Page:The Immortal Six Hundred.djvu/176

   rations for a fact. But, alas, we were to be rudely awakened from this happy dream. Colonel Brown informed us his requisition had been ignored by Gen. J. G. Foster, commandant of the department, and he (Brown) was ordered to issue to us ten ounces of corn meal and one-half pint of onion pickle each twenty-four hours, as a ration, without salt meat, grease, or vegetables. Ten ounces of corn meal, one-half pint of pickle—nothing more. No fuel but twelve sticks of pine cord wood for each division of twenty-eight men. The order, he said, was peremptory, leaving him no discretion whatever, and he was powerless in the matter. It must be said of Colonel Brown and his officers that they were gentlemen, and when he made the promise to treat us humanely and kindly he intended to keep his promise to the letter. The officers and men of the 127th New York (our guards) never failed to show their disgust for General Foster and his brutal corn meal order. No one but a