iiliiiiii 
 
Qass 
 Book. 
 
Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea; 
 
 FOUR YEARS WITH THE ARMY 
 OF THE POTOMAC, 
 
 —OR,- 
 
 FOOTPRINTS IN MANY LANDS. 
 
 BEING THE LIFE, SUFFERING, AND HAIR-BREADTH 
 ESCAPES ON LAND AND SEA OF 
 
 JAIVIES R. EATON, 
 
 The Amtrican Soldier and Sailor. 
 
 Served in the War for the Union in the 3d and 17th 
 Maine Volunteer Infantry. 
 
 •^•^^ 
 
 WRITTEN BY, AND PUBLISHED FOR, THE AUTHOR. 
 1894. 
 
COPYRIGHT 1894, 
 
 BY 
 JAMES R. EATON. 
 
 lij Transfer 
 1909 
 
 PRESS OF 
 
 TRANK H. SMITH, 
 
 INDIANAPOLIS. 
 

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 3a5. 1R. jeaton, 
 
 Bmerican SolDler anO Sailor. 
 
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 73 
 

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 \nierh:an Soldier and Sailor. 
 

 -^^. 
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 To THE Union Volunteers, 
 who flew to the rescue of their imperiled country, because 
 they so loved her that they would willingly have laid 
 down their lives for her, by one who shared your 
 hardships, and noio enjoys your victory, 
 this little narrative is most respect- 
 fully dedicated by the author. ^ 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It is related of the elder Yanderbilt, that on a 
 certain occasion, while somewhat pressed for time, he 
 hastily gave an order on his banker, using for this pur- 
 pose a piece of common wrapping paper, such as is 
 now used in meat markets and hardware stores. This 
 insignificant piece of paper, the first cost of which 
 could not have been more than the one hundredth part 
 of a cent, purchased the controlling interest in a rail- 
 road, and was worth to the parties to whom it was 
 given, a million and a half of dollars. In quoting the 
 above anecdote, I wish to impress on the minds of my 
 readers that the most handsome paper and the most 
 handsome arranged book is not always the most interest- 
 ing, nor most profitable to the reader. In introducing 
 this book to the reader, I wish to say that I hope it will 
 interest and amuse you, and after careful perusal, that 
 you may say, ^' truth is stranger than fiction," then I 
 shall be satisfied. 
 
 The Author. 
 
Si)lf^ei7 Ve^f^ or? the iD^fl^ iBlh^ S^^, 
 
 FOUR YEARS WITH THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 T is indeed a difficult task for a modest man 
 to write his own biography, for he has his 
 life to live over again as it were, and to 
 bring to mind many things he wished to 
 have forgotten, and to relate many things, 
 although very important to himself, would be but very 
 little interest to others. But then a knowledge of the 
 errors of our fellowmen enables us to avoid the committal 
 of similar ones; while an acquaintance with their virtues 
 stimulates us to a noble endeavor. Hence it has been 
 truly said, that " eyery man's life is instructive." Per- 
 haps there never lived a man or woman, whatever their 
 station in life, whose biography might not be rendered 
 highly productive of good to somebody. But there are 
 some, the importance of whose relations to society, and 
 the stirring events of whose lives place them more promi- 
 nently before us than others. Every act in the great 
 drama of life requires its leading characters, and every 
 age produces them. It is of these we usually write, not 
 because such persons are really more deserving of atten- 
 tion than those who stand in the social scale much below 
 
8 Sixteen Years on the Bark Blue Sea, 
 
 them — for just as the smallest wheel in the machine is 
 as essential as the largest, so the most apparently insig- 
 nificant member of society is as necessary to the social 
 fabric as the most distinguished — but for the reason that 
 their lives and characters are more attractive and 
 instructive to the masses than those of ordinary men. 
 
 Now I have started out to write a true history of 
 my life, and 1 purpose to give the bad as well as the 
 good ; or in other words, to give you the potatoes as 
 they grew, as it were; the little ones and the big ones, 
 the rotten ones and the worm-eaten ones, and then leave 
 it to the reader, whether my good deeds will outbalance 
 my bad ones. I don't claim I have done anything to 
 bring me into prominence before the world, but that I 
 have had as many adventures and hairbreadth escapes 
 on land and sea, as any other man on God's green earth, 
 and as many '' ups and downs '^ in life. And this is 
 what I purpose telling you about in this little book. 
 Having spent sixteen years as a common sailor, and 
 visited almost every land in the civilized world, and 
 spent four years more with the army of the U. S. in 
 defense of my country, I think I can make it interesting 
 to the most of vou. 
 
Four Years loith the Army of the Potomac. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 I, James Randell Eaton, came of an old English 
 family, which traced its descent back to King William 
 the Conqueror, in the days of Herod Broadicca, down 
 through the Brilliant Circle of the Knights of the 
 Round Table, to Francis Eaton, who came to this 
 country from England in the Mayflower, in 1620. 
 
 I was the fourth son of Clemens Eaton and his wife, 
 Nancy, and was born in the town of Waterville, county 
 of Kennebec, State of Maine, on the 8th day of August, 
 1841. My father being a poor man, and quite old when 
 I was born — he being born in 1780, and I not until 
 1841^1 was put to work as soon as I was large enough 
 to do anything. Went to school during the winter and 
 worked at whatever my parents found for me to do. 
 My father had been a sea-faring man, and had spent 
 most of his life on the dark blue sea. He also served 
 in the war of 1812, and was wounded during the battle 
 at Plattsburg, for which he drew a pension of ninety-six 
 dollars a year. As you may suppose, he had many 
 stories to tell about his life on the sea, and what he had 
 seen in other countries. His stories of adventure set 
 me wild to go to sea and roam about and see some of 
 the world. So when I was about fifteen years old I 
 broached the subject to my mother, but she would 
 not for a moment listen to my going, but told 
 
10 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 me of the dangers and hardships that fell to the 
 lot of men who follow the life of a sailor for a 
 living. But that did not lessen my desire to go to 
 sea. Many has been the time since, when I was tossed 
 about on the angry waves of a blustering sea, when 
 nature's elements were at war with each other in a 
 tempestuous storm, how I wished I had taken mother's 
 advice. When I found I could not get the consent 
 of my parents to go and ship, I let the matter drop. 
 But at the same time I was secretly laying my 
 plans for an elopement. After my plans had matured, 
 and all things being ready, one of the neighbor's boys 
 and I started for Boston, Mass., intending to ship and 
 go a voyage to sea. We reached Boston on the after- 
 noon of May 22, 1856, found a cheap boarding place, 
 and went out to see the city. On the following day 
 we went to the wharf and tried to get a chance to ship. 
 But, we being so young, our appearance as young 
 sailors was against us. After spending three days in 
 fruitless search for a ship that would take us, we gave 
 up the search, and took the train for Kew Bedford, 
 Mass., where we arrived May 26, 1856. 
 
 Upon arriving at New Bedford, we at once com- 
 menced to look around to find an opportunity to ship. 
 To our joy, we learned that there was a " whaler " 
 fitting for sea, and was in want of hands. We made 
 our way to the wharf where the ship lay, and went on 
 board. We wasted no time in finding the captain, who 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 11 
 
 talked to us very kindly, and told us of the hardships 
 and dangers that we would encounter, hut nothing 
 daunted us. We told him we had no homes, and wanted 
 to go to sea. So after some further talk he agreed to 
 take us at twenty-two dollars per month. We, on our 
 part, was to stay until the voyage was made, and the 
 ship returned to the wharf in the city from which we 
 sailed. After we signed the ship's papers, binding our- 
 selves to the contract, and the captain gave us articles 
 of agreement, the mate was called and told to take us 
 to a sailor's furnishing store, and get our outfit for sea- 
 men. The outfit consisted of the following : Two pairs 
 heavy woolen shirts, four pairs socks, two pairs heavy 
 wool pants, two pairs gum boots, mittens, drawers, under- 
 shirts, oil suit, monkey jacket and necessary bedding, a 
 tin plate, tin cup, knife and fork, spoons, etc., a jack knife 
 and a few other articles such as we would need on ship- 
 board. The whole outfit costing $21.80, clothing being 
 a great deal cheaper in those days than at the present 
 
 time. 
 
 *' Time and tide wait for no man," and in a few 
 days we were ready to sail for our whaling grounds. I 
 will not worry the patience of the reader with a detailed 
 account of the voyage to the place where we expected to 
 fill our ship with oil, but will proceed to tell you about 
 whales, and the way we catch them. 
 
 The popular name of the larger, Catacaean, partic- 
 ularly of all those belonging to the families of Balanide. 
 
1^ Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 The latter is the only one that I will now describe. In 
 this family the head is of enormous size, as in the 
 Catodouctide, but is entirely destitute of teeth, instead 
 of which the palate is furnished with an apparatus of 
 baleen or whalebone, for the purpose of straining out 
 of the water the small fishes which form the food of 
 these whales. Rudiments of teeth, however, and dental 
 pulps appear in the jaws of the whale; sixty or seventy 
 on each side. They are reefs or beds in the system of 
 the mouth, and plates of whalebone are not produced 
 from them, but from integuments. The whalebone is 
 elastic, and its heaviness is well known, the plates of it 
 in the mouth of a whale are very numerous, several 
 hundred being on each side of the mouth, and they are 
 very closely placed together, so that the mouth is filled 
 with them ; the whole quantity in the mouth of a large 
 whale sometimes amounting to nearly two tons in weight. 
 They are suspended from the roof of the mouth, none 
 are produced in the lower jaw; they extend on each side 
 of the midddle line of the plate, like the barbs of a 
 feather, those in the middle of the mouth are longer. 
 The last of each plate is imbedded in a substance of the 
 membrane that covers the plate, while its edge forms a 
 loose fringe composed of fibers or pliable bristles. The 
 huge mouth being opened, water is taken in and the 
 small animals which entered with it are retained for 
 food, while the water is allowed to escape by the sides 
 of the mouth. The tongue is a soft thick mass not 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. IS 
 
 extending beyond the back of the mouth. The gullet 
 of the whale is very narrow, it is said to be not more 
 than nine and one-half inches in diameter even in a 
 large whale, so that only very small animals can pass 
 through it. The head of a whale occupies from a third 
 to a fourth of its entire length ; the skull is unsymmet- 
 rical, the right side being larger than the left. 
 
 The flesh is red, firm and coarse. The skin is naked 
 with the exception of a few bristles about the jaw, and 
 its surface is moistened by an oily fluid ; the lower sur- 
 face, the true skin, extends into a thick layer of blubber 
 two feet in thickness, the whole mass, in a large whale 
 often weighing more than thirty tons, and serves the 
 purpose of keeping the animal warm, as well as of 
 making the specific gravity of the whole body much 
 lighter than it otherwise would be ; and of resisting the 
 pressure of the water in the great depth to which it 
 often descends. 
 
 It has been attempted to tell the age of of a whale 
 by the traverse lines on the plates of baleen, and in this 
 way it has been computed that they attain to the age of 
 eight or nine hundred years, each traverse line being 
 assumed to indicate an annual growth ; but it is evident 
 that there are no good grounds for the assumption on 
 which such calculation is based. 
 
 The most important species, and indeed the most 
 valuable of all the species, is that known as the Wright 
 or Greenland whale. It inhabits the seas of the northern 
 
H Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 part of the world and abounds chiefly in the arctic 
 regions. It attains to the enormous length of sixty to 
 seventy feet, the body is thickest a little behind the 
 flippers or pectorial fins, tapering conically toward the 
 tail and slightly toward the head. The tail is five or 
 six feet long, and from twenty to twenty-five feet broad, 
 formed of two dividing laps, broadest almost where 
 they are united, with but a slight indentation. 
 
 The pectoral fins are eight or nine feet long, and 
 four or ^ve feet broad. The mouth is fifteen or sixteen 
 feet long. The eyes, which are situated on the sides of 
 the head about a foot above and rather behind the 
 angles of the mouth, are not larger than those of an 
 ox; but the sense of sight seems to be very acute, 
 at least in the water; the iris of the eye is white. The 
 blow-holes are situated on the most elevated part of 
 the head; they are from eight to twelve inches long, 
 of but comparatively small breadth ; the upper parts are 
 velvety black, the lower parts are white. The upper 
 parts in an old whale sometimes become paler, the 
 black being mixed with white and gray. The period 
 of gastation is uncertain. But one young is produced 
 at birth, and is from ten to fifteen feet in length. 
 When born, the mother displays great affection for her 
 offspring. 
 
 Whalers sometimes take undue advantage in har- 
 pooning the infant whale, (itself of very little value,) 
 in order to secure the mother. Suckling the young is 
 
Four Years loith the Aamy of the Potomac. 15 
 
 performed at the surface of the water. The mother 
 rolls from side to side that she and the young may 
 be able to breathe in turns. 
 
 The usual rate of progress in swimming, is about 
 four miles per hour. Whales often swim not far 
 beneath the surface of the water with the mouth wide 
 open to take in water, from which to sift food. The 
 whale is capable, however, of swimming with much 
 greater rapidity. When harpooned it often descends to a 
 great depth in a few seconds. Its tail is extremely power- 
 ful and a single blow from it is sufficient to destroy a large 
 boat or toss it and its crew into the air; so that the 
 whale fishery is attended with no little danger. Whales 
 usually come to the surface to breathe at intervals 
 of ten or fifteen minutes; but they are capable of 
 remaining under water for a half hour or more. When 
 they come to the surface to breathe, they generally 
 remain two or three minutes, during which time they 
 blow eight or nine times, and then descend. The noise 
 they make in blowing is very loud, and the spout of 
 spray ejected ascends several yards into the air, appear- 
 ing at a distance like puffs of smoke. They often assume, 
 as if in sport, vertical positions with the head down- 
 ward and flap the surface of the water with the tail, 
 making a sound which can be heard two or three miles. 
 The Greenland whale is not properly gregarious, being 
 generally found in pairs or alone, except when numbers 
 are attracted to particularly good feeding grounds, as is 
 
16 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 sometimes the case in the bays and inlets of the northern 
 coast. 
 
 Having given you a fair description of the whale 
 and his customs, T will now try and tell you how we 
 catch them and dispose of them. 
 
 Important as the whale is to civilized man, both for 
 the oil and the whalebone which it yields, it is still more 
 important to the rude natives of the arctic regions ; as 
 the Esquimaux and Greenlanders, who use its oil for 
 food as well as for burning, and to whom its flesh also 
 is a chief article of food, while its bones and baleen are 
 used for making tents, sledges, boats, harpoons and 
 spears. The sinews supply a substitute for twine or 
 thread, and the membranes are used instead of glass for 
 windows. There is not much difference in the way in 
 which whales are captured by the rude tribes and the 
 most civilized and expert whalers. The whale fishers 
 approach the whale in boats, and attack it by harpooning 
 it with a harpoon, to which is attached lines ; following 
 up the attack until its strength is exhausted. Taking 
 advantage of the opportunity when it comes to the sur- 
 face to breathe, they finally kill it with lances, which 
 are thrust into its most vital parts. The harpoon is an 
 iron spear about ^yq feet long, with a flattened point, 
 having sharp edges and large flattened barbs; This is 
 the way the harpooner does his work ; When the boat 
 is near enough to the whale, the man whose duty it is to 
 cast the harpoon, darts or plunges the weapon with all 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 17 
 
 his might into the animal's side. In its fleeing from the 
 attack, the line is rapidly drawn out of the boat until 
 the creature is tired out and raises to the surface for air. 
 The boat follows, keeping as much of the line as 
 possible. When exhausted by pain and loss of blood, 
 the animal succumbs. It will be seen, much depends 
 upon the sharpness of the blade-like edges of the barbs 
 and their power to hold. The lance used for killing 
 the whale generally has a blade five or six feet long, 
 and two and a half or three inches wide, with sharp 
 cutting edges, and a long wooden handle. 
 
