o resist the demoralizing influences around him,
which seemed to him a hell on earth. His wife's words followed him
"like a strain of music," and "the infinite purity of Jesus" was his
inspiring influence.

He made himself thoroughly acquainted with the New England regiments,
and studied the details in the "mosaic of the army." He became so
expert in studying the general composition of the regiments, their
physical appearance, and ways of life, peculiarities of thought,
speech, and action, that usually within five minutes he could tell
from what State, and usually from what locality a regiment had come.
He writes:

"A regiment from Vermont is as unlike a regiment from Pennsylvania
almost as a pea from a pumpkin. Both are excellent. Both are brave.
Both will fight well; but in the habits of life, in modes of doing a
thing, they are widely different."

"Just look at the division that crosses the Potomac, and see the
mosaic of McClellan's army. Commencing on the right there is McCall's
division, one grand lump of Pennsylvania coal and iron. There is
Smith's division, containing a block of Vermont marble; then Porter's
tough conglomerate of Pennsylvania, New York, Michigan, Massachusetts,
Maine, and Rhode Island; then McDowell's, a splendid specimen of New
York; then Blenker's, a magnificent contribution from Germany, with
such names as Stahl, Wurnhe, Amsburg, Bushbeck, Bahler, Steinwick,
Saest, Betje, Cultes D'Utassy, Von Gilsa, and Schimmelpfennig, who
talk the language of their Fatherland, sing the Rhine songs, and drink
a deluge of lager beer,--slow, sure, reliable men, of the stock that
stood undismayed when all things were against them, in the times of
Frederick the Great, who lost everything except courage, and, that
being invincible, regained all they had lost. Then there are the Irish
brigades and regiments from a stock which needs no words of praise,
for their deeds are written in history. Without enumerating all the
divisions, we see Yankees, Germans, Irish, Scotch, Italians,
Frenchmen, Norwegians, and Dutchmen,--all in one army; and, grandest
spectacle of all, moved by one common impulse to put down this
rebellion, and to save for all future time the principle upon which
this government is founded."

Weeks and months passed, and Carleton became acquainted with all the
minutiae of camp life. He studied the peculiarities of the sutler, the
army mule, the government rations, and the pies concocted in New York.