horse-tailor."

AUGUST, 1862.

1. The Judge-Advocate, Captain Swayne, was unwell this morning. The
court, therefore, took a recess until three o'clock. Captain Edgerton's
case was disposed of last evening. Colonel Mihalotzy's will come before
us to-day. A court-martial proceeds always with due respect to red tape.
The questions to witnesses are written out; the answers are written
down; the statement of the accused is in writing, and the defense of the
accused's counsel is written; so that the court snaps its fingers at
time, as if it were of no consequence, and seven men, against whom there
are no charges, are likely to spend their natural lives in investigating
seven men, more or less, against whom there are charges. It is thus the
rebels are being subjugated, the Union re-united, the Constitution and
the laws enforced.

3. Among the curiosities in camp are two young coons and a pet opossum.
The latter is the property of Augustus Caesar, the esquire of Adjutant
Wilson. Caesar restrains the opossum with a string, and looks forward
with great pleasure to the time when he will be fat enough to eat. The
coons are just now playing on the wild cherry tree in front of my tent,
and several colored boys are watching them with great interest. One of
these, a native Alabamian, tells me "de coon am a great fiter; he can
wip a dog berry often; but de possum can wip de coon, for he jist takes
one holt on de coon, goes to sleep, an' nebber lets go; de coon he
scratch an' bite, but de possum he nebber min'; he keeps his holt, shuts
his eyes, and bimeby de coon he knocks under. De she coon am savager dan
de he coon. I climbed a tree onct, an' de she coon come out ob her hole
mitey savage, an' I leg go, an' tumbled down to de groun', and like ter
busted my head. De she coon am berry savage. De possum can't run berry
fast, but de coon can run faster'n a dog. You can tote a possum, but you
can't tote a coon, he scratch an' bite so."

The gentlemen of the South have a great fondness for jewelry, canes,
cigars, and dogs. Out of forty white men thirty-nine, at least, will
have canes, and on Sunday the fortieth will have one also. White men
rarely work here. There are, it is true, tailors, merchants, saddlers,
and jewelers, but the whites never drive teams, work in the fields, or
engage in what may be termed rough work.

Judging from the number of stores and present stocks, Huntsville, in the
better times, does a heavier retail