gine that we were
hopeless material for war. And so we seemed, in our ignorant state; but
there were those among us who afterward learned the grim trade; learned
to obey like machines; became valuable soldiers; fought all through the
war, and came out at the end with excellent records. One of the very
boys who refused to go out on picket duty that night, and called me an
ass for thinking he would expose himself to danger in such a foolhardy
way, had become distinguished for intrepidity before he was a year
older.

I did secure my picket that night--not by authority, but by diplomacy.
I got Bowers to go, by agreeing to exchange ranks with him for the time
being, and go along and stand the watch with him as his subordinate. We
stayed out there a couple of dreary hours in the pitchy darkness and
the rain, with nothing to modify the dreariness but Bowers's monotonous
growlings at the war and the weather; then we began to nod, and
presently found it next to impossible to stay in the saddle; so we gave
up the tedious job, and went back to the camp without waiting for the
relief guard. We rode into camp without interruption or objection from
anybody, and the enemy could have done the same, for there were no
sentries. Everybody was asleep; at midnight there was nobody to send out
another picket, so none was sent. We never tried to establish a watch at
night again, as far as I remember, but we generally kept a picket out in
the daytime.

In that camp the whole command slept on the corn in the big corn-crib;
and there was usually a general row before morning, for the place was
full of rats, and they would scramble over the boys' bodies and faces,
annoying and irritating everybody; and now and then they would bite some
one's toe, and the person who owned the toe would start up and magnify
his English and begin to throw corn in the dark. The ears were half
as heavy as bricks, and when they struck they hurt. The persons struck
would respond, and inside of five minutes every man would be locked in
a death-grip with his neighbour. There was a grievous deal of blood shed
in the corn-crib, but this was all that was spilt while I was in the
war. No, that is not quite true. But for one circumstance it would have
been all. I will come to that now.

Our scares were frequent. Every few days rumours would come that the
enemy were approaching. In these cases we always fell back on some other
camp of ours; we never stayed where we were. But