company.

We are going out now, first of all to Michaud's for some of his
delicious biscuit glace! Our city friends are all away still, so there
will be nothing for us to do but wander around, pour passer le temps
until we go to the station.

MONONGAHELA HOUSE, PITTSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA, September, 1877.

ONCE again we have our trunks packed for the long trip to Montana, and
this time I think we will go, as the special train that is to take us
is now at the station, and baggage of the regiment is being hurriedly
loaded. Word came this morning that the regiment would start to-night,
so it seems that at last General Sherman has gained his point. For
three long weeks we have been kept here in suspense--packing and then
unpacking--one day we were to go, the next we were not to go, while the
commanding general and the division commander were playing "tug of war"
with us.

The trip will be long and very expensive, and we go from a hot climate
to a cold one at a season when the immediate purchase of warm clothing
is imperative, and with all this unexpected expense we have been forced
to pay big hotel bills for weeks, just because of a disagreement between
two generals that should have been settled in one day. Money is very
precious to the poor Army at present, too, for not one dollar has been
paid to officers or enlisted men for over three months! How officers
with large families can possibly manage this move I do not see--sell
their pay accounts I expect, and then be court martialed for having done
so.

Congress failed to pass the army appropriation bill before it adjourned,
consequently no money can be paid to the Army until the next session!
Yet the Army is expected to go along just the same, promptly pay Uncle
Sam himself all commissary and quartermaster bills at the end of each
month, and without one little grumble do his bidding, no matter what the
extra expense may be. I wonder what the wise men of Congress, who were
too weary to take up the bill before going to their comfortable homes--I
wonder what they would do if the Army as a body would say, "We are
tired. Uncle, dear, and are going home for the summer to rest. You will
have to get along without us and manage the Indians and strikers the
best way you can." This would be about as sensible as forcing the Army
to be paupers for months, and then ordering regiments from East to West
and South to North. Of course many families will be compelled to remain
back, that