e company strap them on to his saddle with the camp
kettles. He usually rode right behind the company, and I thought I could
get my things any time if I wanted to dress up. It was the hardest day's
march that I ever experienced, lungs full of dust, and every man so
covered with dust that you could not recognize your nearest neighbor.
Afternoon the command halted beside a stream, and it was announced that
we would go into camp for the night. The colored cook came along soon
after, and he was perfectly pale, whether from dust or fright I could
not tell, but he announced to me, in a manner that showed that he
appreciated the calamity which had befallen the command, that he had
lost my boots. I was going to kill him, but my carbine was full of dust,
and I made it a point never to kill a man with a dirty gun, so I let him
explain. He said:

"I fell back to de rear, by dat plantation where de cotton gin was
burning, to see if I couldn't get a canteen of buttermilk to wash de
dust outen my froat, when dat Dutch Noo Jersey gang come along, and de
boss he said, 'nicker, you got back ahead fere you pelong, or I gick you
in de pack mit a saber, aind't it,' and when I get on my mule to come
along he grab de boots and he say, 'nicker, dot boots is better for me,'
and when I was going to take dem away from him he stick me in de pants
wid a saber. Den I come away."

I could have stood up under having an arm shot off, but to lose my boots
was more than I could bear. It never did take me long to decide on any
important matter, and in a moment I decided to invade the camp of
that New Jersey regiment, recapture my boots or annihilate every last
foreigner on our soil, so I started off, barefooted, without a coat, and
covered with dust, for the headquarters of the New Jersey fellows. They
had been in camp but a few minutes, but every last one of them had taken
a bath in the river, brushed the dust off his clothes, and looked ready
for dress parade. That was one fault of those foreigners, they were
always clean, if they had half a chance. I went right to the colonel's
tent, and he was surrounded with officers, and they were opening bottles
of beer, and how cool it looked. There was something peculiar about
those foreigners, no matter if they were doing duty in the most
inaccessible place in the south, and were short of transportation, you
could always find beer at their headquarters. I walked right in, and the
colonel was just blowing the f