At the same time First Sergeant Loran J. Harvey of Company I, and Sergeant Alexander Robertson of Company E were commissioned as second lieutenants, after a competitive examination. The former was attached to Company E and the latter to Company F.
On December 22nd the weather bureau, predicting a great storm, sent a telegram of warning to all the military camps. The telegram to the Eighth stated that the thermometer would drop 30 degrees. Not knowing just what to do with this information, the Colonel directed it to be published at evening parade. At evening parade, the orders of the day were read by the Adjutant, and on this occasion the telegram was read as the last part of the daily order; then followed the usual phraseology,--"By order of Colonel Pew." The reading of this telegram at the end of an order, caused considerable amusement in camp, at the idea that Colonel Pew would order the thermometer to drop 30 degrees.
A flag pole was furnished the regiment and erected near the center of the camp. On December 28th a garrison flag was received and broken out from this pole with appropriate ceremonies. Thereafter, at reveille and retreat it was hoisted and lowered. The flag and pole were carried to and used in Cuba. On being mustered out, the flag was presented to the regiment, and is now preserved at regimental headquarters.
During this stay at Americus, Major Frank A. Graves and Captain Charles T. Hilliker of Company D were absent from the regiment most of the time on court martial duty at Columbus.
A common diversion in southern Georgia is cock fighting. Many mains were attended by members of the regiment. A number of officers were presented with railroad passes, and invited to go to Savannah to see a review of part of the Seventh Corps, previous to its embarkation for Havana. Permission was obtained for about 20 officers to make this trip. The train left Americus at midnight, but through some misunderstanding, the officers assembled at the hotel about 7 o'clock, and had an evening upon their hands.
One of the officers, thinking cock fighting was not tabooed by law, and having been told by a prominent citizen that a main could be arranged on short notice at any time, called up the citizen by telephone in the hotel lobby, and invited him to bring the cocks to the hotel and begin at once. He was promptly suppressed by the hotel proprietor, and the law explained to him. A quiet, gentlemanly main was tolerated, but not a public and bold defiance of the law.