 The ship that I was in was a screw steamer of six 
 hundred tons burden. To protect her from injury by 
 ice, it was fortified with an 'additional series of plank, 
 iron plates and a false or ice stem, on the sides of which 
 were ice knees. The stern was also protected by ice 
 plates of half-inch iron. She carried seven boats, care- 
 fully built, from twenty-three to twenty-eight feet in 
 length, each capable of carrying six or seven men, with 
 seven or eight cwt. of whale, lines, etc. Our crew con- 
 sisted of forty-five men, whom, from the master to the 
 boys, received a gratuity for each whale caught, in 
 addition to his fixed wages. 
 
 Each boat was provided with two harpoons and six 
 or eight lances. When we arrived in the vicinity of the 
 whaling ground, a lookout was stationed at the mast 
 head. As soon as a whale is discovered the boats are 
 lowered and manned, and all exert their utmost strength 
 
18 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 to reach Mr. Whale first. The harpooner is ready. As 
 soon as he is sufficiently near the whale to hurl his har- 
 poon, he does so with all his force. The crew instantly 
 back the boat, and the whale generally plunges in terror 
 to a great depth, sometimes carrying out more than 
 two hundred fathoms of line. It remains below for 
 twenty minutes or more. When it rises, the boats 
 hasten to the attack again, and a second harpoon is 
 thrown. It sometimes happens that instead of descend- 
 ing at once, it strikes at its enemies with deadly 
 vengeance. Great caution is then required. It cannot 
 now remain long below the surface. When it rises, 
 great spouting through its blow-holes occurs. When it 
 is lanced it sometimes dies immediately; at other times 
 a terrific struggle for life occurs, the water is lashed 
 into foam and dyed red with the life-flowing blood. It 
 sometimes happens that instead of dying at the surface 
 of the water, the whale descends and does not rise 
 again. He is then lost to the whaler. When one is 
 killed on the surface, he is towed by the boats to the 
 ship and made fast to it by chains. The process of 
 preparing him is then commenced. 
 
 Some of the crew have their boots armed with 
 spikes to prevent them from slipping. They then 
 descend upon the carcass and cut into the blubber with 
 a blubber spade, and remove broad strips or blankets of 
 skin, twenty to thirty feet long, which is hoisted to the 
 deck by means of hook and tackle. Great cubical 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 19 
 
 pieces of blubber or fat, of a half ton or more in weight, 
 are then cut out and hoisted on deck in the same way. 
 This process is carried on, and the whale being turned 
 over and over so that every part may be reached, when 
 in three or four hours the whole mass of blubber is 
 removed, probably amounting to thirty or forty tons. 
 Meanwhile, others of the crew have descended into the 
 mouth of the whale and removed the baleen. After all 
 that is profitable has been taken, the remainder of the 
 carcass is then flung adrift ; it sometimes sinks, but 
 often floats, and aflbrds food for bear and fish. The 
 blubber, after received on deck, is cut into smaller cubes 
 and subjected to a process by which the cellular tissue 
 is separated. This is called making out or trying out. 
 
 The blubber is heated in a large pot and afterwards 
 strained. The scraps from one pot serving as fuel for 
 another. The ship is now made filthy with smoke and 
 grease. After the blubber is rendered, it is stored in 
 casks to be conveyed home and ready to be boiled for 
 oil. A ton of blubber yields about two hundred gallons 
 of oil. A single whale often yields blubber and whale- 
 bone to the value of seven or eight thousand dollars. 
 
 It is usual for whalers to resort to the arctic whale 
 fishery in the spring, and return again in the autumn ; 
 but the ship on which I was, adopted with great success 
 the method of wintering in the arctic region. On or 
 about the first of July, 1859, the captain called us 
 together, and after giving a liberal drink of " grog,'' 
 
20 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea 
 
 told us that we had done well, and that we had made 
 money for the ship and for ourselves, and as soon as we 
 caught one more whale we would start for home. He 
 said the minute we got the blubber and baleen on deck, 
 he would order the engineer to fire up if the wind blows 
 high or low. You can bet we all kept a sharp lookout 
 for a whale. On the morning of August 8th, it being 
 my eighteenth birthday, we saw a monster whale about 
 two miles to leeward, and then if men ever worked, it 
 was us. We manned the boats and started after him. 
 We had good luck in killing the whale, and at four 
 o'clock p. M., we had him alongside of our steamer, and 
 we, (the crew) were nearly exhausted. So after getting 
 our grog and dinner— for we had nothing to eat through 
 the day — we set a watch on the carcass, and "turned in" 
 to gather strength for the morrow. Bright and early 
 next morning the crew was astir and commenced opera- 
 tions on the carcass of the whale. By four o'clock that 
 afternoon the last piece was hoisted on deck. In the 
 meantime the engineer had been getting ready to steam 
 up. We being all very tired, voted to the man not to 
 start home till next day. So after a good " stiff grog" 
 and a hearty supper, the first watch was set and the rest 
 of the crew " turned in " to rest. '^ Home, sweet home, 
 be it ever so humble, there's no place like home." 
 
 At daylight we started picking our way through 
 the floating cakes of ice and icebergs, until we reached 
 clear water. Then we hoisted sail and used steam and 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac, '21 
 
 made the best time we could for New Bedford, which 
 we reached on the 3d day of October, 1859, having 
 been fifty-four days in getting there, with a fair wind 
 and a good head of steam. " Sweet home/' 
 
 After waiting in New Bedford ten days, and having 
 our cargo unloaded and the products counted up, which 
 amounted to |232,181.50, we were paid off, my three 
 years' wages and share of the catch amounted to $851.80. 
 After deducting |144.25, the amount that I had drawn 
 for my outfit, extra clothing, tobacco, etc., I had left 
 $707.55 ; a goodly sum for a lad to have in those days 
 before he was nineteen years of age. In fact it would 
 be in this day and age, especially if gotten by his own 
 exertion. I took the train, or rather the train took me, 
 to my own native village, which I reached in due time. 
 If 1 have space and time I will tell you how we spent 
 our winters in the arctic regions. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 HOME AGAIN. 
 
 After reaching Boston, I stopped off for a few days 
 to see the sights, and then started for Waterville, Me., 
 at which place I arrived in due time. My parents had 
 not heard from me since I left home, more than three 
 years before, and did not know what had become of me ; 
 
2^ Sixteen Year's on the Bark Blue Sea, 
 
 they had long since given me up as dead. It was a sad 
 home for me, for I found upon my arrival that my father 
 had been dead more than two years, and my mother was 
 about to marry again. The children had left home to 
 do for themselves. Our home was broken up and others 
 were occupying our old house. I learned where my 
 married sister lived and went to see her. After a happy 
 greeting, I was bid welcome by her and her husband. 
 After resting a few days, and pondering over my situa- 
 tion and condition, I began to feel the need of an 
 education, knowing full well that I could not rise higher 
 than a common sailor, nor be a master or mate, not even 
 a yeoman or ship-writer, without book learning. So I 
 made up my mind to use what money I had to educate 
 myself as far as I could ; that I would study the common 
 branches of English l^avigation, and fit myself for 
 spending the balance of my days on the dark blue sea. 
 There was at the time of which I write, in Water- 
 ville, a school known as Prof. Foster's Academy, where 
 young men could be educated and trained for business 
 life, but they had to be somewhat advanced before they 
 could be admitted to the school. School was to com- 
 mence on the first day of l^ovember, and I was such a 
 poor scholar, that I was afraid I could not be admitted. 
 However, I called on the professor and told him what 
 I wanted. He examined me and soon found that I was 
 not up to the standard. But for old acquaintance sake 
 of my father, he said he would take me in and do the 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 2S 
 
 best for me that he could. So I bought what books 
 were necessary, aud when school commenced I started 
 in with the determination to learn all I could during 
 the winter term. 
 
 The winter soon passed away and April came, and 
 with it the startling cry of " War ! war ! " While stand- 
 ing on the corner of the street one evening after school, 
 talking with some of my school-mates, I heard the 
 newsboys cry out that Ft. Sumpter had been fired on, and 
 that President Lincoln had called for seventy-five 
 thousand troops. I told my chums that I was going to 
 Augusta the next day and try and get in the Navy. By 
 seven o'clock that evening one of my school-mates and 
 myself were ready to start for Augusta on the following 
 morning. But we became impatient, and boarded a 
 freight train that night and started for Augusta, that we 
 might be there early the next day. We arrived at Au- 
 gusta about 9:30 p. m. ; we found a boarding and lodg- 
 ing house and stopped over night. The next morning 
 we went to the State-house to see the governor and ofier 
 him our services. We found him in his ofiice, and soon 
 made our business known. He thanked us for our 
 promptness in offering ourselves to the State, and said 
 he would expect us as Volunteer State Militiamen, sub- 
 ject to the call of the President for troops, from the 
 State of Maine. 
 
 As soon as the adjutant-general arrived our names 
 were enrolled, and Governor Washburn told us to go 
 
2Jf. Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 home and await his orders, and as soon as he commenced 
 to recruit from the State, he would consign us to some 
 regiment. There w^as working at the boarding house 
 at which I boarded, one of my old school-mates and 
 lady friends, which I had not seen for years. We soon 
 renewed the old acquaintance, and after a while it 
 ripened into love. As neither of us had a home of our 
 own, we agreed that as soon as I could make us a home, 
 we would " pool issue," or, in other words, get married. 
 
 I told her what I had done while in Augusta, and 
 that I would probably be called on in a week or two. 
 I would therefore give her the choice of marrying me 
 before I went, or wait until I came back; or if she 
 wished, would release her from our engagement entirely. 
 She chose to marry ; for the reason she said, if I 'went 
 to war, and anything should happen me, perhaps she 
 could come and nurse me back to health, which she 
 might not have had the privilege of doing, had she been 
 but a " sweetheart." So, on the 27th day of May, 
 1861, we were united in the bonds of holy wedlock. 
 
 In the meantime, recruiting offices had been 
 opened in all the large towns and cities in the State 
 One in Portland for the 1st regiment; one in Bangor 
 for the 2d regiment; one in Waterville for the 3d regi- 
 ment, and one in Rockland for the 4th regiment. We 
 militiamen received orders from the governor to report 
 to the recruiting officer for the 3d Maine, and he would 
 consign us to a company. We did so, and part of us 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 25 
 
 were placed in Co. H, and part in Co. G. The 3d regi- 
 ment was recruited mostly from Kennebec lumbermen. 
 The men were of a large, powerful type, the average 
 weight in one company being 170 pounds. We were 
 mustered into the U. S. service on the 4th day . ^ June, 
 and arrived in Washington on the 7th of June, 1861. 
 The 3d Maine first fought at Bull Run, where it had 
 eight killed and several wounded. 
 
 Now, I am not going to lay myself open to criticism 
 by giving a history of the war, but am only going to 
 tell what I saw, and part of what my regiment done in 
 putting down the rebellion. 
 
 The State enrollment of the 3d Maine was 1586; 
 of which was killed and wounded, 489; including those 
 that died in rebel prisons, which was 33. Our first 
 colonel was 0. O. Howard; our second was Henry G. 
 Staples; our third, Moses B. V. Lakeman. We were 
 engaged in the following battles : First Battle of Bull 
 Run ; Battle of the Wilderness ; Fair Oaks ; Melvin 
 Hill; Manasses; Chantilly; Fredericksburg; Chancel- 
 lorsville; Gettysburg; Mine Run; Spottsylvania; North 
 Anna; Pottawotamie. Also present at Bailey^s Cross 
 Roads; Yorktown ; Williamsburg; White Oak Swamp; 
 Glendale; Wapping Heights; Kelley's Ford, and Cold 
 Harbor. 
 
 Lieut. Col. Edwin Burt was killed at the Battle of 
 the Wilderness, and Major Morgan at North Anna. 
 While in line at Cold Harbor the regiment was ordered 
 home, and the recruits placed in the 17th Maine. 
 
^6 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 I followed the fortunes of my regiment, it its 
 marches, its battles, and in camp ; on the picket line, 
 in the hot July sun, and on the march in sleet, snow or 
 rain ; in the bitter, cold December weather. I did not 
 get sick or wounded until we arrived at Fredericksburg, 
 on the 12th of December, 1862, when I was hit by a 
 spent ball, in my left shoulder, causing a painful 
 although not dangerous, wound; but by laying on the 
 ground in the rain, I contracted a very severe cold, 
 which staid with me all the rest of the winter. But as 
 the weather got warmer in the spring, I got better and 
 went with the regiment once more across the Rappa- 
 hannock, and took part in the battle of Chancellorsville, 
 where our regiment lost six in killed and wounded. I 
 got out without a scratch, and was in all the battles in 
 which our regiment was engaged, until we got to the 
 Battle of the Wilderness, when I received a buckshot 
 wound in the hand. After the battle of Gettysburg, 
 we got after Robert Lee, to drive him back to Virginia. 
 It was then that we had a hand-to-hand fight with 
 Mosby's guerrillas. I was struck on the top of the head 
 with a sabre, which cut my head open five and one-half 
 inches, turning my scalp down on my neck and fractur- 
 ing my skull in two places. 
 
 In a short time I was well again and joined my 
 regiment; but well do I remember the 3d day of June, 
 1864. During that fearful charge at Cold Harbor, I was 
 struck by a minnie ball, which struck back of my left 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. ^7 
 
 ear, passing through my head and coming out back of 
 my right ear. After laying on the field of battle several 
 hours, a detail was made to bury the dead and pick up 
 the wounded. They found me and took me to the rear. 
 The nature of my wounds being such that they did not 
 think they could do me much good, they therefore let 
 me lay on the grass until seven o'clock next morning, 
 when I was cared for and sent to the hospital. 
 
 I lay at the hospital three months, hovering between 
 life and death'. At last I began to get better ; slowly 
 but surely; and in September they gave me a furlough 
 home. By kind and careful nursing the sparks of 
 health came back, and I again reported to the hospital 
 surgeon, and remained there until November 26th, when 
 I again was sent to the regiment. In the meantime I 
 had been transferred to the 17th Maine. Having 
 re-enlisted on the 23d day of February, 1864, I was 
 placed there to serve out the balance of my time. The 
 old 3d had been sent home the next day after I was 
 wounded. 
 
 I found the 17th regiment laying in the trenches in 
 front of Petersburg, and remained with it through the 
 winter. Was with it during several fights around the 
 city, and at Hatch's Run and Weldon R. R. In the 
 spring we started Lee and his army toward Appomattox, 
 at which place he surrendered on the 9th of April, 1865. 
 So closed the four years of the bloodiest war the world 
 ever saw. We lay in camp until June 4th, when the 
 
28 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 regiment was mustered out, and, by request of Governor 
 Coney, I was also discharged. 
 
 Once more we breathe the free air of home ; free 
 from war and strife. But I was still suffering from my 
 wounds ; I had but little money, and stern old poverty 
 was staring me in the face. I knew I must look around 
 and find something to do, whereby I could earn a liv- 
 ing. I got a job in Korth Yassalboro in a woolen 
 factory, scouring wool; but the confinement did not 
 agree with me. I staid there until spring, however. In 
 the meantime my wife had given birth to our first child, 
 a good, healthy boy. I threw up my job in the factory, 
 and after resting awhile and looking about me for some- 
 thing else to do, I concluded to move my household to 
 Sidney, where my wife was nearer her people. 
 
