or his beer by giving three cheers for the
Union. He had to put up cash. I confess that his remarks made quite an
impression on me, as I had not thought of it in that light before. I
proposed that we give three cheers for Oppenheimer, which was done, and
I thought that would settle it, but he insisted on having cash. I told
the boys, and they said he was a rebel. I told Oppenheimer, and he got
out a wooden bung-starter, and said he could clean out the whole party.
Finally we compromised, in this way. We had given two rounds of cheer,
one for the Union and one for Oppenheimer, which were a total loss, so
it was agreed that if Oppenheimer would give three cheers for the Union
and three for us we would pay him for the beer, if he would agree to set
'em up for us, at his own expense. He agreed, and then we tried to
get him to onset the beer he was going to give us, for the beer we had
drank, and not pay him for that we had consumed. That, to any business
man, we thought, would seem fair, but he wouldn't have it. So, after
he had returned our cheers to us, we paid him, and then he treated.
I mention this to show the hardships of a soldier's life, and the
difficulties of inculcating business methods into the minds of the
saloon-keepers. Oppenheimer meant well, but he did not appreciate cheers
for the Union. He got so, after that when we came in his saloon, in a
gang, he would say, "Poys, of you dondt gif any jeers fun dot Union, I
set'em oop," and we would swallow our cheers for the Union, and his beer.

The next day after the battle of the rats, an order was issued for the
recruits to board the steamer "City of Memphis," and go down the river
to join our several regiments, in the vicinity of New Orleans. In a
few hours we had drawn rations to last a week, and were on board the
steamer, and had started down stream. I think every soldier that is now
alive will remember that when he took his first trip on a transport, as
a recruit, during the war, he labored under the impression that he owned
the boat, or at least a controlling interest in it. That was a very
natural feeling. The opinions of the steamboat officials, it will
be remembered, were different. I had never been on a large steamboat
before, and after tying my knapsack and other baggage to a wood-pile
on the lower deck, after I had vainly attempted to induce the proper
official to give me checks for my baggage, I began to climb up stairs,
and soon found myself on top of