is Board for a second lieutenancy.

Saw General Garfield yesterday; he was in bed sick. I have no fears of
his immediate dissolution; in fact, I think he could avail himself of a
twenty-day leave. I know if I were no worse than he appears to be, I
would, with the permission of the general commanding, undertake to ride
the whole distance home on horseback, and swim the rivers. In a little
over a week I think my wife would see me, and the black horse, followed
by the pepper-and-salt colt, charging up to the front door in such style
as would remind her of the days of chivalry and the knights of the olden
time. I should cry out in thunder tones, "Ho! within! Unbar the door!"
The colt would kick up his heels with joy at sight of the grass in the
yard, while the black would champ his bit with impatience to get into a
comfortable stall once more. Altogether the sight would be worth
seeing; but it will not be seen.

The Board holds its sessions in the office of an honorable Mr. Turney,
who left on our approach for a more congenial clime, and left suddenly.
His letters and papers are lying around us in great confusion and
profusion. Among these we have discovered a document bearing the
signatures of Jeff. Davis, John Mason, Pierre Soule, and others,
pledging themselves to resist, by any and every means, the admission of
California, unless it came in with certain boundaries which they
prescribed. The document was gotten up in Washington, and Colonel
Parkhurst says it is the original contract.

Dined with Colonel D. H. Gilmer, Thirty-eighth Illinois. Dinner
splendid; corn, cabbage, beans; peach, apple, and blackberry pie; with
buttermilk and sweetmilk. It was a grand dinner, served on a snow-white
table-cloth. Where the Colonel obtained all these delicacies I can not
imagine. He is an out-and-out Abolitionist, and possibly the negroes had
favored him somewhat.

Colonel Gilmer is delighted to find the country coming around to his
ideas. He believes the Lord, who superintends the affairs of nations,
will give us peace in good time, and _that time_ will be when the
institution of slavery has been rooted up and destroyed. He is a
Kentuckian by birth, and says he has kinfolks every-where. He is the
only man he knows of who can find a cousin in every town he goes to.

9. Dined with Colonel Taylor. Colonels Hobart, Nicholas, and Major
Craddock were present. After dinner we adjourned to my quarters, where
we spent the afternoon. Hoba