbs hanging there on your beard...yes, that's it, good, you've gotten it!)I had just returned from the very debilitating
CSA Western Theater Training Course held this past July in Baton Rouge (see
http://www.unioneaglesonline.com/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=230) and sponsored by Col. Stiles and General McOmish. I cannot really tell you, here, how immensely satisfying I found that particular experience; but suffice it to say that I was genuinely impressed with the organization of the thing! In fact, I was so impressed and taken with the memory of it that I failed to correctly realize the oddities associated with the arrival of the Michigan Women's Sanitary Commission into the AotT's camp!
We had not actually endured any recent severe actions nor had the army moved much prior to the Western Thunder Tournament; but here the women were, bustling about setting up hospital tents, unloading medicinal supplies from their wagons and generally creating quite a display of themselves as they did so! Not quite a few officers of our army were just standing about, taking it all in and completely disregarding their duties. I was more concerned with re-establishing proper discipline that with the reason for the Commission's visit!
Sergeant Buckmaster appeared to be the only one then present who seemed to understand the whole situation, so I naturally called him immediately over and instructed him first get the men back to their duties and to then report to me in my tent afterwards.
(It is good brandy, is it not! It sort of compliments to salt on the crackers, doesn't it?!)Where was I?...Oh, yes! Sergeant Buckmaster! Through no fault of his own, "Millicent" was his given Christian name! Back in 1818 such things were not uncommon among the Monticlifians, an avant-guarde, splinter group of spiritual purists who were both abnormally obsessed with sugar cane and completely matriarchal in their organization. Many male children were routinely given the names of their grandmothers, a practice that eventually led to their almost total extermination by the Algonquin Indians, who became sorely disappointed in their raiding attempts to acquire slave-brides among their white neighbors. Some say that the French played a sorry role in all of that, but the facts are that young Buckmaster was one of the few survivors of the final attack. For many years thereafter, the Algonquins suffered from bad teeth!
He acquired his Buckmaster surname from the pioneers that adopted him, quickly learning to respond to the given name of Elwood. One can only imagine the horrible chiding he received over that name in the following school years and the many fistfights he was presented with in that rustic environment. Probably as a result of that, more than anything else, he kept his original given name close to his heart, revealing it only to those in his later life in whom he had complete trust. And that, gentlemen, is precisely what led to the "infamous" red drawers and his wearing of them on that salacious occasion.
(Oh, I see that Captain Sweeny is motioning to me just now! If you will excuse me, I will be back shortly!)
ACWGC 
ACWGC Memorial
CSA HQ
VMI
Join CSA
Union HQ
Join Union 
Login
FAQ
Search
Members
