and ornaments,
that you could not tell whether I was a drum-major or a brigadier-general;
that accounted for the salutations and looks of astonishment I received.

The first night I was tired out and started for Alexandria; arrived at
headquarters about midnight, and told the sentry I must see the colonel.
He thought I had important messages, or was some officer, and escorted me
to the colonel's quarters. I woke him up, told him I had reported and
wanted a bed.

The colonel said, "Is that all you want? Corporal, put this man in the
guard-house." He did!

That was my first experience, and I always after tried to avoid
guard-houses. The next morning I was given a broom and put to sweeping
around camp with about twenty tough-looking customers. The broom did not
look well with my uniform, and as soon as an officer noticed me, I was
summoned before the colonel in command. He asked, what I was? I told him I
didn't know yet--would not know 'till I reached my regiment. He had a
hearty laugh at my appearance; said I ought to be sent to some fair
instead of the front. However, he detailed me as his orderly. I held this
position some time, until one day there was going to be a squad of
recruits, and returned furloughed men sent on a steam-barge to the front
at City Point, where Butler was bottled up. I asked to be one of them. The
colonel told me I was foolish, and better stay with him, but I insisted;
and he allowed me to go. The barge was a kind of an open double-deck boat
without cabin or shelter, and they crowded us on to her as thick as we
could stand; we were like sardines. I secured a position against the
smoke-stack, and before we reached Chesapeake bay I was glad of it, for it
became bitterly cold, and I curled down around this smoke-stack, went to
sleep, and when I awoke in the morning I was crisp, dirty, and nearly
roasted alive. We crossed the bay in the afternoon. Oh, wasn't it rough!
This old river barge would roll and pitch out of sight at times, and we
were all wet from head to foot. Then I began to wish myself home on the
farm again; but I was in for it, and could not back out. I had one
thought that buoyed me up, the thought of meeting my brother.

That evening we passed by Fortress Monroe, up the James river. There was
not much transpired to relieve the monotony or appease our hunger or
thirst; in fact, it began to look dubious as to reaching City Point. The
monotony, however, was somewhat relieved in the mor