osed enlisting, but my
father refused consent; and at that time youths under eighteen years
would not be accepted without the consent of parents. In July of the
following year, when the news of McClellan's retreat on the Peninsula
was published, I was satisfied that the Government would need more men,
and having carefully considered the matter, and being then eighteen
years of age, I decided to go without my father's consent. Seeing a
newspaper item to the effect that Captain Mallory, of the Harris Light
Cavalry, had arrived in New York, and proposed to enlist some men for
that regiment, I called upon him at the Metropolitan Hotel and made
known my desire. He informed me that his recruiting office was not then
arranged, though he had engaged a room a little farther up Broadway, and
his sergeant was preparing to open it. He seemed reluctant to take me,
and talked to me as though I were too young to go, and as if I did not
realize what I was about to undertake. I assured him that I had
considered the matter well, and that I was physically strong; and that
if he would not accept me I would try to enlist in Duryea's Zouaves, who
were, at that time, enlisting men. He then told me to go up and see his
sergeant and that he would come up later. I found the room, but the
sergeant, however, had not yet unpacked the papers. On getting them
opened he said he was unable to make them out, whereupon I asked him to
let me examine them, and proceeded to make out my own enlistment papers,
the sergeant watching me. While I was thus engaged, a man with his arm
off came in. He had just that day been discharged from the hospital, and
inquired what steps he should take to get a pension, having been
attracted by the flag hanging out of the office window. I noticed the
sergeant was particularly anxious to get him out of the room, evidently
not considering him a desirable acquisition to facilitate recruiting. I
explained to the man what he should do. The sergeant, when he saw me
make out my enlistment papers, remarked, "They won't keep you long in
the ranks, because they can get better work for you to do," or words to
that effect. I did not then comprehend what he meant, but my subsequent
experience explained it. I was then sent to the examining physician,
examined, passed, and sworn in for three years' service.

That night I went to my home, at Dobb's Ferry, on the Hudson River, and
reported what I had done, intending to leave for Washington the