That, As Far As I Could Judge, Was The
Position Of Congress In The Early Months Of 1862; And That, Under
Existing Circumstances, Was Perhaps The Only Possible Position That
It Could Fill.
All this to me was very melancholy.
The streets of Washington were
always full of soldiers. Mounted sentries stood at the corners of
all the streets with drawn sabers - shivering in the cold and
besmeared with mud. A military law came out that civilians might
not ride quickly through the street. Military riders galloped over
one at every turn, splashing about through the mud, and reminding
one not unfrequently of John Gilpin. Why they always went so fast,
destroying their horses' feet on the rough stones, I could never
learn. But I, as a civilian, given as Englishmen are to trotting,
and furnished for the time with a nimble trotter, found myself
harried from time to time by muddy men with sabers, who would dash
after me, rattling their trappings, and bid me go at a slower pace.
There is a building in Washington, built by private munificence and
devoted, according to an inscription which it bears, "To the Arts."
It has been turned into an army clothing establishment. The streets
of Washington, night and day, were thronged with army wagons. All
through the city military huts and military tents were to be seen,
pitched out among the mud and in the desert places. Then there was
the chosen locality of the teamsters and their mules and horses - a
wonderful world in itself; and all within the city!
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 64 of 531
Words from 16895 to 17155
of 142339
