another down at the bridge where I sometimes purchased butter. The men were generally very anxious to have soft bread but it always seemed to me that without butter hard tack was much preferable.
I once employed the sutler to bring over from Harrisburg a package which mother wrote to me had been expressed. It contained a very large piece of dried beef, weighing several pounds, and a case of needles, pins, scissors, &c., all of which proved very useful to myself as well as others. The beef we cut in slices and Tom, the Captain's negro cook, loaned us his pans with which to fry it. Mike the company's cook, having from his position considerable power in the facility with which he could give burnt victuals and fat or bone for meat, was extremely insolent, and was also the filthiest man I ever had the misfortune to come in contact with. As an exemplification of the latter quality the following incident will serve. A New York regiment, encamped near us, had received their pay and returned home. Mike who was of an acquisitive disposition gathered up a quantity of underclothing they had left lying around their tents, but fearing that they might contain “greybacks,” or in other words “body lice,” he boiled them thoroughly in the camp kettles, and that very day we had bean soup for dinner made in the same vessels. Let any one imagine how his feelings would be galled at being compelled to carry water or do other like services for such a creature, and he can form an idea of some of the minor annoyances connected with a private's duties.
The Chaplain of the regiment had prayer and preaching very often in the evenings. There was a Presbyterian Minister from Erie, Pennsylvania, a private in one of the companies, who frequently entertained us with accounts of his travels in Europe, Asia and Africa, and also with
