of fortifications. I
commanded 19,000 men at the battle of the Wilderness and saw many of the
great engineering works of the Civil war, but I do not believe that a
hundred thousand men in a hundred thousand years could construct such
fortifications." This will give the reader a faint idea of the lava
beds. Indeed a regiment of men could conceal themselves in its caves and
fissures and ten thousand men could be marched over them without seeing
a man.

Placing the wounded in ambulances we now broke camp and started to our
camp at Van Bremer's ranch. After a tiresome march by way of Lower
Klamath Lake, the wounded men undergoing terrible sufferings, we reached
camp at 11 o'clock that night. Here another difficulty confronted us.
Our provision train had not arrived and we were reduced to beef
straight. There was some murmuring among the men, kept up and agitated
by a doctor attached to Kelley's company who told the men that they had
been robbed and swindled by the officers. Hearing of this I hunted him
up. He said that a "soldier did not dare to complain without being
called a s-of-a-b." Twenty or thirty volunteers were standing around. I
explained that the wagons had been two weeks on the road; that they had
made only ten miles in seven days; and that a man, private or officer
who would talk about asking for his discharge, though all were entitled
to the same, was a son of a b-h, and a d--d one at that. He went to Gen.
Ross and complained of my language, but was told that the "Colonel knew
what he was talking about." The disgruntled pill mixer mounted his horse
and left, and that was the last we heard about being discharged. We
continued feasting on beef straight and fattened on the diet, at least I
did.

The day after our return we buried the man I had seen shot through the
stomach, while crawling on his belly. Patrick Maher was buried with
military honors. On the fourth day the troops sent to relieve Col.
Bernard arrived at camp, and the reports all being in we found that 41
men had been killed in the fighting on the 16th and 17th of January. The
death of Patrick Maher made 42, besides a long list of wounded. When we
consider that there were not more than 500 engaged, counting McKay's
Indians, the loss was heavy, and would the Government endorse or censure
the officers, was the question.

As before stated, we were camped at the ranch of Van Bremer Bros. On our
return Col. Bellinger and I had to give up our quarters in