asked what this all meant, and I told him to be calm, and I would fix
everything. I got down off the bench and approached the sergeant,
to argue the thing. I found that he was, a colored man, and that his
soldiers were also colored troops. This was the unkindest cut of all.
I could stand it to be arrested by white soldiers, but the sending of a
lot of "niggers" after us white fellows was more than human nature could
bear. We had most of us been Democrats before enlisting, and had never
looked upon the colored man with that respect that we learned to
do, later. I went up to the sergeant, as brave as I could, and said,
"Look-a-here, boss, you have made a dreadful mistake. We are gentlemen,
enjoying ourselves, and this interruption on your part will cost you
dear. Now go away with your men, quietly, and I promise you, on
the honor of a gentleman, that I will not report you, and have you
punished," and I looked at him in a tone of voice that I thought
would convince him that I was a friend if he should go away, but if he
remained it would be at his peril.

He said he didn't want any foolishness, or some of us would get hurt,
and just then one of the Irish recruits, who had tried to skin out the
back way, got jabbed in the pants by a bayonet, and he began to howl
and cuss the "niggers." The sergeant called up half a dozen of his sable
guard, and they surrounded me and some of the boys. Our guests were
becoming frightened, ladies had put on-their wraps, and there was a good
deal of confusion, when I shouted, "Boys, are we going to submit to
this insult on the part of a lot of nigger field hands? Never! To the
rescue!" Well, they didn't "to the rescue" worth a cent. A colored man
with a bayonet had every recruit's breast at the point of his weapon,
three soldiers surrounded me, and one run his bayonet through the breast
of my coat and out under my arm, and held me on my tip-toes, and I
was powerless, except with my mouth. The old gentleman, our most
distinguished guest, came up to me, and I said to him, in confidence,
so our guests could hear, however, with a smile, "This may seem to you a
singular proceeding. I cannot explain it to you now, as I am pledged to
secrecy by my government, but I will say that the duty we are on here is
part of a well-laid plan of our commander, and this seeming arrest is
a part of the plan. This colored sergeant is innocent. He is simply
obeying orders, and is a humble instrument in carrying out o