Caddy Buddy books

A very great day indeed
was the muster-day, when sometimes an entire brigade would
be called out for drill. These muster-days happened three
or four times in my boyhood in Concord.
But the great day of all was what was called "Cornwallis,"
which was the anniversary of the capture of Cornwallis at
Yorktown. There were organized companies in uniform representing
the British army and an equally large number of volunteers,
generally in old-fashioned dress, and with such muskets and
other accoutrements as they could pick up, who represented
the American army. There was a parade and a sham fight which
ended as all such fights, whether sham or real, should end,
in a victory for the Americans, and Cornwallis and his troops
were paraded, captive and ignominious. I quite agree with
Hosea Biglow when he says, "There is a fun to a Cornwallis,
though; I aint agoin' to deny it."
The boys cared little for politics, though they used to profess
the faith of their fathers; but every boy sometimes imagined
himself a soldier, and his highest conception of glory was
to "lick the British.


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