 After seeing my family comfortably situated, I went 
 to Boston, Mass., and shipped on a three-mast schooner, 
 plying between Boston, Mass., and Bangor, Me. It 
 was engaged in the lumber trade. We would carry 
 merchandise to Bangor and bring back lumber to 
 Boston. I remained with the schooner that summer, 
 nothing happening worth mentioning, our return trip 
 was made the last week in October. The schooner 
 needed some repairs, and the captain, who was part 
 owner, concluded to lay up for the winter, knowing 
 that Penobscot Bay would be full of ice by the time we 
 got our cargo disposed of, so he paid off' his hands and 
 let them go. I went to my home in Maine to see my 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac, ^9 
 
 family. In a few days I received a letter from a friend 
 of mine in l!Tew York, by the name of Simeon Haden. 
 He told me there was a bark being loaded for the Ber- 
 muda Islands, and that he had spoken for a place for 
 me, and if I wanted it, to come on at once, he also said 
 if I worked my cards right I might get the berth of a 
 second mate. Accordingly I bid my family and friends 
 good-by, and started for New York. I soon found the 
 bark and my old friend Haden, who introduced me to 
 the captain. We soon struck a bargain ; I was to ship 
 as second mate and receive $30 per month. 
 
 In about ten days after arriving in New York, the 
 ship was ready to start sail for the Bermudas. We left 
 the harbor on the 15th of November, with a complete 
 cargo of general merchandise. On our way out, we 
 encountered a dreadful storm of wind and rain, carry- 
 ing away our main top mast and some of our sails, and 
 somewhat crippled our ship. The storm lasted forty- 
 eight hours. Notwithstanding all this we arrived at 
 our destination in about four weeks, and commenced 
 unloading our cargo, which had been consigned to a 
 merchant on the islands. After repairing our ship, 
 and it being the harvest time on these islands in Janu- 
 ary and February, we commenced loading her with 
 onions, potatoes, oranges, lemons, dates, figs and raisins, 
 and a small lot of spices. All things being ready, 
 on the 7th day of March we set sail for New York, 
 having been gone nearly four months. On our return 
 
30 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 trip we had fair wind and fine weather and arrived in 
 New York March 29th, having made our return trip in 
 twenty-two days. After receiving my pay and engag- 
 ing with another ship, with the privilege of a two 
 weeks' leave of absence, I took a run down home to see 
 my family. I found my family all " 0. K.," and after 
 remaining with them and friends for ten days, and 
 making provision for the care of my wife and child, I 
 again started for New York. I found the three-mast 
 schooner ready, loaded with ice for New Orleans, where 
 she was going to take a cargo of cotton for Liverpool, 
 England, and there load with Liverpool salt for New 
 York. We arrived at New Orleans all right and dis- 
 charged our ice, and began loading cotton for Liverpool, 
 and were ready to start in about twenty-five days from 
 the time we left New York. 
 
 We met with a great deal of bad weather in cross- 
 ing the Atlantic. When about half way across, the 
 kilson was sprung and caused our ship to leak so badly 
 that we had to pump water all the rest of the way to 
 Liverpool. After arriving, the captain cabled to the 
 owners in New York to know what was to be done, as 
 the schooner leaked so badly that it was not safe to 
 start back, even with a light load. He soon got word 
 to discharge her cargo and go into the dry docks for 
 repairs. This the captain did, and after ascertaining 
 how long it would take for repairs, he told the crew that 
 they could have their liberty for about five weeks. We 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 31 
 
 could go where we pleased but must return within that 
 time to start back home. 
 
 As there are many who will read this book that 
 never saw a dry dock, nor don't know how they take a 
 ship up for repairs, I will give a brief description : Dry 
 docks are used for the purpose of laying dry for exami- 
 nation and repairs. They may have their entrance 
 either from a wet, dry, or from a tidal harbor. The 
 former is by far the better arrangement, as it admits 
 vessels being docked or taken out at any time of tide. 
 It also keeps a more equal pressure on the gates, thereby 
 being less liable to leak. They are required to be built 
 of good, water-tight masonry. The entrance generally 
 has a pair of folding gates, pointing outward, to exclude 
 the water. But sometimes it is closed by means of a 
 caisson, viz : A vessel shaped something like the hull 
 of a small vessel, and having a keel and two sterns, 
 which fit into a groove in the masonry. The caisson is 
 sunk into the groove by admitting water into its inter- 
 ior; and is floated out again by pumping the water 
 out. When the vessels are very large the bottom of 
 the dock may be placed above low water, so that it may 
 be run dry without pumping; but generally the bottom 
 of the dry dock for the reception of any but very small 
 vessels, is below that level, in which case a steam engine 
 and pump, with a wall and water channel leading off, 
 are required to empty the dock. The floor is nearly 
 level, and the keel of the vessel to be docked rests on 
 
32 Sixteen Years on the Bark Blue Sea, 
 
 wooden blocks, fastened down to prevent them from 
 floating, and of such height as to admit of the ship- 
 wright getting under the vessel. Side shaers are put in 
 to keep the vessel in an upright position ; and blocks 
 are fitted in under the bulger as soon as possible after 
 the water is let out of the dock. The sides generally 
 consist of stone steps, called altars, for the purpose of 
 fixing the lower ends of the shaers, and also for conven- 
 ience of supporting the scaffolds of the workmen. 
 
 Dry docks are frequently made long enough to hold 
 three or four vessels of considerable size, in which case 
 they are placed obliquely across the dock, so as to give 
 more available length. The above kind of a dock was 
 like the one in which our vessel was docked. 
 
 After our ship was docked, I stayed in Liverpool a 
 few days to take in the sights, and then took a run 
 down to London. Remained there about ten days and 
 visited Westminster Abbey and other places of public 
 note. Went from there to Lancaster, about 250 miles 
 northwest of London. It is a municipal and parlia- 
 mentary borough and seaport of England, and capital 
 of Lancashire. It is situated on the left bank of the 
 Lune. Near the mouth of that river.- is the Ancient 
 Castle, which overlooks the town. It is now used as a 
 county jail and court-house. The houses are built of 
 freestone quarried in the vicinity; though the streets 
 are narrow, the town is neat and well built. The Lune 
 is here crossed by a bridge of ^ve arches and by an 
 
Four Years loith the Army of the Potomac, 33 
 
 aqueduct, carrying the Lancaster Canal across the river. 
 The town contains numerous scientific, benevolent and 
 educational institutions. There is some trade in coal 
 and limestone. The chief manufactures are furniture, 
 cotton and silk fabrics, tableware, leather and cast iron 
 works. The year I was there, I was told that 533 ves- 
 sels of 113,401 tons entered and cleared the port. 
 
 Lancaster formerly sent two members to Parlia- 
 ment, but was disfranchised in 1867, for corrupt prac- 
 tice at elections. 
 
 They have many blacksmith shops where they 
 make boat nails or clinch nails. A great many women 
 work at the forge. The laboring class are extremely 
 poor. The women only get about five shillings a week. 
 Many of them are nursing mothers and have their 
 child in a box, nailed up by the side of the shop window. 
 I was in one of these shops one day while they were 
 eating their dinner. All they had was some very black 
 bread and a small piece of cheese, and a small pot of 
 what they call 'alf and 'alf, (half and half,) costing two 
 pence. After spending a few days in the city, I went 
 to Manchester, and saw the large cotton factories, and 
 saw them print some of their fancy calico prints; saw 
 them make rope, both hemp and wire ; saw their shot 
 tower and many other places of interest, of which I 
 have not space to tell. I then went to Shearfield, Wool- 
 wich, and to Windsor, and saw the residence of the 
 Queen; saw her taking a walk with her daughter, 
 
Slf, Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea^ 
 
 attended by a body guard and boatman. I also visited 
 Wooster and many other places. After staying away 
 about Rve weeks I returned and found that the schooner 
 was nearly repaired. And soon she was taken out of 
 the dock and loaded with salt consigned to ^N'ew York. 
 
 After we got our cargo on board we hoisted sail 
 and started for what we called " God's country '^ viz: 
 U. S. A. We sailed from Liverpool to New York in 
 twenty-two days, a dista'nce of 8,200 miles ; however, 
 we had fair wind and good weather. 
 
 I received my pay and once more started for home. 
 I remained thereabout two months, when I learned 
 that a new ship was being fitted out for China and then 
 "laying in" at Portsmouth, IST. H. I wasted no time in 
 getting there and found no trouble in securing a berth, 
 as I was then considered an able seamen, and they can 
 get a job at anything and at any time, and command 
 good wages. In a few days we went to New York and 
 took on our supplies and cargo, consisting of a general 
 stock of merchandise, and then started for the Flowery 
 Kingdom. Of course I cannot describe our voyage 
 very minutely for want of time and space, but will try 
 to tell you of China and her people, and what I saw 
 while there. In going from New York to China we 
 crossed the equator twice. We went by the little 
 Oceanic islands into the China Sea, and then to Hong- 
 kong, where we landed ; or rather, entered her harbor, 
 for we were not allowed to land, but had to load and 
 
Four Years loith the Army of the Potomac. 35 
 
 unload with junkboats or flatboats, for her harbors and 
 landing places are guarded with zealous care, — as I will 
 describe later on. 
 
 The time of which I am writing is April, 1869. 
 On the nineteenth of January, 1869, my wife gave birth 
 to another son ; I then had them moved to York Cor- 
 ner, Maine, so she would be with friends while I was 
 at sea. 
 
 The reader is aware that Hongkong is an island 
 belonging to the British. This was not our destination, 
 we only put in here for harbor to get out of a storm 
 which was brewing. Before we left ISTew York, the 
 yeoman had taken sick with a fever and was not able 
 to sail with the ship, so I was appointed yeoman. As 
 this little book will be read by many landsmen, I will 
 tell you the duty of a yeoman on board a ship. He is 
 to keep an account of all supplies given to the steward, 
 keep the ship's rate, the latitude and longitude of our 
 voyage, keep nn account of everything given the crew, 
 such as tobacco, etc., deal out the grog to the men, and 
 make himself useful in general. I boarded with the 
 officers quite often, thus faring a little better than I 
 would have fared had I been as one of the sailors. 
 After the storm had abated, we hoisted sail and anchor, 
 and started for Pekin, in the Flowery Kingdom. When 
 we entered the port, all of China was making prepara- 
 tions to celebrate the New Year, which is the China- 
 man's Christmas, Thanksgiving and Fourth of July, 
 all in one. 
 
36 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 A happy !N"ew Year it is with these Chinamen. 
 While we are celebrating it at home, let us see how our 
 yellow faced cousins, the children of our great-grand- 
 uncle Shem, are getting ready for it on the other side 
 of the globe. Bore a hole 8,000 miles long through 
 your front yard, and you will come out among them. 
 Shoot your eyes through it if you can, and see me in 
 one of the great cities of China. Everything is hustle 
 and bustle ; see and hear the rush and push of the mil- 
 lions of pig-tailed, almond-eyed mortals, as they fill the 
 air with the din and jabber, jabber, jabber of tens of 
 thousands of Chinese tongues. Make your long hole 
 a telephone by which you can hear the sounds of the 
 other side of the world. Let me sit at the other end of 
 the telephone in Chinatown, and tell you what the 
 people are doing. It takes time to analyze the sounds, 
 and to appreciate the sights, but I will try. As I said 
 before, the Chinese are getting ready for the New Year. 
 
 The first day of the first moon is the great day of 
 the year to these 300,000,000 of people. The moon 
 varies in its rising, so their day is from two to four 
 weeks later than our New Year. So while we are eat- 
 ing our New Year's dinner, they are" getting ready for 
 theirs. 
 
 Just now the struggle is to get enough money to 
 start the New Year in good style. Every man, woman 
 and child wants a new suit of clothes, and enough for 
 his New Year's dinner, and his New Year's presents. 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 37 
 
 Therefore everyone is working now as lie never worked 
 before. In the fields and in the shops the work goes 
 on until after dark, and late at night the lights are 
 burning in the stores, and these hardest of all the hard 
 workers of the world doing double duty. 
 
 This is a great time for the bargain counter. Stocks 
 of merchandise are being everywhere sacrificed to make 
 the merchants come out even, and to enable them to 
 pay all their debts before Kew Year's day. 
 
 The holiday season is China's grand settlement 
 time. An invoice of stock is then taken in all the 
 stores, and business men expect their customers to 
 settle their accounts. And do the Chinese give New 
 Year's gifts? Yes, indeed! They are more generous 
 in this respect than we are. For a week following New 
 Year's day there is nothing but feasting and present 
 giving. The narrow streets of every town will soon be 
 crowded with servants carrying presents from one 
 family to another, and the, servants themselves always 
 receive presents from their masters. A common pres- 
 ent among equals is a loose skinned orange, known as 
 the Mandarin orange, which has the same name in 
 China as the word for good luck, and which is given as 
 indicating good wishes on the part of the giver. Mer- 
 chants usually send presents to their customers, and 
 many gifts are interchanged among business firms. I 
 know many foreigners in China who get presents of 
 ralue from their Chinese friends every New Year, and 
 
S8 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 among the gifts received are elegantly engraved silver 
 mugs or cups. A pair of new shoes is a common gift 
 among the poorer class, and nearlj every one goes out 
 to pay New Year's calls upon his friends. 
 
 New Year's day is the birthday of all the Chinese; 
 all of these throe or four hundred millions of people 
 will have a birthday within a few weeks. A Chinese 
 baby is a year old on the first New Year's after its birth, 
 and one year older on every i^ew Year's thereafter. In 
 this way the ages of all the Chinese are computed, and 
 the tens of thousands of babies who will be born 
 between now and New Year's will have a big start over 
 the older babies who saw the light ten months ago. 
 The Chinaman can combine his IsTew Year's gifts and 
 his birthday gifts, and can congratulate himself on his 
 economical plan of having his Fourth of July, his 
 Christmas and his New Year's all on the same day. If he 
 wants to honor his brother, he can call his New Year's 
 feast a dinner in celebration of his brother's birthday, 
 and he can call his New Year's gift a birthday present. 
 
 The preparation for New Year's which is now going 
 on all over China extends to houses and stores as well 
 as to clothes. Everything is cleaned and scrubbed ; the 
 walls of the houses are washed and redecorated, and the 
 stone floors are made to shine like those of a Dutch 
 kitchen. Many of the houses are repaired, signs are 
 regilded and painted, and everything is cleaned up for 
 the New Year. The night before New Year's, on the 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac, 39 
 
 doors of the houses aod upon the walls of the interior, 
 are pasted or hung New Year's mottoes and prayers. 
 These are printed in big letters on red strips of paper, 
 and are of all sizes and curious character. Some con- 
 tain sentences from the Chinese classics. Others bear 
 the word ^' Fuh," which means happiness, and over 
 many of the doors of stores you see strips of paper 
 pasted, reading thus : *' May the Five Blessings Descend 
 in this Door" ; or, "Peace to Him who Enters or De- 
 parts." On one in Canton was a card which asked the 
 gods to give the merchant big profits, and read : '^ With 
 a Principal of One, may I have a Gain of a Thousand." 
 Another was as follows : " May this Store have Ten 
 Thousand Rich Customers." And a third : " May my 
 Year be a Beautiful one." Inside the houses are similar 
 inscriptions, and each man has a piece of poetry, or 
 wisdom, or a prayer especially fitted to himself and his 
 business. The boat people put slips of paper bearing 
 their prayers on their boats. Farmers put theirs on the 
 trees and farm implements, and a student may hang up 
 a prayer for learning or wisdom. There is such a 
 demand for these cards at Il^ew Year's that the writing 
 of them is a business, and scribes with their ink-pots 
 and brushes and bundles of red cards, sit at tables in 
 the streets and paint them to order. 
 
