Frank Sloan, Stark's vaguemaster and childhood friend, tells their youth in Chesterfield and Blutch. The son of a men's tailor in Pennsylvania and a West Point graduate, Stark embraced the military career in the cavalry. It was following a nasty head injury that he fell into this mutism. Blutch and Chesterfield asked the camp doctor to remove the little scraps from his skull. The results of the operation did not at all have the desired effect. Stark no longer wanted to ride on horseback but tried to reschedule the uniforms to General Alexander's greatest damn. But in the course of a new attack by the Confederate Stark was hit and found his fervor for the charges at the same time!