I saw the toughest, sleepiest looking lot of men next morning
that I had yet seen in my military service. They all seemed to have
colds. To add to our discomfort all the rations had been boxed and
marked for shipping, and we were without food for breakfast. Those who
had any money were allowed to go out and buy something to eat. It is
plain that if a man had no money he went without breakfast.

The men were all formed in line with gun, belt and knapsack, and were
kept standing ready to march at the command, until one o'clock in the
evening before taking up the march of three miles to the railroad
station. We marched through the city and to the station without a halt.
It seemed to me the hottest day I ever knew. It had been nearly
twenty-four hours since I had eaten, and I think my condition was no
worse than that of the whole regiment, with but very few exceptions.

We were in the city of New Orleans, and rations were plentiful, but it
seemed they were scarce for us. This, however, was only the beginning of
what we were to get accustomed to in a few months.

At two o'clock on the 25th day of May, our regiment boarded the cars of
the Southern Pacific Railroad and set out on its journey for San
Francisco. The regiment was divided into three sections for the journey,
which was made in six days.

The rations issued to us on this journey consisted of hard tack, canned
tomatoes, canned salmon, and last, but not least, nor more desirable,
canned horse meat. To use a soldier's expression, such "grub" is almost
enough to make a man sick to look at, but this made no difference, we
had to eat it.

I have seen a few people who seemed to think soldiers were not human
beings like other people. They thought they could endure anything and
would eat any kind of stuff for rations.

While eating supper one evening in our camp at New Orleans, the men
were seated in their usual manner on the open ground grouped around
their mess kits containing their rations; a young lady with her escort
was passing through the camp and observing the men eating supper,
remarked to her companion that the soldiers looked like men.

She had possibly never seen a soldier before.

At another time a man with two small boys were looking over our camp and
talking about the soldiers, when one of the little boys noticing the
soldiers eating, and seeming to be interested in their manner of eating,
said: "Papa, will soldiers eat hay?" His youthful curiosity ap