reminiscences can for a moment doubt.

Previous to this said event my sister Julia had been married to a
gentleman named J.A. Goodman, and they now came to reside at our
house and take charge of the children, as my mother had desired that
they should not be separated. Mr. Goodman became the guardian of the
minor children.

I soon left the home now rendered gloomy by the absence of her whom I had
so tenderly loved, and going to Leavenworth I entered upon a dissolute
and reckless life--to my shame be it said--and associated with gamblers,
drunkards, and bad characters generally. I continued my dissipation about
two months, and was becoming a very "hard case." About this time the
Seventh Kansas regiment, known as "Jennison's Jay-hawkers," returned from
the war, and re-enlisted and re-organized as veterans. Among them I met
quite a number of my old comrades and neighbors, who tried to induce me
to enlist and go south with them. I had no idea of doing anything of the
kind; but one day, after having been under the influence of bad whisky, I
awoke to find myself a soldier in the Seventh Kansas. I did not remember
how or when I had enlisted, but I saw I was in for it, and that it would
not do for me to endeavor to back out.

In the spring of 1864 the regiment was ordered to Tennessee, and we got
into Memphis just about the time that General Sturgis was so badly
whipped by General Forrest. General A. J. Smith re-organized the army to
operate against Forrest, and after marching to Tupalo, Mississippi, we
had an engagement with him and defeated him. This kind of fighting was
all new to me, being entirely different from any in which I had ever
before engaged. I soon became a non-commissioned officer, and was put on
detached service as a scout.

After skirmishing around the country with the rest of the army for some
little time, our regiment returned to Memphis, but was immediately
ordered to Cape Girardeau, in Missouri, as a confederate force under
General Price was then raiding that state. The command of which my
regiment was a part hurried to the front to intercept Price, and our
first fight with him occurred at Pilot Knob. From that time for nearly
six weeks we fought or skirmished every day.

I was still acting as a scout, when one day I rode ahead of the command,
some considerable distance, to pick up all possible information
concerning Price's movements. I was dressed in gray clothes, or Missouri
jeans, and on riding up