The American Cavalry Have Always Looked To Me Like
Brigands.
A party of them would, I think, make a better picture
than an equal number of our dragoons; but if they are to be regarded
in any other view than that of the picturesque, it does not seem to
me that they have been got up successfully.
On this occasion they
were forming themselves into a picture for my behoof, and as the
picture was, as a picture, very good, I at least have no reason to
complain.
We were taken to see one German regiment, a regiment of which all
the privates were German and all the officers save one - I think the
surgeon. We saw the men in their tents, and the food which they
eat, and were disposed to think that hitherto things were going well
with them. In the evening the colonel and lieutenant-colonel, both
of whom had been in the Prussian service, if I remember rightly,
came up to the general's quarters, and we spent the evening together
in smoking cigars and discussing slavery round the stove. I shall
never forget that night, or the vehement abolition enthusiasm of the
two German colonels. Our host had told us that he was a slaveowner;
and as our wants were supplied by two sable ministers, I concluded
that he had brought with him a portion of his domestic institution.
Under such circumstances I myself should have avoided such a
subject, having been taught to believe that Southern gentlemen did
not generally take delight in open discussions on the subject.
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