I am in the process of reading through "Corporal Si Klegg and His Pard" and while I know it is "fictional" account, it is based on the experiences of its author Wilbur F Hinman.

I just read the section on his view of the Orderly Sgt on page 169-170:

The orderly sergeant in the army vas generally regarded by the other non-commissioned officers and the privates as a necessary evil, but none the less a palpable and unmitigated nuisance. Next below the grade of a commissioned officer, he outranked all the rest of the enlisted men, so that his authority— unless in its exercise he transcended his legitimate functions—could not be called inquestion. By his superiors he was held directly responsible at all times for the condition of his company and the whereabouts of its members.
All must be "present or accounted for." It was his business to see that all orders were duly enforced and obeyed, to draw and issue to his company supplies of rations, clothing and ammunition, to see that the men kept their persons and their clothing clean, and their arms and tents —when they had any—in good condition, and to make all details for fatigue, guard and other duty; besides numberless minor things that no one can understand or appreciate except those who have served in that thankless and exasperating position.
....
Upon the head of the orderly was poured a great deal more than his share of profanity. Scarcely a day passed that he was not deluged with it. If anything went wrong with the company he caught "Hail Columbia "from the officers. When enforcing discipline and making details of men for duty, particularly after fatiguing marches or on rainy days, he rarely failed to provoke the wrath of those whose "turn" it happened to be. The curses and maledictions were not always loud, for prudential reasons but they were deep and fervent. The longer the men remained in service the more fluent they became in the use of pungent words, making it warmer and warmer for the orderly. Swearing at him was the sovereign balm for the soldier's woes. When the hardtack was wormy, or the bacon maggoty, or the bean-soup too weak, or rations scanty; when the weather was too- hot or too cold, or it rained, or the company had to goon picket after a hard day's tramp, or any fatigue duty had to be done; when the buttons flew off their clothes and seams ripped the first timethey wereworn, or the shapeless "gunboats" scraped the skin from their feet; when the company had to turn out for drill, with the mercury in the nineties, and swelter and charge around capturing imaginary batteries — for all these and much more the persecuted orderly was to blame. He was ground to powder between the upper and nether millstones—the officers and the men. His life was a continual martyrdom.
Then he was expected to be, himself, in every way, an example to the men worthy of their imitation—a pattern of soldierly perfection, in his bearing, his person, and "all appurtenances thereunto belonging," as the lawyers say. The only redeeming feature in the orderly's wretched existence was that he did not have to detail himself to go on guard or chop wood or load the colonel's wagon. From these the "Regulations" exempted him.

That reminds me of another Si Klegg quote; see the fourth paragraph for why an officer could get to love their orderly sergt.:

Wilbur Hindman on the Burdens of Paperwork

From Si Klegg, pp. 85-87

“The officers who went out in ’62 were wiser in their generation than those who took the field the year before.  They had the benefit of the latter’s experience....”

“The officers of ’61 devoted themselves with commendable assiduity to “Hardee’s Tactics,” but they sadly neglected the “Regulations.” ... The making of returns at stated periods was all well enough, they thought, for “Regulars,” permanently stationed in forts and barracks, but they did not for a moment imagine that such punctilious duties would be exacted of those who had left the plow, the bar, the counter, the office, for the sole purpose of putting down the rebellion.  Whatever of government property disappeared was destroyed or lost in the service, any way, and the idea of their being compelled to pay for it was too preposterous to be entertained for a moment.  So they pursued the even tenor of their way, trudging over the stony pikes and leading their men into battle, and didn’t make any returns at all.

“But there came a day of rude awakening from their dreams of fancied security.  In many cases the pay of the officers of an entire regiment was stopped until full returns from the beginning were made ... By this time most of the companies had been reduced to half their original strength.  Forty or fifty guns and their accouterments, and camp and garrison equipage in proportion, were gone, and not a scrap of writing to show for them.  Many things had been worn out, and most of the guns had irregularly found their way into the hands of ordnance officers from the hospitals where the men were left; but these facts did not help them out of their dilemma, in the absence of receipts and other documentary evidence.  It would have absorbed many an officer’s pay for a year to square his accounts.

“This was where the swearing came in.  The making of searching and comprehensive affidavits is the kind of swearing intended to be understood... In a case of this kind the orderly-sergeant was the captain’s sheet anchor.  His memory was taxed to the utmost, and, when its resources were exhausted, his imagination was drawn upon for accidents and casualties that would account for the missing property.  Some of the affidavits almost blistered the paper upon which they were written.

“When one officer has been continuously in command of a company and the same orderly had stuck by him, time, patience and stationery only were necessary.  But in the great majority of cases, through the casualties of disease and battle, two or three officers had successively commanded, with perhaps as many first sergeants at the wheel, and there was long floundering in the mire.  In many instances it took months to get the accounts sufficiently straightened so that the paymaster ... again started the stream of greenbacks to irrigate the well-parched pocket-books of the exasperated officers....”

Funny,

Some things haven't changed much in 140 years.  

Former First Sergeant.  

Amen!!

Another former 1SG