 The Chinese New Year has its superstitions even 
 to a greater extent than ours has. Some of the people 
 believe if they bathe themselves all over the night 
 
JfD Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 before Kew Year's with warm water in which certain 
 kinds of leaves have been boiled, they will not be sick 
 throughout the year. They think that New Year's day 
 is the most lucky day for weddings or engagements, 
 and the match-makers have their busiest season during 
 holidays. If, in starting out for New Year's calling, 
 you meet a good looking man you will have good luck; 
 but if the first person you meet is a woman, your luck 
 will be bad. Almost everything that happens on that 
 day is ominous, and the professional astrologers and 
 the diviners do a good business. The Chinese New 
 Year is, above all, a day of jollity and good resolu- 
 tions, and neither the government nor the people do 
 any work on this day. The shops are all shut, and in 
 case of public offices, these remain closed for three 
 weeks. Everyone from boy to old man feels on that 
 day that he has gotten a new lease of life, and that the 
 future is going to be better than the past. Boys run 
 through the streets yelling out the sentences : " We 
 want to sell our bad habits, who will buy ? " And as 
 in the paying up of debts, so in the reformation of 
 character every one feels that he has gotten free from 
 his evil obligations, so as to habits and actions, and for 
 the holidays at least feels that he is to be a new man, 
 and that the sun of his moral, intellectual and financial 
 prosperity is rising. 
 
 Slavery is all that Hymen ufifers to the forlorn 
 maidens of China. The marriage customs of the Flow- 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 4,1 
 
 ery Kingdom are very curious. There is no such thing 
 as a love match in China. Of course there could not 
 be, where there is absolutely no social intercourse 
 betv^een men and women, and where it is, in fact, a 
 disgrace for a girl to be seen by any man save her father 
 and brothers. There are no chance meetings '' comin' 
 thro' the rye," no strolls in the twilight, no partings 
 full of " sweet sorrow " at the gate under the moon- 
 beams. Absolutely separated by the insurmountable 
 wall of inexorable custom, the girl totters around at her 
 household tasks almost a cripple on her poor, little 
 deformed feet ; while the boy stolidly goes about his 
 daily tasks either at school or in the field, until it is 
 decided by their parents that it is time for them to 
 marry. When that time arrives, the parents of 
 the young man go to a <' go-between," a regular 
 matrimonial agent who, for a fixed stipend, agrees 
 to find him a wife. She inquires about among 
 her acquaintances until she finds a girl whose parents 
 are willing to sell her, (for a sale it is,) for the suni 
 offered by the family of the young man as a marriage 
 portion. When she has been found and the preliminary 
 negotiations have proved satisfactory, presents as ex- 
 changed between the two families, and also between 
 the two young people. This exchange of presents con- 
 stitutes the betrothal, and, according to the New York 
 Evening Post, it is so binding that it cannot be legally 
 broken under any circumstances. Even should the 
 
4^ Sixteen Years on the Bark Blue Sea, 
 
 young girl discover, (as she often does,) that her future 
 husband is a cripple, or insane, or even that horrible 
 thing, a leper, she must go to him and obey his parents 
 as his wife. 
 
 Early on the morning of the vredding the girl's 
 mother goes out and gathers flowers from twelve differ- 
 ent plants. These are boiled and the bride bathes in 
 the water. She then puts on an entire new suit of 
 clothes, and while dressing stands in a round bottom 
 basket. This is supposed to bring her good luck. This 
 is red, a red gauze veil covers her from head to foot, 
 and around her forehead she wears a red band, from 
 which a red frieze falls over her face. 
 
 When dressed, she bids good-bye to her mother and 
 is taken into the outer room by her " go-between ; " 
 two male members of the bridegroom's family are 
 waiting for her with a sedan chair to carry her to her 
 new home. As she is carried off, custom demands that 
 she should cry and wail aloud, l^o member of her 
 own family accompanies her, entirely alone she is leav- 
 ing her home forever; her former friends and compan- 
 ions she may never see again, alone she is about to 
 enter on a new life among total strangers; she is going 
 to a slavery as absolute and irrevocable as any that ever 
 existed, and more otten than not, she, (be it remem- 
 bered,) is a child of twelve years old or under. Arriv- 
 ing at the bridegroom's home, she is greeted and led 
 into the house by the *' mistress of ceremonies," a 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac, iS 
 
 woman chosen for having a large number of children ; 
 led by her into the house, she and the bridegroom sit 
 down at a table set in the main room, and are served 
 with a collation by her and the " go-between." As this 
 is the first time that the young couple have been face to 
 face, it may readily be supposed that they are curious 
 about each other's appearance. 
 
 When the meal is over the bride is uncermoniously 
 conducted into an inner apartment, which has been elab- 
 orately decorated for her reception. Everything is cov- 
 ered with red, embroidered with different colors, and in 
 this red room, which is to be her home (or prison) for 
 the rest of her life, the poor girl sits alone for the rest 
 of the long day. Ko one breaks in upon her soltitude, 
 no one speaks to her ; occasionally some one looks in 
 at the door to see if she is sitting, immovable, her red 
 draperies by the side of her red table, as etiquette pre- 
 scribes. She is now virtually a slave from this time 
 forth. 
 
 Having taken up considerable space in telling you 
 about the Chinaman's I^ew Year, I will now drop that 
 subject and tell you more about the country in my next 
 voyage. Of course we could not do any business with 
 the merchants during their festivities, we therefore 
 spent our time in sight-seeing, when not engaged in 
 duty on the ship. 
 
 " Time and tide wait for no man," and surely would 
 not wait for us. After laying at Canton about three 
 
ii. Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 months we got our cargo oft' and another one on board, 
 consisting of tea, silk, porcelain ware, and manufac- 
 tured goods, consigned to San Francisco, Cal., U. S. A. 
 We were not able to get a consignment for New York. 
 One beautiful morning in our month of May, we hoisted 
 anchor and dropped down by the custom house, where 
 we were inspected, preparatory to sailing for what we 
 called " God's Country," i, e., America. In due course 
 of time we reached San Francisco, without anything 
 happening worth mentioning. 
 
 After laying in port five weeks, we got ready to 
 start for Australia. We were to touch at Honolulu, the 
 capital of the Sandwich Islands. The voyage was a 
 rough one ; we met trade winds and storms, but we had 
 a good ship beneath us, and weathered it through all 
 right, and put in at the island '^0. K.'' After we got 
 through with our trading with the Sandwich merchants, 
 and holding up about four weeks, we set sail for Queens- 
 land, Australia, which we reached in due time, having 
 fair wind and good weather. 
 
 I wish to say right here that Queensland is as near 
 a garden spot of the world as any place I ever saw dur- 
 ing my sixteen years of seafaring, taking products, 
 climate, and all advantages into consideration. I pre- 
 sume my readers are acquainted with the history of 
 this rich land, therefore I will say but little about it at 
 present; but I will say that we were very busy during 
 the next six weeks getting out our cargo and getting 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac, Jf.5 
 
 on another. We loaded with wool consigned for New 
 York. When we got loaded we went down to New 
 South Wales and to Victoria; what for I do not know. 
 After a short stop at each place, we started for the 
 United States. We experienced considerable rough 
 weather on our way home, but got through with only 
 the loss of the top galliard. And in due time we 
 reached Bedlows Island, IST. Y. harbor, and there we 
 dropped anchor, and hoisted a signal for a pilot. Soon 
 a tug-boat came and towed us up to the city. After 
 receiving our pay and buying some new clothing, I 
 boared the train for home again. 
 
 Yes, "home sweet home, there's no place like 
 home." Having been absent nineteen months and ten 
 days, with but a few letters from home, not having 
 received a letter for three months, unexpectedly to them, 
 I arrived and found my family well, and glad enough 
 to see me. The little one that I left a three months old 
 baby in his mother's arms, I found running around and 
 talking almost as well as myself. 
 
 While I am making my visit an home I will mingle 
 a little nonsence, — a little of which now and then is 
 relished by the best of men. Of course in my sixteen 
 years as a sailor and four years in the army, I have met 
 with many funny instances; some of them so funny, 
 that should I relate them, would sound more like fairy 
 tales than truth. But I don't propose to fill my book 
 with " tom-foolery " for I think life too short and too full 
 
Jfi Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 of serious responsibilities to spend much of our time in 
 that direction. I have seen young people with their 
 noses turned skyward, who mingle in the best of society, 
 that cannot hold a fifteen minute intelligent conversa- 
 tion. I have also seen men whose lives have been 
 nearly spent on the dark blue sea, unlettered, and 
 almost out of civilization, that could talk intelligently 
 on almost any subject. The difference of the two is, 
 the one is rattle-headed and indifferent, did not culti- 
 vate the powers, tastes and senses that God had given 
 him; while the other was a keen observer, and had 
 improved his opportunities. As I expect this little 
 book to be read by the grave as well as the gay, I will 
 relate some of the funny scenes of my life. 
 
 A FEW BLUNDERS. 
 
 Living on a farm in our neighborhood was a Col- 
 onel Green, who had in his employ a French-Canadian. 
 The old sow had pigs, and the Colonel thought they did 
 not get enough to eat. He told the Frenchman tfo put 
 some straw in front of the trough, some milk in the 
 trough, then place the pigs on the straw and learn them 
 to eat. Instead of doing this right, he turned the milk 
 on the straw, caught the pigs and put them in the trough. 
 
 This same Colonel owned an old plug of a horse 
 that the Frenchman used to ride when he went to town. 
 One night he went to town with his old plug, and while 
 he was drinking, we boys untied his horse and let him go 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomae. Ifl 
 
 home. By-and-by the Frenchman came out and found 
 his horse gone. Then there was a French charge. He 
 
 said, "By d n, I give ^n^ dollars to know who 
 
 hitched my horse loose." 
 
 There was another very ignorant man in our neigh- 
 borhood. He owned a farm, and some one asked him 
 how much land he owned. He said, " My deed calls 
 for one hundred and sixty acres, more and more." 
 
 One spring he was building a barn. He was asked 
 how large his barn was to be. He replied, " It is to be 
 40x40 a hundred feet long." 
 
 At one of our town meetings he was elected 
 suveyor — just for the fun of the thing. He was sworn 
 into office and began repairing the roads. He removed 
 fences, cut down shade trees, and played the devil in 
 general. One old farmer complained to him that he 
 had no right to cut down trees on the public highway. 
 He replied, " By G — d, I have power to move a boiling 
 spring out of the road if I want to." 
 
 Well, this is enough nonsense at present. 
 
 I have been at home five weeks, and I must get to 
 work again, for when my work stops my pay stops. 
 There are now four mouths to feed, four backs to clothe, 
 rent to pay and wood to buy. I was suffering a great 
 deal with my head and did not know how soon I would 
 have to quit the sea. I told my wife I must go to 
 Portsmouth or Boston and look for a chance to ship. 
 
JfS Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 I had received a letter from a shipmate in Portsmouth 
 stating there was a schooner laying at the wharf in that 
 city, and a crew was wanted. I hastened to Portsmouth 
 and got a job on her. She was going up the Kennebec, 
 and take a load of ice to New Orleans, and there load 
 with cotton for Liverpool, and return with salt for New 
 York. Nothing happened worth mentioning until we 
 got our ice on board and reached New Orleans. We 
 discharged our ice and loaded withtjotton bales. After 
 loading, we hoisted anchor and set sail. 
 
 When about four days out, we sprung a leak, and 
 was ordered to man the pumps. We found her leaking 
 badly, we had to pump about two hundred and fifty 
 strokes per hour all the way across the ocean, which 
 lasted about twenty-eight days. After reaching Liver- 
 pool we discharged our freight and cabled to the owners 
 in New York, asking them what to do with the schooner. 
 They answered to place her in the dry docks and have 
 her repaired. After she was high and dry, the captain 
 told us it would be about six weeks before she would 
 be ready to again sail, and that we could go and see the 
 country or stay in the city. I chose the former, and 
 visited most all places of interest ; while traveling, I 
 made the impression that I was an American, and was 
 treated kindly. When I saw how the poor classes of 
 England had to live and the facilities they had for edu- 
 cation, I thanked God that I was an American citizen. 
 
 After roaming about England for ^ve weeks, I 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 4,9 
 
 came back to Liverpool and found my ship almost 
 done. After she was taken out of the dry dock, we 
 loaded her with salt and set sail for E"ew York City. 
 We had a very pleasant time crossing the Atlantic. 
 Upon reaching ]S"ew York, we received our pay and 
 once again I started for my family. I remained with 
 them a few days and then moved them to Kettery, 
 Maine, at which place I got a job in the U. S. J^avy 
 Yard as a blacksmith's helper. After working about 
 seven months, I noticed that work was falling ofl*, and 
 knew that a discharge was likely to follow soon. A 
 three-mast schooner was laying at the navy yard, that 
 had just discharged a cargo of live oak, and was going 
 to Pensacoia, Fla., for another load, for the navy yard 
 at Washington, D. C. I shipped on her ; we went to 
 Florida, got our live oak and returned to Washington. 
 I then left her and went back home, where I remained 
 a few weeks and rested up a little. 
 
 I then went to Boston and shipped again on a 
 bark for San Domingo, with a cargo of empty hogs- 
 heads, and brought back a cargo of raw sugar and 
 molasses. We then run up the Kennebec and took a 
 load of ice to New Orleans, and there took turpentine 
 and resin to a port in Mexico. 
 
 When off the southern coast of Mexico, we exper- 
 ienced one of the most terrible thunder storms that ever 
 was my misfortune to witness. The thunder roared, 
 the lightning flashed, and the rain fell in torrents. 
 
50 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 The wind blew a furious gale. We took in all sail and 
 scudded under bare poles. At four o'clock it was as dark 
 as midnight, and all on board was expecting to go 
 down every moment. Suddenly there came a terrible 
 clap of thunder, instantly followed by a flash of light- 
 ing. It struck our main top mast, shattering it to 
 splinters. It run down the mast taking everything 
 with it, and into the hold of the vessel, there bursting 
 a barrel of turpentine and setting fire to our vessel. I 
 want to say to you, dear reader, that if man ever thinks 
 of God and mother he would do so in times like this. 
 We lowered our boats in the raging and surging sea, in 
 blinding darkness, and managed to get away from the 
 burning ship by means of the light from the flames and 
 the flashes of lightning. There we were in open boats 
 in a raging sea, without food or drink, or even a com- 
 pass ; not knowing where we were or where going, 
 but thanked God that it was as well with us as it 
 was. We had two boats and fourteen men all told. 
 We lashed our boats together the best we could so as 
 not to get separated. We were tossed about until day- 
 light. At about twelve o'clock at night as near as we 
 could tell, the storm somewhat abated and when day- 
 light appeared, the sun rose in the east bright and clear, 
 and by t«n o'clock our clothing was dry, and so were 
 our throats. We kept a close watch all day for a ship, 
 but none was to be seen. Nothing but a vast body of 
 water was our surrounding. Thus another day passed, 
 
Four Years ivith the Army of the Potomac. 51 
 
 and night came on, and we were still in our open boats, 
 without food or water. 
 
