We Manifestly
Had No Right To Expect Much; But To Us, Expecting Very Little, Very
Much Was Given.
General Johnson was the officer to whose care we
were confided, he being a brigadier under General McCook, who
commanded the advance.
We were met by an aid-de-camp and saddle-
horses, and soon found ourselves in the general's tent, or rather in
a shanty formed of solid upright wooden logs, driven into the ground
with the bark still on, and having the interstices filled in with
clay. This was roofed with canvas, and altogether made a very
eligible military residence. The general slept in a big box, about
nine feet long and four broad, which occupied one end of the shanty,
and he seemed in all his fixings to be as comfortably put up as any
gentleman might be when out on such a picnic as this. We arrived in
time for dinner, which was brought in, table and all, by two
negroes. The party was made up by a doctor, who carved, and two of
the staff, and a very nice dinner we had. In half an hour we were
intimate with the whole party, and as familiar with the things
around us as though we had been living in tents all our lives.
Indeed, I had by this time been so often in the tents of the
Northern army, that I almost felt entitled to make myself at home.
It has seemed to me that an Englishman has always been made welcome
in these camps.
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