delay here of two or three days proved almost as
demoralizing as a campaign, and I, for one, was glad when the orders
came to move. For reasons that afterwards transpired, we dropped down
the stream some fifteen miles to a point called English Turn. It
derived its name, as I remember the tradition, from the fact that as
the commander of some English vessel was slowly making his way up what
was then an unknown and perhaps unexplored body of water, he was met
by some French explorer, coming from the opposite direction, who gave
him to understand that all the country he had seen in coming up the
river, was, by prior discovery, the rightful possession of the French
monarch. Though no Frenchman had perhaps seen it, yet with his facile
tongue he worked persuasion in the mind of the bluff Englishman, who
at this point, turned about and put out to sea--hence its name,
English Turn. We found here relics of very early times in the form of
an old earthwork, and an angle of a brick wall, built, when, and
whether by French or Spaniard, none could tell. Here we soon selected
a site and laid out our camp. The time rapidly passed in the busy
occupations which each day brought, in little excursions into the
surrounding country, in conversations with the colored people whose
sad memories of the old slavery days recalled so vividly the
experiences of Uncle Tom and his associates in Mrs. Stowe's famous
tale. Nor were the days unvaried by plenty of fun. Music, vocal and
instrumental, we had in abundance. The mimic talents of our men, led
to the performance of a variety of entertainments, and in their
happy-go-easy dispositions, their troubles set very lightly on them.
Their extravagancies of expression were by no means an unremarkable
feature. When I at first heard their threats to each other, couched
sometimes in the most diabolical language, I had deemed it my duty at
once to rush into the company street and prevent what, among white
men, I would suppose to be the prelude to a bloody fight. "Oh,
Captain," would be the explanation, "we'se only a foolin'."

While here, we had a little flurry of snow, which reminded us of what
we had left in abundance behind, but which was a startling novelty to
the natives, few, if any, of whom, had ever seen anything like it
before. Their explanation was that the Yankees had brought it with
them. In the course of a week or two, an assistant Inspector-General
put in an appearance and gave us a pretty thoro