Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 39.djvu/131

 Defence of Spanish Fort. 119

peace still existed there. Coffee houses were in full blast where "coffee" could be bought for a dollar a cup, with an "ironclad" pie thrown in. Some of us had been paid and we indulged in reckless joy in boots at a cost of $ioo or so, or in "biled" linen shirts at a like fabulous sum. The band played in the city park and strenuous was the effort to get off from duty for a prome- nade there, or on "Government street," and truly inventive was the genius developed in the way of arranging or "getting up" toilets for the occasion.

DEFENDERS OF MOBILE.

One day orders came, to be ready to move at a moment's notice, and not long after we found ourselves on the bay, thread- ing the channel for the Eastern Shore. The enemy were ap- proaching Mobile by land and water. That was the occasion of our move. I remember we had a grand review in the streets of Alobile. Every one who could carry a gun was in the ranks. The artillerists were armed as infantry. I suppose there were 10,000 men under arms. The great majority of these were "odds and ends," fragments of other commands, boy militia, etc. ; a few were veteran troops. Our commander was Dabney FI. ]\Iaury, "every inch a soldier," but then there were not many inches of him. The soldiers called him "puss in boots," because half of his diminutive person seemed lost in a pair of the im- mense cavalry boots of the day. He was a wise and gallant officer. Other reinforcements accompanied us to Spanish Fort. I suppose the garrison, when attacked a few days after, amounted . to 2,100 men of all arms. General Randall Gibson, since then United States Senator from Louisiana, was in command. The force at Blakley was about 2,500 men under Gen. St. John Littell.

AT SPANISH FORT.

We found ourselves in a curious little tongue of high land jetting out into the bay in a southwesterly direction. This high land broke off abruptly in bluffs on the western or water side, leaving but a narrow margin of beach, while, on the eastern or