unt for them, old fellows, who a
week before would have been insulted if any one had told them they would
ever speak to a Yankee soldier. The second day the southern ladies, who
had kept indoors, came out and promenaded the beautiful streets, and
seemed to enjoy the sight of the bright uniforms, and before night
acquaintances had been made, and it did not cause any remark to see
Union officers and soldiers waiting with ladies, talking with animation,
and laughing pleasantly. It almost seemed, as though the war was over.

It was about this time that I stole my first horse. I had ridden horses
that had been "captured" from the enemy, in fair fights, and that had
been accumulated in divers ways by the quartermaster, and issued to the
men, but I never deliberately stole a horse. Two or three companies
of my regiment had gone off on a scout, to be gone a couple of days,
leaving the command at Montgomery, and one day we were encamped on an
old abandoned field, taking dinner. The horses and mules were grazing
near us, and there was no indication that any epidemic was about to
break out. We were about sixty miles from Montgomery, and were cooking
our last meal, expecting to make a forced march and be back before
morning. I had got the midday meal for Jim and myself cooked, the bacon,
sweet potatoes, coffee and so forth, and spread upon a horse blanket on
the ground, and we were just about to sit down to eat, when a mule that
had been browsing near us, and snooping into our affairs, attracted
our attention. All of a sudden the animal became rigid, and stood up as
stiff as possible, then its muscles relaxed, and it became limber, and
whirled around and brayed, backed up towards us, and as we rushed away
to keep from being kicked, the mule fell over in a fit directly on our
beautifully cooked dinner, rolled over on the bacon and potatoes and
coffee, and trembled and brayed, and died right there. I looked at Jim
and Jim looked at me. "Well, condam a mule, anyway," said Jim. "That
animal has been ready to die for two hours, and just to show its
cussedness, it waited until we had our dinner cooked, the last morsel we
had, and then it fell in a fit, and expired on our dining table." I made
some remark not complimentary to the mule as a member of society and
we went to the corpse and pulled it around to see if we couldn't save
a mouthful or two that could be eaten. We could not, as everything was
crushed into the ground. I suggested tha