armies
without conditions, except such as were dictated by General Grant
--to go home and be at peace.

During the entire war Washington was a military camp. Almost every
regiment from the north on the way to the army in Virginia stopped
for a time in Washington. This was especially the case in 1861.
It was usual for every new regiment to march along Pennsylvania
Avenue to the White House. Among the early arrivals in the spring
of 1861 was a regiment from New Hampshire, much better equipped
than our western regiments. My colleague, Ben Wade, and I went to
the White House to see this noted regiment pass in review before
Mr. Lincoln. As the head of the line turned around the north wing
of the treasury department and came in sight, the eyes of Wade fell
upon a tall soldier, wearing a gaudy uniform, a very high hat, and
a still higher cockade. He carried a baton, which he swung right
and left, up and down, with all the authority of a field marshal.
Wade, much excited, asked me, pointing to the soldier: "Who is
that?" I told him I thought that was the drum major. "Well," he
said, "if the people could see him they would make him a general."
So little was then known of military array by the wisest among our
Senators.

It was quite a habit of Senators and Members, during the war, to
call at the camps of soldiers from their respective states.
Secretary Chase often did this and several times I accompanied him.
The "boys," as they preferred to be called, would gather around
their visitors, and very soon some one would cry out "a speech, a
speech," and an address would usually be made. I heard very good
speeches made in this way, and, in some cases, replied to by a
private soldier in a manner fully as effective as that of the
visitor.

In the early period of the war the private soldier did not forget
that he was as good as any man. One evening Major, afterwards
Major-General, Robert S. Granger and I were strolling through "Camp
Buckingham," near Mansfield, Ohio, and came to a young soldier
boiling beans. He was about to take them off the fire when Granger
said: "My good fellow, don't take off those beans; they are not
done." The young soldier squared himself and with some insolence
said: "Do you think I don't know how to boil beans?" Granger,
with great kindness of manner, said: "If you had eaten boiled
beans in the army as many years as I have you would know it is
better to leave them in the pot all night wi