 At about eight o'clock next morning a little shower 
 of rain fell. This was a God-send to us thirsty mariners. 
 It wet our shirts and we sucked the water from them 
 and cooled our parched tongues, and partially alleviated 
 our intense thirst. It seemed to me that if I ever tasted 
 anything in my life that was sweet and good, it was 
 that water sucked from my dirty shirt, full of tar and 
 sweat. Another day and night passed and no sails yet 
 in sight. "Oh, God!" we cried, "are we going to be 
 left to perish of hunger and thirst in this way?" On 
 the fourth day of our perilous voyage-, at about sunset, 
 we spied a ship about a mile and a half away. One of 
 the men had on a red shirt, which he pulled off and 
 hoisted on an oar. We tried our best to attract the 
 attention of the ship's crew. After about half an hour 
 we saw evidence that we were seen, as the ship changed 
 her course and bore down on us. Just before dark we 
 were ouce more on the deck of a good ship. They 
 began caring for us, for we were almost perished from 
 hunger and thirst. There was a doctor on board who 
 took charge of us, and began by feeding us a table- 
 spoonful of water and a piece of bread about an inch 
 square, soaked in water, and a little brandy. This 
 amount was given us every half hour for twenty-four 
 hours, after which they were more liberal. In due time 
 we were all restored to health again, with no particular 
 bad results. 
 
5^ Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 The ship that picked us up proved to be a barker- 
 teen, John Eogers, bound for Porto Rico, South Amer- 
 ica. Her captain was Frank Dingley, who carried us 
 to the port of Porto Eico. There the two captains 
 went to the American Consul who provided for us by 
 securing boarding for us, and told us to keep a lookout 
 for a chance to ship back to the United. States. In about 
 three weeks I got a job on a ship bound for Savannah, 
 Ga., at very small pay, however. But thank Provi- 
 dence I got enough money to pay my way home again 
 and still had a little cash, left. I found my family well. 
 
 Those that go down to the sea in ships sometimes 
 undergo horrors and hardships that cannot be experi- 
 enced on terra-firma. We are glad to know that serious 
 disasters on the briny deep do not occur as often as for- 
 merly ; yet they do occur at times, and always will. 
 
 Perhaps some of my readers would like to know 
 how sailors provide for their families at home while they 
 are at sea. We get an order from the owners, to some 
 store, at so much per month. If we are not at home, 
 when we ship, the order is sent to the bank which cashes 
 it at a small discount, and they then draw on the owners 
 of the ship. I still have in my possession the following 
 order : 
 
 Portsmouth, N. H., April 19, 1869. 
 Fernell & Simes, please pay to the order of Mary A. Eaton, fifteen 
 dollars per month, and charge to the account of James R. Eaton at our 
 store. Fernell & Simes. 
 
Four Years luith the Army of the Potomac. 5S 
 
 This firm kept a store of family supplies, but would 
 pay some money if my wife wished it. 
 
 I owned my property and she had no rent to pay, 
 and but the three children and herself to care for. I 
 always left her some money besides, so that she did not 
 want for anything while I was ^one. Sometimes I 
 would leave her enough to pay her own way, but I felt 
 safer in leaving an order, in case the ship went down 
 she would have that much of my wages, and what little 
 money I had on hand could then be used after I had 
 gone to the bottom of the sea. It does not often hap- 
 pen that ship owners ever pay the widows whose hus- 
 bands perish while in their service. And yet the ship, 
 as well as the cargo, is generally well insured. 
 
 Kow in order not to worry the reader I will give 
 you a few pages of miscellaneous. I have been more 
 than two years writing, at different intervals, this far 
 and will never finish at this rate. The reason I have 
 been so long, I have tried to remember dates, but I find 
 that I cannot do it, with only my memory to draw from. 
 So I will go ahead and finish my book, writing only 
 what comes to mind. It was my intention when I 
 commenced writing, to give a complete history of my 
 army life. But I find at this late date, (1893,) the 
 soldier is looked upon by the masses with but very little 
 favor, and the rising generation regard us with disgrace 
 rather than honor. Therefore I shall say but little on 
 that point, but consider the forty-nine months that I 
 
5Jf Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 served in the army as thrown away, notwithstanding 
 that when I was mustered in the army of the United 
 States service I swore that I would obey my superiors, 
 and I did. When I was ordered to advance, I advanced; 
 when ordered to retreat, I also obeyed. If I was wanted 
 for guard or picket duty, I went, and went without 
 grumbling or murmuring. If the government did not 
 use me to a good advantage, it is responsible and not 
 me, for I was there to be used. 
 
 I meditate upon my childhood and respectfully 
 dedicate this little piece of poetry to the sweetheart of 
 my boyhood. 
 
 WHEN I WAS MARY'S BEAU. 
 
 Away down east, where I was raised, among my Yankee kith, 
 There used to live a pretty girl whose name was Mary Smith ; 
 And though it's many years since last I saw that pretty girl, 
 And though I feel I'm sadly worn by western strife and whirl. 
 Still, oftentimes I think about the old familiar place. 
 Which oftentimes seemed brighter for Miss Mary's pretty face. 
 And in my heart I feel once more revivified the glow 
 I used to feel in those old times when I was Mary's beau. 
 
 On Friday night I'd drop around to make my weekly call, 
 And, though I came to visit her, I'd have to see 'em all, 
 With Mary's mother sitting here and Mary's father there. 
 The conversation never flagged, so far as I'm aware. 
 Sometimes I'd hold her worsted, sometimes we'd play at games. 
 Sometimes dissect the apples which we named each others names — 
 Oh, how I loathed the shrill toned clock, that told me when to go, 
 T'was ten o'clock at half past eight, when I was Mary's beau. 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 55 
 
 And Mary shall these lines of mine seek out your 'biding place, 
 God grant they bring the old sweet smile back to your pretty face. 
 God grant they bring you thoughts of me, not as I am to-day, 
 With faltering steps and dimming eyes, and aspect grimly gray ; 
 But thoughts that picture me as fair and full of life and glee, 
 As we were in the olden time — as yon shall always be. 
 Think of me ever Mary, as the boy you used to know 
 When time was fleet, and life was sweet, and I was Mary's beau. 
 
 I will now relate a few of the 
 
 STARTLING TALES OF THE SEA, — A FEW FANTASTIC 
 
 The love of '' yarning," or story telling is the most 
 prominent characteristic of the sailor, and it is often 
 surprising to note the flights which Jack's imagination 
 will frequently take. To while away the long, weary 
 hours of the night watches, the mariner resorts to spin- 
 ning yarns as the most pleasant and congenial manner 
 of breaking the monotony of the situation, and the man 
 who possesses the most fertile brain and vivid imagina- 
 tion, it is safe to say, stands high in the esteem of his 
 shipmates. In the startling midnight tales, the truth is 
 entirely ignored ; and, in fact, any semblance thereto 
 would at once stamp the narrator as being wholly devoid 
 of ideas, and not worthy an audience. On the contrary, 
 he who could entertain his listeners with the recital of 
 some incident which never did nor possibly could occur, 
 
56 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 was at once a prime favorite of the whole ship's com- 
 pany. During many years at sea, both before and abaft 
 the mast — for be it remembered that the officers of the 
 quarter deck, are as much given to innocent pastime 
 as the men in the forecastle — the writer has heard 
 many a " cuffer '' (story) that would cause a crimson 
 blush to mantle the cheeks and rise to the brow of 
 veracity. Some of these are here repeated. 
 
 It was a moon-light night, and the noble ship 
 James and Mary was running down the trades with 
 everything drawing a'low and aloft. The starboard or 
 second mate's watch had the deck, and some ten men 
 were seated in a group upon the main hatch 
 
 '' Now I'll tell you what it is, my lads," began an 
 old weather-beaten son of nature, who had shipped 
 under the name of Tom Long; " these 'ere latitudes 
 what we're in are the pleasantest that a sailor can find 
 anywhar around the world, 'cause, you see, it aint too 
 hot or too cold, its just about right; but I've been in 
 my time where a feller would a wished he'd fell over- 
 board on his first voyage, afore he'd got to sich a place." 
 
 " Where was that, old son ? " asked one of the 
 crew. 
 
 " It was this a'way : Some years ago I left a vessel 
 in the Pacific Islands, and joined a whaler to go ^blub- 
 ber hunting.' We cruised about until we begun to git 
 short of water and fresh pervisions, and the ' old man ' 
 was jist making up his mind to go into port to refit. 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 57 
 
 but hadn't jest decided whether he would go to Hono- 
 lulu or bear away to the south'ard to make Australia. 
 As I said, he hadn't made up his mind, but it didn't 
 make much difference then, for we was in a dead calm, 
 and couldn't a'gone nowhar. When all of a sudden, in 
 the middle night of the watch, we felt the ship lifted 
 up until about half her sides was out of the water, and 
 then carried ahead faster'n any steamer ever traveled 
 sinc6 the days that the boy played with the tea-kettle, 
 twenty-six knots an hour if it was one ! 
 
 *< 'What's the matter? ' says the ' old man.' 
 
 " ' Don't know, sir,' says the mate, ' never seen 
 anything like this afore.' 
 
 " Over our stern we were leaving a wake that reached 
 clear to the horizon, all we could do was to stand still 
 and hold on. Two days and two nights we kept a'go- 
 ing, not a man daring to let go, not even to get a bite 
 to eat, for fear he would be blown overboard. Bimeby 
 we raised the land, and we were heading straight for it. 
 
 **' Great Keptune ! ' shouted the skipper, ' the chap 
 that's got us in tow is going to pile us upon the reef.' 
 
 *' But just as he spoke we began to slow down a bit, 
 and when within about a mile of the shore, what do 
 think?" 
 
 " Don't know, Tom, don't know," quickly replied 
 the interested listeners. 
 
 "Well, lads, as I was telling you— two whales, that 
 was each a good cable's length from 'blow-hole' to 
 
58 Sixteen Years on the Bark Blue Sea, 
 
 * fluke/ * broke' water close alongside and sheared off, 
 one to starb'd and the other to port, and we knowed it 
 was them brutes what had been carrying us on their 
 backs. 
 
 " * Let go both anchors,' cried the capin. 
 
 "And down went the mud hooks. When our 
 headway was stopped, and the ship swung to her cables, 
 we began to feel the hot air coming off from the land. 
 We clued up the sails and spread the awning, but as I 
 am a sailor, afore the canvass had been stretched over 
 our decks an hour, it was scorched as brown, by the sun, 
 as a tar bucket. 
 
 " Pretty soon the mate called out, * We're dragging ! 
 we're dragging ! ' E"ow that was queer, for there wasn't 
 wind enough to blow a fly off the bald head of the 
 skipper. I jumped forward and looked over the bow, 
 and there were the ends of our two chain cables a hang- 
 ing. The heat had been so great that they melted off 
 about four feet from the hawse pipes. Then we set sail 
 and run for Honolulu, where I left her." 
 
 "Pugh ! " murmured some of his auditors. 
 
 " I believe ye, Tom ; I believe ye," rejoined the 
 boatswain, as he rolled the pipe from between his lips, 
 "for I joined the same ship when she went up to cruise 
 in the Artie. We got pretty well to the nor'ard, and as 
 the whales were plenty we stayed a little longer than 
 we'd orter, and one fine morning we found ourselves 
 frozen in. * We've got to make the winter here,' said 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 69 
 
 the " old man." We knowed it as well as he did, and 
 it didn't make us feel any the better for it. 
 
 " Every day it Mowed colder and colder, until along 
 about Christmas time a cook couldn't boil water on the 
 galley stove, for the ice in the kettle. The cap'n would 
 stand on the quarter-deck and give an order, and the 
 cabin boy would have to stand close beside him and cut 
 the words off his beard, as they froze into icicles, then 
 carry them for'ard to the mate, who would put them 
 before his own mouth to thaw out, and when they 
 began to melt you could hear them spoken just as 
 plain as though the skipper was not two feet away. 
 Now, that's what you won't call cold weather," conclu- 
 ded the narrator in an oracular tone. 
 
 *' You lads have seen some pretty strange things, 
 and no mistake," spoke up Jim Bowlin, a grizzled 
 mariner; "but them was all out in the Pacific and 
 Arctic. But I've seen sights in the east, though they 
 had nothing to do with cold or heat, yet they were 
 such as would make any man believe the world was a 
 coming to an end. It was when I was aboard a big 
 hunk of a bark bound to Manilla. Now, it seemed the 
 <old man' had two chronometers in the cabin, one of 
 them he'd taken, the voyage before, from a sinking 
 ship, and I suppose he had them both set correct before 
 leaving port. However, when we were in the Indian 
 Ocean, one of them got astray; that is, they didn't 
 * ji6e,' and which one was wrong, and which one to go 
 
60 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 by, the skipper didnn't know, so he was all at sea as 
 to our longitude. We ^worked up' our latitude hoping 
 to fall in with some other vessel that would give us 
 our time. But we didn't. So when we got in about 
 twelve degrees south, we kept off the west in order to 
 make the broad side of Madagascar, because, if any of 
 you are navigators you'll know by hitting a point of 
 laud you can find your exact time. We kept on this 
 course for a matter of two days, when, in the night 
 time, all at once, we ^ fetched up.' We were nearer the 
 land than we'd calculated on. In an hour after she 
 struck, the ship was a wreck on a reef about half a 
 mile from shore, and we were in the boats. All hands 
 made a safe landing on the beach, but I tell you, ship- 
 mates, it was a wild country. At daylight we, all of 
 us, went seeking for something to eat and drink. 
 
 " Three or four of us, with the second mate, struck 
 inland and had traveled maybe three cable's length, 
 when all at once the officer said : * There, boys, is a 
 palm tree which will give us some good fresh water. 
 Now I'll climb aloft and top the ' beggar.' So he 
 started up the trunk. It wasn't a tall tree like a cocoa- 
 nut, but shorter, more like a plantain, with big long 
 leaves drooping down almost to the ground. 
 
 " Well, the second mate got to the top and set him- 
 self right in the middle, when, as I'm a saint, those 
 leaves began to straighten out, then lift their points up, 
 and curl together. We hollered to the officer to lay 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 61 
 
 down from aloft. But he didn't start in time, and those 
 leaves kept a binding and binding, until we lost sight 
 of the man. We heard him sing out for help, but we 
 couldn't do anything; it just crushed the poor fellow 
 to death. 
 
 "We ran back and told the captain what had hap- 
 pened. He came up and looked at the tree, and then 
 he said : * I've heard of such things, but I never saw 
 it before. Our second mate is gone.' The next morn- 
 ing we took a look at the palm, and there she was, with 
 her great broad leaves a drooping down just as natural 
 as ever, and the body of the poor fellow all crushed to 
 a jelly lying on the top of it." 
 
 " I say, Jim, that's a pretty tough yarn ! " broke 
 in one of the men. 
 
 "But nevertheless, I believe it," said one sailor 
 named Bill, "because I've seen a sight that's just as 
 strange as that." 
 
 "No doubt of it, shipmate,^' returned Jim, "for 
 you have been around this world a good bit. But what 
 was it that befell you ? " 
 
 " It came about pretty much as your scrape did. I 
 was wrecked on one of the Crozet Islands in the Indian 
 Ocean, but then only two of us got ashore alive. We 
 happened to strike a little patch of sandy beach that 
 was kind of sheltered like, and climbed up out of the 
 surf. I lay down on the ground all tuckered out, but 
 my shipmate crawled upon the top of a rock to dry 
 himself in the sun, as he said. 
 
62 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 " We were close together and talking all the time, 
 when by-and-by, Bob, that was his name, his voice 
 became kind of distant like, and I thought he was 
 walking away from me. 
 
