The VMI Cadets looked great, but think of the day they had to contend with.

First, Lexington is about 200 miles from DC, travel time approximately 3 hours.

I’m going to guess they arose as usual around 0600 hours, attended morning breakfast as usual and boarded buses for the trip north about 0900, arriving DC somewhere around noon, debarking from their buses not to far from the inaugural site. Here they must have been provided box lunches.

As you can see they were fully clothed in their winter uniforms with overcoat, armed with rifles with fixed bayonets, perhaps weighting 6 +/- lbs.

I believe the parade began about 1400/1500 hrs. and their total line of march perhaps 5 or more miles.

Note their unusual formation, two massed battalions of 5 companies each. I thought I counted a 15 man front with about 48 ranks, about 700 men or so each. With about 6 feet between ranks, the rear would be about 100 yards to the rear of the battalion commander who would have been issuing commands, There must have been one or two men following who would be echoing commands from forward to those in the rear.

When passing the reviewing stand and executing an “eyes left” salute they would have had to have their rifles at “right shoulder arms.” Because of the buik of their uniforms and the rifles weight, they would have needed to shift arms from shoulder to shoulder about at a blocks interval en-route. Otherwise, their arms would become numb and if not shifted would render it difficult to alter on command.

They would most likely have ended their march about 5 PM, boarding their buses for the 3 hour trip home and a late dinner.

A day to be fully remembered!