ies, so to speak, of the great armies up the James, and of
the great naval establishment which we at that time had. Its inhabitants
were chiefly gamblers, thieves, saloon keepers and prostitutes, and out
in the roads lay the fleets of France, Great Britain, Russia and the
United States, and when the sailors got shore leave, things at times got
very hot; in fact, on two or three occasions we were obliged to fire on
the fighting mobs in the streets to disentangle them.

After Lee's surrender all the colored troops in the East were collected at
City Point and organized into the 25th Corps. It was understood we were
going to Mexico to fight the French and Maximillian, but strange stories
got around among the colored troops. The story being that the Government
was going to send them south to work on the cotton plantations to pay the
national debt, and many went to their officers to ask if it was true, and,
being assured there was no truth in it, would declare themselves
satisfied; but a marked change came over them, and they became sullen and
disobedient.

This increased, and when half of my regiment was put on a small, light
draft river steamer, to go down the James River to Hampton Roads, they
went aboard with no good grace and we had only begun our journey down the
river when the men on the lower deck began firing at objects on the shore.
I was on the upper deck, and, drawing my revolver, started down to stop
the firing, but I had got but half way down when a dozen carbines were put
to my head and breast, and I was told that I could kill one man, but it
would be the last one I ever would kill, and hundreds were standing around
with their carbines in their hands. The argument was convincing, and I
returned to the upper deck. Shortly after they either run out of
ammunition or got tired of the sport, as they ceased firing. When we got
to Hampton Roads and went on board the steamship Meteor, which was to take
us to Texas, we found that the other half of the regiment had also
mutinied on their way down the river, and when the whole regiment got
together on the decks of the Meteor and compared notes of what they had
done, they just went wild, and, refusing to obey all orders, began raising
the devil generally. It was already dark when we went on board the Meteor,
and during the night word was sent to Gen. Nelson A. Miles, the commandant
of Ft. Monroe. He sent orders for the regiment to land at the wharf at
eight o'clock the nex