Page:The Galaxy, Volume 5.djvu/741

1868.] stopping it. Yes, compared with the incessant anguish of going, there was a keen luxury in the act of throwing one's self at full length, and remaining motionless. It was a beast's heaven; but it was better than a beast's hell—insupportable fatigue and pain. The march done, the fevered feet bare to the evening breeze, the aching limbs outstretched, the head laid on the blanket roll which had been such a burden through the day, the pipe in mouth, nature revived a little and found that life retained some sweetness. Delicious dreams, too—dreams wonderfully distinct and consecutive—made slumber a conscious pleasure. All night I was at home surrounded by loving faces. No visions of war or troubles; no calling up of the sufferings of the day, nor anticipation of those of the morrow; nothing but home, peace, and friends. I do not know why this should be, but I have always found it so when quite worn out with fatigue, and I have heard others say that it was their experience.

I have already said that we were en bivouac. Shelter-tents were as yet unknown in the Department of the Gulf, and our wall-tents, as well as every other article of not absolutely essential baggage, had been left at Brashear City. For cover, our servants made hasty wigwams or lean-tos of rails, over which we threw our rubber blankets to keep out the "heft" of the showers. If it rained we sat up with our overcoats over our heads, or perhaps slept through it without minding. Not until August, more than three months later, did we again enjoy the shelter of a tent; and during that time we had only two brief opportunities for providing ourselves with board shanties. Meantime we became as dirty and ragged as beggars, and eventually as lousy.

For some time I supposed that what I ate was the free gift of the colored population, and rejoiced in the gratitude of the emancipated slaves who shared their food with their deliverers. My man George, a sly and slippery darkey, brought in sheep, chickens and corn-dodgers, saying that they had been given to him. Given they were, but by the providence of war, and not by the willing hands of emancipated men and brethren. George, representative of hungry Mars, entered whatever dwelling came handiest, whether of white or black, and took therefrom whatever was good to eat without offering to pay or consulting the inclination of the proprietor. I soon discovered this, but I had not the stomach to stop it. To march without food was impossible, and to buy without money was equally out of the question.

Let me suggest, in passing, that the irregular payments of the army were a fruitful source of demoralization. The officer cannot draw rations, and if his money is withheld from him for six or eight or twelve months, as was frequently the case, he must allow his servant to forage for him, or he must starve. If he forages, the men will follow the example, although not driven by the same necessity, inasmuch as they are provided with food and clothing. The result is widespread straggling and often atrocious plundering.

Our negro attendants who had come with us from New Orleans or the vicinity, seemed not to have the slightest scruple about robbing their country brethren. A large, elderly, reverend-looking follower of my company, named Prince, valet to one of my corporals, executed the following swindle upon the enfranchised population of "the green Opelousas." Mounted on a sore-backed mule, he pushed ahead of the column, entered the negro cabins by the roadside and requested the inmates to hand over their Confederate money.

Tan't wuth nothing now," he explained, "and I'se the man that General Banks has sent ahead to take it up, and when he comes along he'll give you the greenbacks fur it."