from the water.

After a stay of precisely six weeks at Newport News, during which time
nothing of very great importance transpired in the Ninth Army Corps,
all of which were encamped at this delightful place, the Second
Brigade, of which the Twelfth was a part, was ordered to the far-off
city of Lexington, Kentucky. Our regiment at once embarked on the
steamer Long Island for Baltimore, whence we were to go by rail to the
West. Some of the scenes on board that steamer at night were ludicrous
in the extreme. I have heard of one's "hair standing seven ways for
Sunday," of things being "at sixes and sevens," and "all heads and
points," but I must aver that the packing of the men on that boat
exceeded anything I had ever seen in the way of mixing up human beings.
They bestowed themselves in every conceivable position. It was almost an
impossibility to go three steps without causing some one to cry out,
"Keep off from me!" or, "O, my fingers!" an oath generally preceding the
expression, just for the sake of making it emphatic. The head of a
soldier might frequently be seen mixed in with the feet of two or three
of his immediate neighbors. And in one case I discovered two men lying
directly under one of the horses, fast asleep. I soon ascertained,
however, that they had been imbibing too freely of poor whiskey, and
that therefore there was probably little immediate danger from their
situation.

A sail of sixteen hours brought us to Baltimore, and a ride of three
hundred and forty miles over the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad took us to
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where we arrived at twelve o'clock on Saturday
night, March twenty-eighth, tired and hungry. To our great joy we were
immediately invited into the large and beautifully decorated hall
occupied by the Soldiers' Relief Society, where we found a splendid
supper awaiting us. There were twelve tables, each running the entire
length of the hall, each arranged to accommodate one hundred men, and
all richly laden with an abundance of delicious food and fruit.
Compliments were few and exceedingly brief, but the rattle of crockery
and knives and forks was long and continuous. The Seventh Rhode Island
was in the hall at the same time, and you may be assured that Little
Rhody showed an unbroken front here, as she had already done under more
trying circumstances elsewhere. Suspended from the front of the platform
was the following in large letters: "PITTSBURGH WELCOMES HER COUNTRY'S