t morning, and when the steamship headed for the
wharf the men very readily fell in at the order, supposing they were to
have their own way and not be sent south. The wharf was then where it is
now, between the Chamberlain and Hygeia Hotels, though neither of those
hotels were there at the time. Approaching the wharf we saw the garrison
of Ft. Monroe drawn up in line about 150 feet from the beach, on the
exact spot where the Hygeia Hotel was afterward built. They were facing
the water, and when my regiment went ashore it was marched in between the
garrison and the water, and then the order was given to ground arms. Many
obeyed the order at once, but many hesitated and looked back at the
garrison, and then all laid down their arms. They were at once marched
back on board the ship, and the ship returned to her anchorage above the
Rip Raps. This was the first and last time I ever saw Gen. Nelson A.
Miles. He was a tall, handsome, blonde complexioned young man of about 25
years of age, who wore the straps of a Major-General with dignity and
honor. When the ship returned to her moorings the men at first seemed
dazed, but as the day wore on they became more and more unruly, and
presently we found they had broken into the hold of the ship into the
sutler's stores and were all hands getting wild drunk. They were shut out
from this, but they already had a good supply hidden under their skins and
elsewhere, and they went wild. Just about sunset a big pock-marked mulatto
got on top of the pilot house near the bows of the ship and was haranguing
the crowds on the deck below him, when he turned, and, shaking his fist at
the group of officers on the quarter deck, he said, "You damned white
livered ---- of ---- we will throw you overboard," at which a great howl
went up from his audience, whereupon three of the officers with their
revolvers in their hands forced their way through the crowd and jerked the
orator off the pilot house and dragged him back on the quarterdeck where
Capt. Whiteman, of Xenia, Ohio, put his pistol to his breast and told him
to hold up his hands and put his thumbs together. We were going to swing
him up to the rigging by his two thumbs, but the fellow simply folded his
arms and looked at his captors with an air of drunken bravado. Whiteman
told him three times to hold up his hands, but he made no motion to obey
and Whiteman fired. I was standing at Whiteman's left and was looking the
man in the face when the shot