d left the city without
any other defense except our company of cavalry; but as we had
buried our arms and cut the brass buttons off our beautiful brown
corduroy suits, the citizens hadn't as much confidence in our
ability to defend as they had when the enemy was five hundred miles
away. The merchants expected that the Yankees would sack the city,
so they threw open their stores and told everybody to take all they
wanted. Bush was boarding with me at the time, and as he was one
of the biggest eaters in the world, I wanted more than I could
carry; so I hired a dray (for which I had to pay $10), and loaded
it down to the guards. We put on a hogshead of sugar, twenty-five
hams, a sack of coffee, box of tea, firkin of butter, barrel of
potatoes, some hominy, beans, canned fruits, etc. I would have
put on more, but the dray wouldn't hold it; and as the load started
up Canal Street, I thought, when Bush gets away with all that stuff,
I'll make him change his boarding-house. After laying in my stock,
I went down to the river to see the fleet come in, and there were
all of our company, but they did not make the slightest resistance.
The Captain said, "It's no use trying to bluff them fellows, for
they have got a full hand."

BUTLER IN NEW ORLEANS.

General Butler took possession of the city the 1st day of May,
1862. His troops gutted the banks, but did not molest the merchants;
so those fellows that had given their stuff away were kicking
themselves for doing so. He closed up all the gambling-houses,
and then issued licenses for public gambling to any one who would
pay the fee and take his brother in as a partner. His profits must
have been enough to make him independently rich without the spoons.
He kept the city very clean, but old yellow-jack got in, and then
Ben got a furlough and went up to Washington, and he took the spoons
with him. He took the marble statue of Henry Clay out of the state-
house at Baton Rouge and shipped it to his home in Massachusetts.
He could not hide that as easily as he could the spoons, as after
the war the United States Government made him return it, and that
nearly killed him.

I had the race-track, and was running games out at the lake. I
was making a great deal of money, and would work the boats when I
had time. Some one told Butler that I called him names, so he sent
for me, and threatened to send me to Tortugas, but I talked him
out of that. Some of his officers lost their