Free Swimming Lessons

Our commanding officer was not very happy with our performance over the catching the Moon incident, so he ordered every soldier, contraband, and color bearer for swimming lessons. However, we moved from the swamp to the nearby sea for our free swimming lessons. The Captain thought we had enough of the alligators in the swamp, which he thought were really rebels in disguise. So in order to improve our talents and exercise on the open ground, he felt the sea was a better place to practice. Well, it was a disaster. First, we just jumped or pushed ourselves in the water. All our commotion of trying to learn strokes and kicking up a storm soon brought the attention of some nasty white sharks. Man-eaters, they were called. However, we were saved by a group of the First Pennsylvania Militia. They looked like they couldn't do anything because they wore white turbans and baggy pantaloons as their uniforms. Afterwards, a few soldiers couldn't take the rigors of army life or the fun we'd just experienced. So they just left, so to speak. Deserters, they were officially called.

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