ON the 25th of January Major Potter reported to pay us for the first time, and we were all greatly delighted. So far, none of us had ever received a cent for his services, and most of us were penniless; we made it very pleasant for the major at headquarters and he proved himself a jolly good fellow. It was now possible to square up all our accounts, settle our indebtedness, and lay in a stock of necessaries for the approaching campaign. The winter, up to this time, has been cold and disagreeable, with considerable snow, and very much rain; as a result we have a good deal of typhoid malaria and measles. I have been down with a serious quinsy throat and pulled through with difficulty, Doctors McKim and Grant, our brigade surgeons, doing their utmost to bring me along. I am all over it now, and as strong as ever. We have got rid of the lieutenant colonel of the Fifty-seventh, who never served with us for some reason unknown. He resigned on the First of February and Major Parisen has succeeded to his rank, Captain Chapman, of company A, becomes major.
The road between the camp and Alexandria, over which come all the supplies, takes the cake for pure unadulterated badness. It frequently requires twelve mules to pull a wagon through some of the bad places, and I have really felt sometimes that horse and rider were about to end their career in an inglorious sea of mud. Alexandria is the Mecca for all officers and men who can possibly obtain a pass. It is a dilapidated old town, but now the streets are thronged with soldiers and army wagons, and almost every house with prostitutes. The shops are kept by Jews and almost everything for sale is for officers’ use. Here are immense magazines of stores of every description, and the traffic between the troops is incessant. To me it is a most forlorn looking spot, and I am always glad to get away from it.
Since the weather has improved somewhat, the scenes about us have become more exhilarating; the air is full of martial music, troops are constantly in motion, cavalry regiments coming in, or going out to the front, batteries at drill, and the ubiquitous infantryman everywhere, while the endless villages of little canvas houses cover the country in all directions, as far as the eye can reach. The panorama is, in fact, one to warm a soldier’s heart, and make a civilian die of envy. Almost every afternoon we take long rides, and have become acquainted with officers in all directions; frequently we go out to the debatable ground, and enjoy the freedom of the open country, tinged with the slightest danger to sharpen our wits. On one of these occasions a very funny incident occurred. Major Parisen, myself, and half a dozen other mounted officers were having a gallop which ended in a race; as we flew over the ground, the road suddenly turned down quite a steep hill, but our speed was such that it was impossible to check it; at the foot of the hill were a dozen or more cavalrymen, their horses backed up together, facing outwards, and every man with his revolver cocked and leveled at us; as we rushed down the hillside we were making a great noise and laughter, or I expect they would have fired at us, thinking we were charging them; we were agreeably surprised to find we all belonged to the same army; if it had been otherwise our frolic might have ended disastrously.
On one of these excursions we stopped at a large, deserted mansion, dismounted and went over the house. In one of the rooms I read, written on a pane of glass with a diamond, “Left dear old home June 25, 1861, to be occupied by soldiers. Jennie” Poor Jennie; I am afraid she will be a stranger to her ancestral halls for many weary months.
The general has got a new aide-de-camp, Plume, from one of the New Jersey regiments, and Willie, the general’s son, has been commissioned second lieutenant in my regiment, and appointed aide-de-camp and now sports a uniform. On the Sixteenth of February we received an order to detail a lot of men for service on the western gunboats; twenty-eight men responded to the circular for able-bodied boatmen, and the following day they were shipped to their new field of duty. Lately we have been drilling every afternoon by brigade, marching out into some large fields, a mile or two in advance of the camp. The general is superb on the drill ground, and handles the brigade with consummate skill. He keeps his staff flying over the ground in all directions, and to see us go one would think the welfare of the army depended upon us getting there. Occasionally he goes himself like a whirlwind across the field, followed by all his retinue, and looks like a true son of Mars. We think these drills superb; the men get pretty well tired out, but all of us have learned much, and now it is easy to perform the most intricate movements. Since Willie’s appointment he has quartered with me, and I like to have him in the tent. He is a singular genius, thin, tall, pale-faced, almost wholly without education; having been born and brought up on the plains, he knows nothing of books, but is perfectly at home in everything belonging to a horse, and can ride anything with or without a saddle, and can do many difficult feats that we have never seen before; he aquired this skill in riding Indian horses and mustangs on the plains when a small boy.
_______
Note: This part of the “diary” is more of a recollection than a day by day diary. I am splitting it up for posting on Daily Observations from the Civil War at what appear to be appropriate points; these may differ somewhat from actual historical records.