 " But no, thf^re he was, as I saw when I raised my- 
 self on one elbow to look. But he wasn't more than 
 half the size he was when we first got ashore. 
 
 *'< What's the mater. Bob? Aren't you feeling 
 well?' I asked. 
 
 " ^ Never felt better in my life,' he replied. 
 
 " ' What makes you look so small ? ' 
 
 " ^I'm just as large as I ever was. The shipwreck 
 has turned your brain.' 
 
 " I knew it hadn't. There he was on top of the 
 boulder, but no bigger than the cook's cat. Then I got 
 up, thinking I must be dreaming, and started toward 
 him ; but shipmates, when I got to the rock there was 
 nothing left of poor Bob but his belt and sheathknife. 
 Yes, the rock had swallowed him up, and left me alone 
 on a desert island." 
 
 A short pause ensued, when a fifth sailor said : 
 
 '' I don't suppose any of you fellows, to look at me 
 now, would think that I was once as rich as the great 
 Mogul. But I was, and it happened in this way. It 
 was at the time of the gold fever in Australia, along 
 somewhere in '50 or '51. I was before the mast in a 
 packet ship sailing from Liverpool to Melbourne. They 
 were paying big wages to sailors homeward bound, for 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 63 
 
 most of the crews ot the vessels jumped and made for 
 the diggings. Well, I didn't care for that sort of thing, 
 so I started for England in the Eoyal George. We 
 were coming home round Cape of Good Hope, but 
 when in the Indian Ocean we took a cyclone that drove 
 us a long way out of our course, and nearly dismasted 
 us. We made for an island that was near about and 
 came to an anchor to repair. When some of us were 
 going ashore in the boat to see if we could get some 
 timber, we smelt the awfulest smell that a man could 
 think about. We all wanted to pull back to the ship 
 to get out of it, but the second mate, who was an old 
 whaler, stood up in the boat and began to sniff and 
 sniff. Then he sang out : 
 
 " * Give way ! boys, give way ! and we'll all be rich 
 men, for I smell ambergris!' And sure enough all 
 about us was floating chunks of the stuff in pieces as big 
 as my fist, and on up to a water cask. The captain 
 was near crazy when we carried some of it back aboard ; 
 and for three days we done nothing but gather amber- 
 gris and stow it away in our hold. Then we turned to 
 and rigged jury masts and headed for Cape Town. 
 There we sold out, and how much do you suppose we 
 got apiece ? You know it's worth more than its weight 
 in gold." 
 
 " Couldn't say," replied some of the sailors in 
 chorus. 
 
 " Well boys, as true as I'm a settin on this hatch, 
 
64' Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 we were paid off with five hundred pounds to a man.'' 
 ($2,500.) 
 
 "Five hundred pounds!" exclaimed the mariner 
 who had experienced the hot weather. "And what 
 became of your whack?" 
 
 "Whatever becomes of a sailor's money? I spent 
 it like a man inside of twelve months and was then off 
 again to sea." 
 
 The second mate had walked forward in time to 
 overhear the last two yarns, and interrupted the story- 
 telling by saying, with a smile on his face: 
 
 "Now then, my lads, if you've finished with your 
 cuffers, supposing you use some of your wind in haul- 
 ing taut this weather main brace." 
 
 And from that time until the eight belis struck the 
 starboard watch was kept busy pulling and hauling, 
 first on this brace and that sheet, this tack and that 
 halyard, until when it was time to go below, the men 
 thought more of going to sleep than they did of listen- 
 ing further to startling tales of the sea. 
 
 AN OLD VETERAN S STORY. 
 
 A veteran tells this story of Gen. Sherman : 
 
 " I was in a railroad car on a certain occasion, 
 
 going to the unveiling of a monument to some general. 
 
 We were in the smoker, when G-en. Sherman, who had 
 
 been in the sleeping car, came in. He sat down and 
 
Four Years loith the Army of the Potomac. 65 
 
 began talking to me. In a few minutes an old soldier 
 came in and said : 
 
 '' Gen. Sherman I want to shake hands with you. 
 I am an old soldier who fought through the war." 
 
 "Tell me/^ said Gen. Sherman, reaching out his 
 hand, " did you put down the rebellion ? " 
 
 "No." 
 
 " Well, sit down then ; I am always glad to talk 
 with an old soldier who didn't put down the rebellion." 
 
 Now I don't feel as though I could consistently 
 finish my work, without speaking about the bravery of 
 some of our American women, as they proved them- 
 selves to be, during the war of the rebellion, and in the 
 war of 1812, and that of the revolution. 
 
 The women of the Revolutionary War were gen- 
 erous, high spirited and devoted. They resigned their 
 property without a sigh, went from house to house beg- 
 ging for the Continental army, embroidered colors, dis- 
 tributed arms and ammunition, exhorting the men to 
 use them like heroes. Even the girls in many instances 
 pledged themselves not to receive addresses from lovers 
 who had not given proof of love for their country. 
 The records are full of noble deeds and bravery, some 
 of which are here presented : 
 
 One one occasion, when a boy had fallen under 
 suspicion, who was in the habit of bringing letters to 
 the " rebels," concealed on his person, a young woman 
 
66 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 entered into a game of romps with him in the market- 
 place of the town, and, covering his head with her 
 apron, abstracted his dispatches. When she got home 
 with her prize and found that the missive contained good 
 news, this gay, high spirited lassie, not knowing how 
 to give vent to her joy without exciting the observation 
 of the towns-people, stuck her head out of the window 
 and gave a shout for the " Republic ! " 
 
 When the first call to arms sounded through the 
 land, a Mrs. Drapier immediately exhorted her husband 
 to lose no time in hastening to the scene of action, and 
 with her own hands bound knapsack and blanket on 
 the shoulders of her only son, a stripling of sixteen, 
 bidding him depart and do his duty. To the entreaties 
 of her daughter that her young brother might remain 
 ot home to be their protector, she answered that every 
 able-bodied man and arm belonged to the country. 
 " He is wanted and must go. You and I, Kate, have 
 also service to do. Food must be prepared for the 
 hungry ; for before to-morrow night hundreds, I hope 
 thousands, will be on their way to join the Continental 
 army. Some who have traveled far will need refresh- 
 ment, and you and I, with Molly, must feed as many as 
 we can." For two days and a night she employed her- 
 self diligently in baking bread; and then, erecting a 
 long table on the road-side, she covered it with pans of 
 bread and cheese, placing great pails of cider beside 
 them. 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 67 
 
 After the battle of Bunker Hill there was a great 
 scarcity of ammnnition, and Washington called upon 
 the inhabitants to send him every ounce of pewter or 
 lead in their province. This appeal could not be disre- 
 garded ; but it is difficult at this day to estimate the 
 value of pewter, as well as its indispensable convenience. 
 The more precious metals had not then found their way 
 to the tables of the New Englanders ; and throughout 
 the country services of pewter, scoured to the bright- 
 ness of silver, covered the board even in the houses of 
 the wealthy. Few withheld their portion in that hour 
 of need, and noble were the sacrifices made by these 
 patriots in presenting their willing offerings. 
 
 Mrs. Drapier was rich in a large stock of pewter, 
 which she valued as the greatest ornament of her house. 
 Much of it was precious to her as the gift of a departed 
 mother. But the call reached her heart, and she was 
 thankful that she was able to contribute so largely to 
 the requirements of her country. The supply of 
 domestic cloth designed for her family was in a short 
 time converted by her labor, assisted by her daughter 
 and the maid, into coats for the soldiers; the sheets 
 and blankets with which her presses were stored, were 
 fashioned into shirts; and even the flannels already 
 made up for laerself and daughter, were altered into 
 men's garments. 
 
 A Mrs. Pond, of Connecticut, assisted only by 
 another woman and a hired man, on a sudden emer- 
 
68 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 gency, prepared in a single hour a breakfast of milk 
 and hasty pudding for one hundred hungry and wearied 
 soldiers. 
 
 A patriot by the name of Israel, falling under 
 something more than suspicion, was taken on board an 
 English frigate as a spy, and a detachment of marines 
 was sent to caputre and slaughter his cattle. Mrs. 
 Israel was a young wife of nineteen, about to become 
 a mother, and is described as of a slight and girlish 
 figure; modest and retiring manners. On seeing the 
 marines land, however, and accompanied by a boy of 
 only eight years of age, she set out at full speed to 
 the rescue of the cattle. This she effected by driving 
 them into the barn-yard, with the shot of the enemy 
 falling thick about her. There they were safe, for the 
 British forces in that quarter were not in a condition 
 to invade farm houses. 
 
 One noble woman, Mrs. Gibb8,it is recorded, in the 
 midst of scenes of violence, during the robbery of her 
 house by the British troops, commanded even their 
 respect by her calm and lady like deportment. In her 
 presence all was, at least, the show of decorum. Main- 
 taining her place as mistress of her household, and 
 presiding at her table, she treated her uninvited guests 
 with a dignified courtesy that insured civility, while it 
 prevented presumptions familiarity. The boldest and 
 rudest among them bowed involuntarily to an influence 
 which fear or force could not have secured. 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 69 
 
 Mrs. Mott appears conspicuously in her heroism 
 when she consented to the destruction of her property. 
 Her magnificent house interrupted the progress of an 
 important siege, and the American comlnander hinted 
 with great embarrassment to a lady, to whom the patri- 
 otic cause owed so much, that its destruction would 
 lead in all probability to the capture of the enemy. 
 The smile with which the communication was received 
 gave instant relief to the embarrassed officer, Mrs. Mott 
 not only consented, but declared that she was gratified 
 with the opportunity of contributing to the good of 
 her country, and should view the approaching scene 
 with delight. Shortly after, seeing the bows and arrows 
 which had been prepared to carry combustible matter, 
 she sent for Lee, and, presenting him with a bow and 
 its apparatus which had been imported from India, 
 requested his substitution of them as better suited for 
 the object than those provided. The house was burned 
 down before her eyes. The British garrison surrend- 
 ered, and, after the captors had taken possession, Mrs. 
 Mott signalized the occasion by presiding with feminine 
 grace at a grand dinner of the officers. 
 
 William Martin was killed at the battle of Augusta, 
 and a British officer rode out of his way to gratify his 
 hatred of the "rebels'' by conveying the intelligence 
 abruptly to the bereaved mother. " You had a son," 
 said he, "in the army at Augusta. I saw his brains 
 blown out on the field of battle." The American 
 
70 Sixteen Years on the Bark Blue Sea^ 
 
 woman did not blanch for an instant; her countenance 
 was calm, whatever strife may have been going on 
 within, and looking steadily at the ruffian, she answered : 
 " He could not have died in a nobler cause." 
 
 At a time when the failure of ammunition began to 
 be vexatiously felt in the American army, supplies of 
 war were secreted in hollow trees and other such places. 
 The amount given to Col. Bratton was confided by him, 
 during an occasional absence, to the care of his wife; 
 but the circumstances becoming in some way known, 
 a detachment of the enemy was sent to secure it. Mrs. 
 Bratton was made aware of their near approach, and 
 immediately laid a train of powder from the depot to 
 the spot where she stood, and when the detachment 
 came in sight, set fire to the train and blew it up. The 
 explosion that greeted the ears of the foe informed 
 them that the object of their expedition was frustrated. 
 The officer of the command, irritated to fury, demanded 
 who had dared to perpetrate such an act, and threatened 
 instant and severe vengeance upon the culprit. The 
 intrepid woman, answering for herself: " It was I who 
 did it, let the consequences be what they will, I glory 
 in having prevented the mischief contemplated by the 
 cruel enemies of my country." 
 
 A quiet, unobtrusive looking house in Philadelphia, 
 inhabited by a Quaker couple by the name of Darragh, 
 was chosen by the British officers as a place for private 
 conference; and one evening of their meeting, the 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 71 
 
 party in command exhibited so much anxiety to get 
 the family to bed, that the alarm of the mistress, Lydia 
 Darragh, was excited. She could not rest that night. 
 She heard in imagination sounds of feet from the mid- 
 night council, and at length getting up, she stole like a 
 shadow to the door of the room, and heard the reading 
 of a paper, containing the plan of attack upon the 
 American army at the White Marsh on the next day 
 but one. She crept back to bed and a knock at her 
 door soon announced that her mysterious guests were 
 departing. She arose, shut up her house, and collected 
 her thoughts. Information must be given to her 
 countrymen of the impending destruction; but by 
 whom ? To employ her husband would be to place him 
 in imminent jeopardy, and she determined to be herself 
 the messenger. Early the next morning, taking an 
 empty sack with her for the ostensible purpose of pro- 
 curing flour for her family, she went to headquarters, 
 obtained Gen. Howe's written permiseion to pass the 
 British lines, and then walking through the snow to 
 Frankfort, deposited her sack at the mill. She then 
 pressed forward toward the American outposts, but 
 luckily falling in with an afficer on the way, she 
 delivered her fateful tidings. Lydia returned home 
 with her sack of flour the same day, and the baffled 
 British never could imagine to whom they owed this 
 unfathomable treachery. 
 
 Early in the war, Gov. Rutledge sent out a quantity 
 
72 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 of arms and ammunition to the house of Col. Thomas, 
 to be ready in case of any emergency that might arise 
 on the frontier. These munitions were under guard 
 of twenty-five men, and the house was prepared to 
 resist assault. Col. Thomas received information that 
 a large party of Tories, under command of Col. Moore, 
 of North Carolina, was advancing to attack him. He 
 and his guard deeming it inexpedient to risk an 
 encounter with a force so much superior to their own, 
 retired, carrying as much ammunition as possible. 
 Josiah Culbertson, a son-in-law of Col. Thomas, who 
 was with the little garrison, would not go with the 
 others, and remained in the house. Besides him and a 
 boy, the only inmates were women. The Tories 
 advanced and took up their station, but the treasure 
 was not to be yielded to their demand. Their call for 
 admittance was answered by an order to leave the 
 premises, and their fire was received without much 
 injury by the logs of which the house was built. Their 
 fire was quickly returned from the upper story, and 
 proved much more eflTectual than that of the assailants. 
 The old-fashioned " batten " door, strongly barricaded, 
 resisted their efforts to demolish it. 
 
 Meanwhile Culbertson continued to fire, the guns 
 being loaded as fast as he discharged them, by the ready 
 hands of Mrs. Thomas and her daughters, aided by her 
 son, William; and this spirited resistance very shortly 
 convinced the enemy that further effort was useless. 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 73 
 
 Believing that many men were concealed in the house, 
 and apprehending a sally, their retreat was made as 
 rapidly as their wounds would permit. After waiting 
 a prudent time, and reconnoitering as well as she could 
 from her position above, Mrs. Thomas descended the 
 stairs and opened the doors. The powder thus preserved 
 constituted the principal supply for Sumter's army in 
 the battles of Eocky Mount and Hanging Rock. 
 
 In district I^o. ninety-six, there lived two women 
 named Martin, wives of two brothers. One evening 
 intelligence came to them that a courier, conveying 
 important dispatches to one of the upper stations, was 
 to pass that night along the road, guarded by two 
 British officers. They determined to waylay the 
 party, and, at the risk of their lives, to obtain posses- 
 sion of the papers. For this purpose the two young 
 women disguised themselves in their husband's clothes, 
 and, being well provided with arms, took their station 
 at a point on the road which they knew the escort must 
 pass. It was already late, and they had not waited 
 long before the tramp of horses was heard in the 
 distance. It may be imagined with what anxious 
 expectation the heroines awaited the approach of the 
 critical moment on which so much depended. Presently 
 the courier appeared with his attendant guards. As 
 they came close to the spot, the disguised women leaped 
 from their covert in the bushes, presented their pistols 
 at the officers and demanded the instant surrender of 
 
7i, Sixteen Years on the Bark Blue Sea, 
 
 the party and their dispatches. The men were taken 
 completely by surprise, and in their alarm by the sudden 
 attack, yielded a prompt submission. The seeming 
 soldiers put them on their parols, and, having taken 
 possession of their papers, hastened home by a short 
 cut through the forest. It happened, curiously enough, 
 that the officers, returning on parole, claimed the hospi- 
 tality of these very ladies, and related their mishaps to 
 them, without having any suspicion of their conquerors 
 and entertainers. 
 
