Then, while an orderly advanced to the head of his horse, Colonel Craig dismounted and quietly ascended the steps beside the little group of ladies and city officials: "On behalf of the officers and men of the 3rd New York Zouaves," he said, "I thank you.

We are grateful.

I think that we all mean to do our best.
"If we cannot, in the hour of trial, do all that is expected of us, we will do all that is in us to do.
"It is very easy to dress a thousand men in uniform, and invest them with the surroundings of military life; but it is not thus alone that soldiers are made.

It is only discipline; regular steady, rigid discipline--that forms a soldier to be relied upon in the hour of need.
"At present we are only recruits.

So I ask, in justice to the regiment, that you will not demand too much of us in the beginning.
We desire to learn; we desire most earnestly to deserve your confidence.