donable offense, and
would probably be hung, though I couldn't see as I had done much more
than the horse doctor told me to. Finally the officer of the day came
along and told the guards to get a rail and make me carry it. So they
got a rail and put it on my shoulder, and I carried it up and down the
camp, as a punishment for insulting the general. I thought they picked
out a pretty heavy rail, but I carried it the best I could for an hour,
when I threw it down and told the guards I didn't enlist to carry rails.
If the putting down of this rebellion depended on carrying fence rails
around the Southern Confederacy, and I had to carry the rails, the
aforesaid rebellion never would be put down. I said I would fight if I
had to, and be a hostler, and cook my own food, and sleep on the ground,
and try to earn my thirteen dollars a month, but there must be a line
drawn somewhere, and I drew it at transporting fences around the sunny
South. The guards were inclined to laugh at my determination, but they
said I could carry the rail or be tied up by the thumbs; and I said
they could go ahead, but if they hurt me I would bring suit against
the government. They were fixing to tie me up when the colonel of my
regiment rode up to see the general, and he got the guards to let up
on me till he could see the general. The general sent for me after the
colonel had talked with him, and they called me in and asked me how
I happened to be so fresh with the general; and I told them about the
horse doctors' advice as to how to get a furlough; and then they both
laughed, and said I owed the horse doctor one, and I must get even with
him. The colonel told the general who I was, that he had known me before
the war, and that I was all right only a little green, and that the boys
were having fun with me. The colonel told the general about my first
fight the first day of my service, and how I had, single-handed, put to
flight a large number of rebels, and the general got up and shook hands
with me, and said he forgave me for my impertinence, and gave me some
advice about letting the boys play it on me, and said I might go back
to my company. He was all smiles, and insisted on my taking a drink with
himself and the colonel. When I was about leaving his tent, I turned
to him and said: "Then I don't get any furlough?" "Not till the cruel
war is over," said the general, with a laugh, and I went away.

The guards treated me like a gentleman when they saw