 The history of the world cannot show more per- 
 sonal bravery and devotion to country than that dis- 
 played by our grandmothers and great-grandmothers. 
 
 Before going any further with this little book, I 
 wish to indulge the patience of the reader, for it has 
 been written amid the busy cares and toils of the world, 
 with no claim to learning. Many of its pages have 
 been written after toiling hard all day, and when I 
 should have been resting my weary limbs in bed. But 
 I have been blessed with a strong constitution, and 
 immense power of endurance, and having ever required 
 but little sleep. At the present writing I am fifty-two 
 years of age, and I suppose I have seen as many hours 
 awake as most men have at sixty. Well, dear reader, 
 I will drop this miscellaneous, and go ahead with my 
 life's history. 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 75 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 After getting home from my shipwreck ofi* the 
 coast of Mexico, I thought I would throw up the sponge 
 and not go to sea again, but try and make a living on 
 land. I was totally unacquainted with any kind of 
 work on shore, and times were slack, and plenty of 
 good men were ready to do all the work. 
 
 One day, after I had been home about three weeks, 
 I happened down to the wharf, where they were unload- 
 ing a cargo of coal. They were short of a hand and 
 asked if I wanted a job. I told them yes, and " peeled " 
 my garments. I asked what my pay was to be. I was 
 told a share of five dollars a ton, to be divided between 
 five of us, and that we could make from ^yQ to seven 
 dollars per day. So I went to work. This was in the 
 latter part of June. The man, whose place I took, did 
 not come back, so I stayed until October. Then work 
 got slack, and a bark was lying at the wharf at the 
 south end, (so called.) I went and saw the captain. 
 He told we that he was in want of one more able sea- 
 man. So I shipped again for a winter's voyage to the 
 West Indies. As soon as we were ready we weighed 
 anchor and hoisted sail, and went to New York City, 
 took on a cargo of general merchandise, and started for 
 our destination. 
 
 After being on our way about a week, one after- 
 
76 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 noon we spied on the water about half a mile distant, 
 what looked like a big raft, but proved to be a monstrous 
 sea-turtle. The captain was called and told of it. He 
 said, " Boys, let's try and capture him." The mate fixed 
 a lasso from a stout one-inch rope, and as soon as we 
 got near enough to him, we lowered our boat and six 
 men and the mate went to capture him. The mate 
 threw the lasso, — the first time he missed him, but the 
 second trial was more successful, it falling over his head. 
 Then there was a very exciting struggle. The mate 
 had taken his rifle with him, and he put a ball through 
 its head, which stunned him until we got«aboard the 
 ship with our rope, which we made fast to the capstan. 
 We all seized the capstan bars and worked with a will 
 until we had him on deck. Then, with a sharp axe, we 
 beheaded him, and you had better believe there was 
 some flouncing by Mr. Turtle. He was a monster ; being 
 over twelve feet long and seven feet wide. He was of a 
 dark green color. After letting him bleed all night we 
 went to work on him in the morning, and with the aid 
 of an axe and saw, we separated the meat from the shell, 
 and by noon we had a mess cleaned for dinner. The 
 cook fried it, and we had a feast. We had turtle soup 
 for supper, and the cook salted down the balance. 
 
 In the course of time we reached our destination 
 and unloaded our cargo, and got ready to take another 
 on board, which consisted of mahogany and logwood 
 in the lower hold, and early vegetables and fruits, such 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 77 
 
 as lemons, oranges, onions, potatoes, etc., above. After 
 getting all on board, we sailed for I^ew York and 
 reached Bedlow's Island on the 15th of March, having 
 been gone five months. The next day a tug-boat towed 
 us up to the city, where we disposed of our fruits and 
 vegetables, and then went to Boston and discharged the 
 balance of our cargo. While there I took a run down 
 home to see my family. 
 
 Another son having been born to us on February 
 22, 1 found my family well and my new son fat and 
 saucy. I promised the captain that I would make 
 another voyage with him ; and after three happy weeks 
 with my family, I received a dispatch to come on. I 
 bid my family good-bye again and started for Boston. 
 
 The captain said this trip was to Halifax. We 
 experienced considerable rough weather on our voyage, 
 but met with no very bad damage, only losing one top 
 mast by having it broken by the wind. When we 
 reached that port, we found considerable excitement 
 prevailing, caused by the fact that a monster devil-fish 
 had washed ashore during the late storm. It was the 
 largest of its species that history has ever recorded. It 
 was eighteen feet across its body, and its powerful ser- 
 pentine arms measured twenty-two feet. I will give 
 you a brief description of its habits and its home. 
 
 The sepia octopus colossus belongs to the class 
 
 moluska, and the order cephalapoda, so called because 
 
 'the organs of movement are grouped about the head. 
 
78 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 It is the largest of a numerous family, commonly called 
 cuttle-fishy rock-squid^ and properly termed by Montford, 
 Diquemar and others, the great polypsus colossal cuttle 
 fish, and among seamen called kra-ken, krab-ben, sea 
 harven, and in our language, sea devil, or devil fish. 
 
 While the smaller varieties inhabit the sea coast, 
 clinging to rocks w^ith two arms — while the others are 
 thrown out to catch passing fish, the sea devil, (sepia 
 octopus^) takes to mid-ocean, and following the instincts 
 of its diminutive cousins, makes its home among the 
 rocks and cliffs in the bottom of the sea, where it 
 becomes the deadly foe of anything that may pass in 
 reach of its powerful serpentine arms — these mon- 
 strous weapons, each furnished with a series of exhaust- 
 ers, with which it clings with fatal tenacity to its prey, 
 likewise become its organs of progression with which it 
 can climb the slippery steeps of s-ub-marine cliffs, or with 
 a rotary cork-screw like motion of the arms, propel 
 itself through and upon the surface of the water with 
 great velocity, overtaking even the shark in his mad- 
 dest flight. 
 
 Though the rocks of the sea are its favorite home, 
 where it rests content as long as its dreadful abode is 
 not evaded by passing fish, yet, when driven by hunger, 
 it leaves its rocky fastness, and, in the language of 
 Montford, " becomes a veritable devil encased in living 
 flesh, to prowl the mid-ocean depths." The body, which 
 is small in proportion to the spread of its arms, is 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 79 
 
 simply a leathery bag, containing the intestines and 
 organs of life — all the issues or vents are grouped near 
 the mouth. This mouth is a weapon of so terrible a 
 force that a mere glance at it, and the huge sullen eyes 
 of the beast at once convinced the observer that it is a 
 fierce, ravenous animal. It is not a mouth proper, but 
 a bill, parrot-shaped, with strong, sharp, horny edges, 
 the lower mandible fitting into the upper. The muscles 
 are very strongly developed, and show that its hold is 
 deadly, as has indeed been proven by those who have 
 seen it seizing and tearing to pieces its prey. 
 
 The eyes are quite round, very prominent, set at 
 the sides of the head, and have a malignant, greedy, 
 cruel expression, intensified with a gleam of ferocious 
 intelligence which is indescribable. The breathing 
 apparatus is so constructed that the animal can exist for 
 a long time on land, and might, therefore, be called semi- 
 amphibious. Indeed, it has been known with nearly 
 all its arms or tentacles lost, no doubt in conflict with 
 other marine animals, and by the action of waves, 
 helplessly cast ashore, and there, beneath a tropical 
 sun, and upon the hot sands of the beach, to exist for 
 three or four days ; this, likewise, shows its wonderful 
 tenacity of life. In fact, it is asserted by many natural- 
 ists that the se'pia octopus has three centers of life; 
 this, however, has never been clearly proven. 
 
 The inky fluid, sepia, as in the smaller cuttle fish, 
 likewise exists in this gigantic monster, and is found in 
 
80 Sixteen Years on the Bark Blue Sea, 
 
 a little sack or bag in the upper part of the body, and 
 held by such ancient philosophers as Aristotle, Pliney, 
 Gesner and others, to be the animal's blood. This has 
 been clearly disproven by modern naturalists. Some 
 diversity, however, still exists as to the animal's use and 
 purpose of this inky substance, v^hile such naturalists 
 as Tenney, Owen, and Packard claim that it is a pro- 
 vision of nature, whereby it throws out an inky cloud, 
 under cover of which to escape from its enemies. The 
 schools of Cuvier and Agassiz, claim that it darkens 
 the water with the contents of the ink or sepia sack for 
 the purpose of hiding in this darkness, to entrap its 
 prey. The latter is undoubtedly true, as the creature 
 knows no fear, and animals of the sea soon learn to 
 dread and evade the sight of this horrible creature, and 
 to recognize it as a mortal foe. Thus has nature not 
 only provided it with the most terrible weapons of 
 slaughter, but likewise with the power of producing 
 an artificial cloud from which it springs like a living 
 trap upon its allured victim. The octopus, as seen 
 while in captivity further proves the claim of these 
 eminent authorities, for we have observed that when 
 hungry it surrounds itself with a sepia cloud, then 
 lays motionless until the water above it is disturbed, 
 when immediately it springs to the surface of the 
 aquarium or tank with its eyes aglow with desperation, 
 lunges and flounders about in the most exciting manner, 
 as if in pursuit of something to satisfy its cravings. 
 
Four Years ivith the Army of the Potomac. 81 
 
 Thus you have a description of the hugh monster that 
 lay on the sand at Halifax. 
 
 After laying there a few days and getting our top- 
 mast repaired, and finding that we could not get a cargo 
 to suit us we sailed for Lingan, [N'ova Scotia, and got a 
 cargo of coal. Their coal is very soft and combustible, 
 and is used principally for steam fire engines. This 
 cargo of coal was consigned to Concord, 1^. H., to be 
 loaded on the cars at Portsmouth. 
 
 After receiving my pay for this voyage, I again 
 went home and found all well and glad to see me. This 
 time I remained at home ^yq weeks, and returned to 
 Boston to look for another job, which I found in a few 
 days. 
 
 I shipped on the full-rigged ship, Paul Jones, Cap- 
 tain Ross in charge, and bound for San Francisco, via 
 the Horn. The Paul Jones was a staunch vessel and a 
 good sailer. We had a crew of twenty-two men, one 
 doctor, one ship-carpenter, first and second mate, captain 
 and two cooks— making twenty nine all told. Captain 
 Eoss was well liked by his men and there was harmony 
 among the crew ; not a man tried to shirk from duty. 
 They were men every one of them, and it made duty 
 more pleasant than it otherwise would have been. We 
 met with no incidents worth recording until we reached 
 California. 
 
 After holding up there about five weeks we got a 
 cargo of merchandise for Japan. We were then des- 
 
82 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 lined to cross the Pacific ocean. I will try to give you 
 a little description of the people and their customs and 
 manners. The reader will bear in mind that the com- 
 mon sailor has but little opportunity to see the countries 
 that he visits, for he is working for monthly wages, and 
 there is nearly always something for him to do. There 
 are sails to mend, ropes to splice, masts to scrape, decks 
 to scrub, his own washing to do ; he has some mending 
 and a hundred other things to attend to. I am there- 
 fore obliged to draw from history a little. 
 
 Japan, (native name ISTipon, the land of the rising 
 sun,) is a very ancient island empire. It is composed 
 of a groop of volcanic islands; the whole not much 
 larger than the state of ]^ew York. Our knowledge of 
 the climate of Japan is yearly increasing. June, July, 
 and August are the rainy months. The rain sometimes 
 decending in unceasing torrents. October and ITovem- 
 ber are the most pleasant and genial months of the 
 twelve, when the fine weather can be enjoyed without 
 the scorching heat of midsummer. Agriculture is the 
 chief occupation of the Japanese. They are very care- 
 ful farmers and their farms are models of order and 
 neatness. They bestow great care upon manures and 
 fertilizing, and thoroughly understand cropping, and the 
 rotation of crops. The cultivated land is chiefly a light, 
 friable loam, of great fertility. It grows cotton, tea, 
 rice and the staple products, such as wheat, maize, 
 buckwheat, millet, potatoes, turnips, beans and peas. 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac, 83 
 
 The rice harvest commences in October. Wheat is 
 sown in l^ovember and December, and reaped in May 
 and June. Flails and winnowing machines similar to 
 those used in olden times in the United States are com- 
 mon. 
 
 Wild animals scarcely exist in Japan, in conse- 
 quence of the universal cultivation of the soil. A few 
 wolves, foxes and wild boars still roam in parts of the 
 islands. Wild deer are protected by law. The principal 
 domestic animals are horses, oxen, cows, — used only as 
 beasts of burden, — and dogs are held in superstiti6us 
 veneration by the people. Birds are very numerous 
 and include two kinds of pheasants ; wild fowls, herons, 
 cranes, and many species common both to Europe 
 and Asia are found. There are but few reptiles. There 
 are some insects, white ants, winged grasshoppers, and 
 several beautiful varieties of moth. Japan is very rich 
 in minerals, gold, silver, copper; iron and coal are 
 found in great abundance. 
 
 Historians differ in regard to the inhabitants. Some 
 claim they belong to the same type as the Chinese, others 
 claim that they rank as a branch of the Tartars. The 
 Japanese are distinguished by an oval head and face, 
 rounded frontal bones, high forehead, slightly oblique 
 eyes, the iris of which being of a brown black color, 
 the eyebrows heavy and arched. The complexion varies 
 from a deep copper color to the fairness of western 
 nations; but more frequently of a light olive color tint. 
 
8i, Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 The expression of the face is mild and aminated. The 
 Japanese are a people of great qualities and exagerated 
 defects. They are honest, ingenious, clever, and frugal, 
 animated by a strong love of knowledge, endowed with 
 a wonderful capacity of imitation; with deep self 
 respect, and with a sense of personal honor, far beyond 
 what any other race has ever reached. 
 
 A very peculiar custom of the Japanese is the 
 "belly cut." A legalized mode of suicide, made by 
 making two cross-cuts on the abdomen with a sharp 
 knffe. This custom has been abolished. 
 
 The social position of women is in some respects 
 more favorable than in most pagan countries. The 
 ladies of Japan, however, live in strict seclusion, and 
 very little is known about them. Female education is 
 not neglected. Polygamy is not allowed, but the power 
 of divorce is permitted to the husband by law. The 
 law against adultery on the part of the wife is very 
 severe, and death is the penalty, which may be impli- 
 cated by the husband ; he, on the contrary, may take as 
 many concubines as he pleases or can afiord. The 
 marriage ceremony is an important part of social 
 etiquette. The families of both bride and bridegroom 
 meet and celebrate the event. Prostitution is a legal- 
 ized custom, and a father may sell his daughter for this 
 purpose for a term of years, — whilst a Japanese 
 gentleman, notwithstanding his high notions of honor, 
 often chooses his wife from among the inmates of these 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 85 
 
 houses of ill-fame, which are supported and controlled 
 by the government. 
 
 The bath is a great institution in Japan, and forms 
 a kind of peoples' parliament. It is the general custom 
 throughout the country for men and women to bathe 
 together with a total absence of decorum. 
 
