for in a short time a
notice was tacked on the foot of the stairs, stating that all enlisted
men were forbidden from occupying any portion of the boat except the
lower deck, and if one was found above that deck, he would be turned
over to the first army post, a prisoner. So we remained on the lower
deck, and took it out abusing the officers, and hoping the boat would
blow up. But the scenery was just as nice from the lower deck.

CHAPTER XXV.

Our Party of Recruits own the Earth--We Live High, Give a
Ball, and go to the Guard-House--And are Arrested by Colored
Troops.

Let's see, I forget whether I have ever told about getting strung up on
a bayonet, near New Orleans, when I first went south as a recruit. It
was before I had joined my regiment, and I was with a gang of recruits,
all looking for the regiments we had enlisted in. We had come down from
St. Louis on a steamboat, our regiments being scattered all over the
Department of the Gulf. We were not in any particular hurry to find our
regiments, as the longer we kept away from them the less duty we would
have to do. I do not think, out of the whole forty recruits, there was
one who was in the least hurry to find his regiment, and none of them
would have known their regiments if they had seen them, unless somebody
told them. They had enlisted just as it happened, all of them hoping the
war would be over before they found where they belonged. They didn't know
anybody in their respective regiments, hence there were no ties binding
them. But they had been together for several months, as recruits, until
all had got well acquainted, and if they could have been formed into
a company, for service together, they might have done pretty good
fighting. The crowd was becoming smaller, as every day or two some
recruit would come and bid us all good bye. He had actually stumbled on
to his regiment, and when the officers of an old regiment, in examining
recruits, found one assigned to his regiment, he never took his eyes
off the recruit until he was landed. I have seen some very affecting
partings, when one of our gang would find where he belonged and had to
leave us, perhaps never to meet again. The gang was rapidly dropping
apart, and when we got to New Orleans there were only twenty or so
left. We reported to the commanding officer, and he quartered us at
Carrollton, near the city, in what had once been a beer-garden and
dance-house. We slept on the floor