We Heard That Morning That From Sixty To
Seventy Baggage Wagons Had "Broken Through," As They Called It, And
Stuck Fast Near A River, In Their Endeavor To Make Their Way On To
Lebanon.
We encountered two generals of brigade, General Siegel, a
German, and General Ashboth, a Hungarian, both of whom were waiting
till the weather should allow them to advance.
They were extremely
courteous, and warmly invited us to go on with them to Lebanon and
Springfield, promising to us such accommodation as they might be
able to obtain for themselves. I was much tempted to accept the
offer; but I found that day after day might pass before any forward
movement was commenced, and that it might be weeks before
Springfield or even Lebanon could be reached. It was my wish,
moreover, to see what I could of the people, rather than to
scrutinize the ways of the army. We dined at the tent of General
Ashboth, and afterward rode his horses through the camp back to
Rolla, I was greatly taken with this Hungarian gentleman. He was a
tall, thin, gaunt man of fifty, a pure-blooded Magyar a I was told,
who had come from his own country with Kossuth to America. His camp
circumstances were not very luxurious, nor was his table very richly
spread; but he received us with the ease and courtesy of a
gentleman. He showed us his sword, his rifle, his pistols, his
chargers, and daguerreotype of a friend he had loved in his own
country. They were all the treasures that he carried with him - over
and above a chess-board and a set of chessmen, which sorely tempted
me to accompany him in his march.
In my next chapter, which will, I trust, be very short, I purport to
say a few words as to what I saw of the American army, and therefore
I will not now describe the regiments which we visited. The tents
were all encompassed by snow, and the ground on which they stood was
a bed of mud; but yet the soldiers out here were not so wretchedly
forlorn, or apparently so miserably uncomfortable, as those at
Benton Barracks. I did not encounter that horrid sickly stench, nor
were the men so pale and woe-begone. On the following day we
returned to St. Louis, bringing back with us our friend the German
aid-de-camp. I stayed two days longer in that city, and then I
thought that I had seen enough of Missouri; enough of Missouri at
any rate under the present circumstances of frost and secession. As
regards the people of the West, I must say that they were not such
as I expected to find them. With the Northerns we are all more or
less intimately acquainted. Those Americans whom we meet in our own
country, or on the continent, are generally from the North, or if
not so they have that type of American manners which has become
familiar to us.
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