nted and fought guerillas a
hundred times, perhaps much oftener, for it was a regular daily service
at the front. Once during a retreat, Baldwin (eighteen or nineteen years
of age) fell out of rank so often to engage in hand-to-hand sword
conflicts with rebel cavalrymen, that his brother detached four to take
him prisoner and keep him safe. Daring spirits among our soldiers often
became very fond of this kind of duelling, in which the rebs were not a
whit behind them, and two of the infantry on either side would, under
cover of the bushes, aim and pop away at one another perhaps for hours,
like two red Indians.

I have forgotten whether it was with extra whisky, coffee, or money that
we specially gratified our corporal and guard; but Baldwin, who was "one
of 'em," informed me that they enjoyed this little outing immensely, just
like a picnic, and had a good time. From which it may be inferred that
men's ideas of enjoyment are extremely relative. It could not have been
in the dodging of guerillas--to that they were accustomed; perhaps it was
the little extra ration, or the mystery of the excursion, for they were
much puzzled to know what I wanted, why I examined the road and rocks,
and all so strangely, and went into the very worst place in all the land
to do so. Baldwin Colton himself had been so knocked about during the
war, and so starved as a prisoner in Southern hands, that he looked back
on a sojourn in that _ergastulum_, Libby Prison, as rather an oasis in
his sad experiences. "It wasn't so bad a place as some, and there was
good company, and always _something to eat_." The optimist of Candide
was a Mallock in mourning compared to this.

That night we came to somebody's plantation. I forget his name, but he
was a Union man, probably a _very_ recent acquisition, but genial. He
had read the _Knickerbocker_, and knew my name well, and took good care
of us. In the morning I offered him ten dollars for our night's lodging,
which was, in the opinion of my two captains, stupendously liberal, as
soldiers never paid. Our host declined it like a Southern planter, on
the ground that he never sold his hospitality. So I put the money into
the hand of one of his pretty children as a present. But as we rode
forth we were called back, and reminded that we had forgotten to pay for
the _soldiers_! I gave another five-dollar greenback and rode away
disgusted. And at the gate a negro girl begged us to give her a "dalla