ch been conducted as it was
ordered to have been, it might have enjoyed the trip. All the
inhabitants came out to see the Yankees; the old and young, the white
and black, came from far and near to get a view. The regiment now set
to work after its usual manner in the erection of comfortable quarters,
which it had completed in a short time, and then took the world easy.
It was encamped in a vicinity made renowned by the wars of the great
rebellion, where the contending forces of the Rebel and Union armies
had maneuvered for so long a time for the mastery.

At this camp, it will be remembered, the commanding officers issued a
deal of their surplus whisky to the division, which proved the
harbinger of rows, riots, fights of a stirring and noisy kind, too
numerous to mention. After four days rest, the division resumed its
march for Washington City early on the morning of the 11th of May, and
passing through Manchester, crossed the James river and entered the
city of Richmond from the south-west. Now, for the first time, it
beheld the once great Rebel Capital--the anaconda and boa-constrictor
of rebel vengeance. When the command reached the north side of the
James, the Libby prison could be seen on the right, where so many of
our captured soldiers have languished and died under the cruel care of
its keeper. Then, a short distance above the Libby, and on the same
side of the street, stood Castle Thunder, also a place of infamous
reputation. Passing on, it was met by hundreds of peddlers dealing out
their pies, cakes, cheese, and such, by the wholesale. The city did not
show the ravages of war as much as was expected; true, a part of it had
been burnt on its evacuation, but aside from this there was nothing to
show that it had been so long the theatre of war; neither racked nor
ruined, but compact, neat and clean.

All were surprised not to see huge entrenchments, high as the Chinese
walls; but alas! there was nothing but an ordinary line of works around
it, no stronger than the Eighty-sixth had often made on the Atlanta
campaign in one night! "As strong as Richmond" had become a by-word. In
front of Kenesaw, the Chattahoochie and Atlanta, may be found stronger
works by far, thrown up in just one mortal night, than are to be seen
on the south-west and north of Richmond.

Jeff. Davis, in his Sodom and Gomorrah of the Confederacy, was not as
secure as many were wont to think. Sherman would have snaked him out
sooner than he d