"Tall men drilling with an elephant"

[John Hartwell]

I've been helping transcribe the diary of Luther Fairbank, 31st Mass . Vols. One entry puzzles me. At New Orleans, on July 8, 1862, the diary's entire entry reads:

"Tues. 8th. Did not work but a very little today. At night had a company of tall men drilling with an elephant."

Has anyone heard this term before? (West of Bhwalapur, any way)

The Fairbank Diary transcription, by the way, is currently completed through 1864, and can be found, together with several other 31st MVI narratives, at: https://31massinf.wordpress.com/narratives-letters-diaries/. The 3st Mass. project is based on a collection of papers in the Springfield (Mass.) Museum, that had been collected over a century ago in preparation of a Regimental history, which was never completed.

 

[MajGenl.Meade]

WAG. He's talking about snoring and noise.

I think that's what he refers to when he speaks earlier of Bob Mahan having on "his wooden overcoats tonight" i.e sleeping like one of the dead (wooden overcoat = coffin). Picturesque language!

I might be a bit more bothered about August 5th: At night I fooled with Warner Snow about two hours after taps.


Edited to add: I mean that last remark as a joke.

 

[John Hartwell]

He does mention Mahan's "wooden overcoat," but a few months later says Mahan was being court martialled for desertion, and that he had been in constant trouble ever since enlisting. So, I think it refers to some kind of punnishment. Robt. Mahan, btw, wound up spending his term of service in prison in the Tortugas -- and was then discharged.

As to having "fooled with Warner Snow," Fairbank does go on to say "until I finally threw him" -- so, perhaps his "fooling" was a euphemism for wrestling.

Fairbank is unusually forthcoming in many of his comments. He often ridicules "useless" officers, who get all the privileges while the enlisted men get all the work. He admits to being lazy, and often tells of "hiding away" during inspections, or when on detached duty, and sleeping away the hours. He also alludes to an active social life: July 16, 1864 "The girls, thinking we were to leave soon, have been over to see their fellows and we have had some fun criticizing their beauty. One was what I should call a mulatto, but her fellow calls her a creole, but the one that takes the shine off of all is a Spanish girl. Madam Wallace is all the go now."

The 31st was mounted at the start of 1864, and I like the remark of Jan 24, soon after getting his horse (he had put it off as long as he could, knowing it would mean more work for him). "At 8 A.M. we saddled and formed briagde [sic] line and paraded the street for 3 hours. My horse knew more than I did about the drill."

 

[Tom Elmore]

A "wooden overcoat" in reference to punishment sounds like a barrel with the ends knocked out, which an offender had to wear like a suit, it being suspended from the shoulders by leather straps.