ed him. No one was stirring
about outside, and I walked into the house unannounced. My mother was
seated in an old rocking-chair, engaged in sewing. She looked up, saw me
in the uniform of a soldier, and she knew what that meant. Her work
dropped in her lap, she covered her face with her hands, and the tears
gushed through her fingers and she trembled in her chair with the
intensity of her emotions. There was no sobbing, or other vocal
manifestation of feeling, but her silence made her grief seem all the
more impressive. I was distressed, and didn't know what to say, so I
said nothing, and walked out into the kitchen, thence back to the barn.
There I met father, who had come in from some out-door work. He looked
at me gravely, but with an impassive countenance, and merely remarked,
"Well, I reckon you've done right."

Next morning everybody seemed more cheerful, and I had much to say at
breakfast about things at Camp Carrollton.

On the expiration of my furlough I promptly reported at the camp and
entered on my duties as a soldier. The absorbing duty was the drill, and
that was persistent, and consumed the most of the time. I knew nothing
about it when I enlisted, and had never seen any except on the previous
Monday afternoon. The system we then had was Hardee's Infantry Tactics.
It was simple, and easily learned. The main things required were
promptness, care, and close attention. All day long, somewhere in the
camp, could be heard the voice of some officer, calling, "Left! left!
left, right, left!" to his squad or company, to guide them in the
cadence of the step. We were drilled at Carrollton in the "school of the
soldier," "school of the company," and skirmish drill, with dress parade
at sunset. We had no muskets, and did not receive them until we went to
Benton Barracks, at St. Louis. I do not remember of our having any
battalion drill at Camp Carrollton. The big trees in the fair grounds
were probably too thick and numerous to permit that. Our fare consisted
of light bread, coffee, fresh meat at some meals, and salt meat at
others, Yankee beans, rice, onions, and Irish and sweet potatoes, with
stewed dried apples occasionally for supper. The salt meat, as a rule,
was pickled pork and fat side meat, which latter "table comfort" the
boys called "sow-belly." We got well acquainted with that before the war
was over. On the grub question I will say now that the great "stand-bys"
of the Union soldiers during the war, a