st, and there were enough civilians who were
willing to pander to their appetites. The following extract from
Taliaferro's diary for March 22, 1831, is undoubtedly characteristic of
many a forgotten episode: "Nothing of importance transpired this day.
Two drunken Soldiers in crossing the SPeters broke through the Ice &
were near being drowned. They were exceeding alarmed & made a hedious
Noise & yelling for Assistance--the men from the Fort relieved them
although late at night." Not always was assistance on hand in
such circumstances. A report was made in March, 1840, of a certain
officer who "disappeared on the evening of the 5th of March, supposed to
have been drowned by falling through the ice."[235]

Drunkenness and absence from roll-call were among the infractions of
rules for which punishment was most often inflicted. The character and
severity of the punishment depended upon the mood of the commanding
officer. Colonel Snelling, who was usually a very gentle man, was
particularly severe in his treatment of offenders. "He would take them
to his room", wrote one who spent several years in the Snelling
household, "and compel them to strip, when he would flog them
unmercifully. I have heard them beg him to spare them, 'for God's
sake.'"[236] This punishment by flogging was often performed with a
"cat"--an instrument made of nine thongs about eighteen inches long,
knotted in every inch, and attached to a small stick. When the culprit
was stripped to the waist and tied to the flagstaff, the drummers took
turns in applying the "cat" to the bare back.[237]

Other officers used less painful methods. Thus, Major Loomis was known
as "Old Ring", since his favorite punishment was to place a log of wood
upon the prisoner's shoulder and compel him to walk around and around in
a circle under the vigilant eye of a sentinel. To Major John Bliss, who
was in command at Fort Snelling from 1833 to 1836, the name "Black
Starvation" might well have been applied. The negro servant, Hannibal,
who clandestinely sold spruce beer to the soldiers was confined
in the Black Hole for forty-eight hours; and Private Kelly, who refused
to do his part in the fatigue party spent more than seventy-two hours in
the Black Hole before the pangs of starvation persuaded him to promise
Major Bliss to be good in the future.[238] On one occasion, which may be
taken as typical of usual conditions, out of a total garrison of three
hundred and twenty-nine, twent