se sooner than
these men. If camp-regulations are violated, it seems to be usually
through heedlessness. They love passionately three things, besides their
spiritual incantations,--namely, sugar, home, and tobacco. This last
affection brings tears to their eyes, almost, when they speak of their
urgent need of pay: they speak of their last-remembered quid as if it
were some deceased relative, too early lost, and to be mourned forever.
As for sugar, no white man can drink coffee after they have sweetened it
to their liking.

I see that the pride which military life creates may cause the
plantation-trickeries to diminish. For instance, these men make the most
admirable sentinels. It is far harder to pass the camp-lines at night
than in the camp from which I came; and I have seen none of that
disposition to connive at the offences of members of one's own company
which is so troublesome among white soldiers. Nor are they lazy, either
about work or drill; in all respects they seem better material for
soldiers than I had dared to hope.

There is one company in particular, all Florida men, which I certainly
think the finest-looking company I ever saw, white or black; they range
admirably in size, have remarkable erectness and ease of carriage, and
really march splendidly. Not a visitor but notices them; yet they have
been under drill only a fortnight, and a part only two days. They have
all been slaves, and very few are even mulattoes.

_December 4, 1862._

"Dwelling in tents, with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." This condition is
certainly mine,--and with a multitude of patriarchs beside, not to
mention Caesar and Pompey, Hercules and Bacchus.

A moving life, tented at night, this experience has been mine in civil
society, if society be civil before the luxurious forest-fires of Maine
and the Adirondack, or upon the lonely prairies of Kansas. But a
stationary tent-life, deliberately going to housekeeping under canvas,
I have never had before, though in our barrack-life at "Camp Wool" I
often wished for it.

The accommodations here are about as liberal as my quarters there, two
wall-tents being placed end to end, for office and bed-room, and
separated at will by a "fly" of canvas. There is a good board floor and
mop-board, effectually excluding dampness and draughts, and everything
but sand, which on windy days penetrates everywhere. The
office-furniture consists of a good desk