In pursuance of orders received a day or two previous, our Regiment, together with the entire Brigade, started at noon of October 19th for the general parade ground, to take part in a Brigade review, it was an informal affair and only occupied two hours, it was a sort of preliminary or drill to fit us for a grand review to take place some time in the next month.
Messrs. Tolles and Burritt came over from Ithaca, reaching camp the morning of October 20th, to take views in and about the camps, they succeeded in getting a great many fine views of the different positions occupied by the troops.
At inspection on the morning of October 23d, orders were issued to each Regiment, to hold themselves in readiness to fall in at a moment's notice. It was understood that Governor Seymour was in the city and would visit the different camps during the day. It being unknown at what time we would have to fall in, our boys went about the camp with their equipments on, ready to take their places in line at the first call. In the afternoon at 3 o'clock the roll was sounded and our Regiment was soon in line, presently Gov. Seymour and a few members of his staff, accompanied by some of the post officers, passed and were saluted by the Regiment; there was no pretentious show of any kind, merely a recognition and compliment to the Commander-in-Chief of the State forces.
On the evening of October 24th, our boys arranged one of their characteristic performances--a minstrel show. We had indeed acquired a great reputation during our life in camp for being possessed of an inexhaustible store of fun, and had the material for engaging in anything that might offer which could be turned into a source of amusement.
On the evening mentioned we built a staging of rather large dimensions of material furnished us by the Quarter-Master of the Regiment, sticking bayonets in the ground with a candle placed in them to serve as foot-lights, seats were provided for our audience, and every convenience added as far as possible in order to make our entertainments popular. We were richly rewarded on this occasion as our performances had been growing very much in favor, and on this night many came up from the city in carriages until we had an audience of which many a more worthy showman might have been proud.