 In Japan the social position of every man is fixed 
 by his birth. And the line separating class from class 
 was clearly defined and impassable. Dainsios and Sain- 
 sios, privates and soldiers were considered to belong to 
 the higher class, and in a lower class were medical men, 
 inferior government oflBlciale, merchants, retail dealers, 
 and laborers. There were eight classes of society, half 
 of which belonged to the upper class and the other half 
 to the lower class. As to the rank of society, men of 
 rank could only enter a city on horse-back ; but these 
 distinctions have been greatly modified. The ordinary 
 vehicle in Japan is the common sort, made of bamboo 
 and is called a congo. The better kind are made of 
 lacquered wood. 
 
 The Japanese manifest great regard for their dead. 
 In a Japanese cemetery the solid and elaborately carved 
 granite monuments are beautiful specimens of archi- 
 tectural taste. Each body is buried in a sitting posture, 
 with the hands folded in an attitude of devotion, and 
 the coffins are all circular. 
 
 The Japanese observe many holidays and celebrate 
 the opening of the year in the Chinese fashion. There 
 
86 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 are also many holidays of religious character. But the 
 great national festivals are five in number. The J apan- 
 ese are a theater loving people and inveterate gamblers. 
 They delight in wrestling. Their national sports are 
 performing wonderful feats in spinning tops and jug- 
 gling. Fish and rice are the staple food of these people, 
 and tea and sac, (a spirit distilled from rice,) their bev- 
 erage. 
 
 One thing more and then I am done with Japan. 
 Just stop for a moment and consider what resources 
 Japan must have, with a territory of only a few square 
 miles larger than the State of JSTew York, and whose 
 ports have been open to the commerce of the world 
 only a few short years. Yet she supports, and supports 
 handsomely, too, more than thirty-three million of 
 people. Japan is indeed a wonderful country. 
 
 After laying in port at Japan for nearly four 
 months, having disposed of our cargo and taken on 
 another consisting of tea and some silk and manufac- 
 tured goods, we set sail for San Francisco. After being 
 out about five days one of our crew was taken sick with 
 something like the cholera ; and all that the doctor could 
 do he failed, and on the third day of his sickness he 
 died. His name was John Gritchell, and he belonged 
 somewhere in Massachusetts. 
 
 After preparing his body for the deep, we com- 
 mitted it to its long resting place. Some people think 
 that most sailors are heathenish, and tumble their dead 
 
Four Years with the Army of the PotomaCy 87 
 
 into the sea without ceremony. This, as a rule, is 
 untrue ; they have a burial service, and a beautiful one, 
 too. The body is wrapped in canvas and sewed up, then 
 the outside is well tarred. A heavy weight is then 
 attached, such as a piece of iron or coal. A plank is 
 then laid on the railing on which we place the body. 
 The officers and crew gather around and the captain 
 usually reads the 14th chapter of job, which commences 
 like this : " Man born of woman is of few days and 
 full of trouble : he cometh forth like a flower and is 
 cut down," etc. Then the captain, if he is a praying 
 man, offers a short prayer; if not, we all repeat the 
 Lord's prayer ; after which we say, " John, we commit 
 your body to the deep, there may you rest in peace until 
 Gabriel blows his trumpet and the sea gives up her 
 dead, and may God have mercy on your soul.'' We then 
 slide him down the plank into the sea. As soon as it 
 starts we sing " Nearer my God to Thee." This closes 
 our sad funeral service. Sad, not only because we have 
 lost one of our number, but because he is far from home 
 and dear friends ; sad, because we do not know who 
 will be the next to follow the plank into the deep sea. 
 The remainder of our voyage was made with but few 
 events occurring. 
 
 Having written several letters home while in Japan, 
 I found answers to them when I arrived in San Fran- 
 cisco. One of recent date informed me that all were 
 well at home, and that they were getting along fine, but 
 
88 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 was anxious for me to come home again. After laying 
 in port two weeks and getting out our cargo, the cap- 
 tain informed us that he had been made an offer for a 
 trip to Queensland, Australia, and had it under consid- 
 eration. I wanted to get home, and thought I would 
 stay there awhile and take my chances for a job to reach 
 some of the eastern ports, and if I could not do that I 
 would go overland. I was paid off and remained two 
 weeks longer, but no chance " turned up " for an eastern 
 trip, but plenty of them for foreign ports. I had 
 almost made up my mind to return home by rail, but 
 didn't like to pay out my hard earned wages for car fare. 
 I strolled out one morning among the shipping officers, 
 I found no chance for home, but found a job on a steam 
 yacht as assistant steward, for a trip to the Holy Land, 
 to be gone four or five months with a pleasure party. 
 My pay was to be twenty-eight dollars per month, and 
 I was to eat aft. As I never had a " soft snap " on 
 board a ship offered me before, I accepted the birth, as 
 I knew the duties of a steward. 
 
 We were ready to start in about ten days with a 
 crew of seventeen men and one hundred and five pass- 
 engers. We got up steam and sails and put out into 
 San Francisco Bay, and went by the island of Quintain, 
 where the State prison was located. In a few weeks 
 we passed through the Straits of Gibraltar into the 
 Mediterranean Sea, — so named from its being entirely 
 enclosed by the continents of Europe, Asia and Africa. 
 
JFour Years with the Army of the Potomac. 89 
 
 It is one of the greatest inland seas in the world. The 
 depth of this sea is generally greatest in its western 
 basins. In many places it is 3000 feet deep. ISTear 
 Nice it is 4200 feet deep at a distance of only a few 
 yards from the shore. In many places it is 5000 feet 
 deep and more. In the Straits of Gibralter it is about 
 5500 feet deep. Different parts of the Mediterranean 
 Sea bear different names; as the Egean Sea, the Ionian 
 Sea, the Adriatic Sea or Gulf of Venice. 
 
 Of the 643 species of European sea lishes, 444 are 
 found to inhabit the Mediterranean Sea. It is also rich 
 in red coral, which is found in great quantities on the 
 coast of the Balearic Isles and Sicily. We sailed up 
 the Mediterranean Sea and landed on the Isle of Pat- 
 mas, (the banished home of John,) a bare and rocky 
 island in the Egean Sea, about forty-five miles in cir- 
 cumference. Although there is now but one palm tree 
 on the whole island it is still a celebrated place, because 
 the apostle was there exiled, and there where he saw 
 the visions recorded in the book of Revelations. On 
 the top of a mountain stands the famous monastery of 
 John the Divine; half way up to which a cane is 
 pointed out to the traveler, by which, according to tra- 
 dition, the apostle received his revelations. Many of 
 the passengers actually got down and kissed the ground. 
 I presume they thought they were nearer heaven there 
 than when in the United States. 
 
 After stopping on the island a couple of days, we 
 
90 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 steered our way to Joppa. It is situated on the coast 
 of Syria about thirty-three miles northwest of Jerusa- 
 lem. Here we anchored, the passengers visited Pales- 
 tine. As my duty was then light, and having been there 
 a couple of weeks, I got permission to go up to Jerusa- 
 lem. I struck up a bargain with an Arab to take me to 
 Jerusalem and back on his camel for two dollars and a 
 half in our money. He tried hard to get me to pay him 
 the full amont while there, but as a general thing they 
 are a thievish set and I would not pay him but one 
 dollar and a quarter there and told him I would pay the 
 rest when we got back. I remained a week in the city, 
 visiting the ancient places of interest. It would take up 
 too much space to give a description of that city, — those 
 of you who are familiar with the bible already have a 
 fair description. 
 
 We stopped about ten weeks in Joppa. When our 
 passengers all got back we sailed to Home and Venice, 
 a distance of about three hundred miles; we also stopped 
 at quite a number of other places along the coast of 
 Europe. After the party had seen all they cared to, we 
 set sail for home. We reached home in safety, having 
 been gone a little over seven months. 
 
 I was now getting a little home-sick, and wanted 
 to see my wife and children. I therefore wasted but 
 little time in getting started, I went home via the Union 
 Pacific Eailroad to Council Bluffs, la. It was in ISTovem- 
 ber, and there came a fearful snow storm and blocked 
 
Four Years iDith the Army of the Potomac. 91 
 
 the railroad ; we lay snow-bound five days at Council 
 Bluffs. But all things must have an end,' so did the 
 snow storm, and we again started, and a few days more 
 found me at home again with my family, having been 
 gone fourteen months. I concluded to remain home the 
 balance of the winter, I did so, and all that I could do 
 was to loaf around the stores and smoke my pipe, (for 
 I had learned to be an inveterate smoker,) and tell 
 sailor's ''yarns," at which I had got to be rather expert, 
 and indeed, I always had a pretty good audience to hear 
 what I had to say. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 As the title of my book hints at escapes, adventures 
 and accidents on land and sea, I will tell of some of the 
 mishaps of my life. 
 
 In the first place, in my childhood I had about all 
 the difierent diseases that childhood is heir to. When 
 about seven years old, I went in swimming and got into 
 a deep hole and came near drowning, so near that they 
 had to roll me on a barrel to get the water out of me. 
 
 When about twelve years of age, I fell off a school 
 seat and broke my left arm in two places, and after it 
 had almost healed, I fell down the bank of the Kenne- 
 bec and broke it again. 
 
92 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 At about fourteen years of age I went fishing with 
 my oldest brother. We were fishing away, I having 
 the line wound around my hand and was on my knees 
 in the bottom of the boat. I got a " bite " and then a 
 " pull," and the first thing I knew I was overboard. I 
 could not clear myself from the line and when I came 
 to the surface was more dead than alive, my brother 
 grabbed me by the seat of my pants and hauled me on 
 board. He took a turn at the line and got it ofi* my 
 hand. We then pulled the fish up to the surface where 
 I held him as long as I could and my brother beat him 
 over the head with the boat hook. Then we let him 
 run out the length of the line, then hauled him up 
 again and pounded him some more. After ^ve or six 
 trials we succeeded in killing him. We could not get 
 him into the boat, so we made him fast and towed him 
 in, — we were then nine miles from home. He proved 
 to be a chicken halibut, and weighed three hundred 
 and nineteen pounds. 
 
 In a few months after this I was helping repair the 
 tower of a house, I was in the act of taking up a board, 
 when the wind struck it and blew me ofi", twenty-nine 
 feet to the ground. It was sandy and did not break any 
 bones but gave me a terrible shaking up ; it hurt my 
 back, and drove a tooth through my tongue. 
 
 After going into the army I received a slight 
 wound at the battle of Gettysburg. At the battle of 
 Chancellorsville, was hit with a piece of shell, and 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac, 93 
 
 slightly wounded. After the battle of Gettysburg our 
 regiment was put on guard of the supply train. We 
 were attacked by Mosby's guerrillas and had a hand-to- 
 hand fight, I was struck on the top of the head with a 
 saber, receiving a cut ^yq and a half inches long, and 
 fracturing my skull, which laid me out for a while. 
 The doctors tampooned and dressed my wound ; I was 
 off duty for quite a while. As I have already related, 
 at Cold Harbor, on the 3rd day of June, 1864, in a 
 charge on a rebel battery, I was struck by a minnie ball, 
 which passed through my head back of the ears. This 
 happened as near as I could find out between two and 
 three o'clock; we made three charges, it was in the 
 second one that I was wounded, in the third charge I 
 was told the boys took the battery and after spiking the 
 guns, fell back to their breast works, leaving their dead 
 and wounded on the field of carnage. About seven 
 o'clock our boys got a flag of truce granted them to go 
 and pick up their wounded and bury their dead. I had 
 a brother in Berdan's sharpshooters, and he came over 
 to our regiment to see if I got out of the fight. He 
 found they all thought I was killed, so he said he would 
 try to find me and have my body embalmed and 
 returned home. When he found me I was still alive 
 and he took me into our lines and to the hospital tent, 
 where the surgeon made a hasty examination of me 
 and told my brother that I could not possibly live until 
 morning; so I was laid on the grass outside the tent 
 
9Jf, Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 and a blanket thrown over me to wait until I died. In 
 the morning my brother came with an ambulance 
 wagon to take me to City Point to be embalmed, but 
 when they uncovered me they found me still alive. 
 The doctor exclaimed : " My God, that man is still 
 alive, take him into the tent and let us try and do some- 
 thing for him." So I was taken up tenderly and carried 
 into the tent and laid on a cot, my wounds were sponged 
 out, some brandy given me, and I was as well cared for 
 as possible. After laying in the field hospital a few 
 days I was taken to City Point, and in a few days more 
 on to Washington, D. C. In about twenty-three days 
 I came to myself again and began to slowly improve. 
 After remaining in Washington a few weeks, I was 
 again moved to Beverly, IS". J., and stayed there until 
 IsTovember. I then got a fifteen days' furlough and 
 went home. I was next sent back to my regiment, then 
 laying in front of Petersburg; my wounds not entirely 
 healed ; I could with difficulty hear the loudest talk. 
 
 I shall always think that I was sent back to the 
 ranks for spite, because I would not do duty at the hos- 
 pital. I told them there, that I was there for treatment 
 and not for duty. When I got back to the regiment 
 the colonel asked me why I came back there, as I was 
 not fit for duty. When I told him, he gave them a 
 cursing and said they would be sending dead men back 
 soon. However, I stayed with them until the close of 
 the war, and was in several engagements after that, 
 including Appommatox and Deer Roads. 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac, 95 
 
 I was very near death's door with my last wound, 
 and only for a wonderful strong constitution I would 
 not now be writing this narrative. I have also met 
 other disasters of which I will speak further on. I 
 have said but little of ray boyhood days. 
 
 I was of a roving disposition from early childhood. 
 I loved to roam about, fish and hunt, and there was not 
 a place in woods or field for twenty miles about that I 
 did not know as well as our little farm. I had a kind 
 mother who always had our welfare at heart; and had 
 I been a better boy, prayed more and heeded her advice, 
 I no doubt would have been better ofl' to-day. Peace 
 be to her ashes. I hope to meet her on the other shore, 
 for I loved my mother and know that she loved me. 
 She praised me when I did right and reprimanded me 
 when I did wrong. My boyhood days were compara- 
 tively short, for I went forth to do duty as a man before 
 I was fifteen years old. My care has cost no man any- 
 thing since. 
 
 The following is a little piece of poetry that now 
 comes to my mind. I give it here because it strikes 
 my fancy of my boyhood days. I can not tell you the 
 author, but give it anyhow. 
 
 OH, FOR THE DAYS GONE BY ! 
 
 Oh, would I were a boy again to roam about the fields. 
 Collecting all the wondrous things indulgent nature yields; 
 To climb the neighbor's apple trees and rob him of his fruit; 
 
96 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 To go on trips nocturnal his strawberry beds to loot ; 
 
 To play pranks on the miller, and to put school teachers through 
 
 A lovely course of bitter sprouts, as only boys can do. 
 
 I'd like to visit grocery stores and make my pockets bulge 
 With raisins hooked and stolen figs my stomach to indulge; 
 Steal cherries from the parsonage, rape pantries of their pie, 
 And seem when caught, as innocent as angles in the sky. 
 I'd like to sneak in candy shops and ** lift" an ounce or two 
 Of taffy and of peppermint, as only boys can do. 
 
 I'd like to take a huge bent pin and put it on the chair 
 
 Of any aged relative who chanced to have gray hair. 
 
 I'd like to take an old jack-knife and carve up doors and trees. 
 
 And not remember anything whose memory failed to please. 
 
 I'd like to have the old regard for statements plain and true — 
 
 In fact to treat the solemn truth as only boys can do. 
 
 Oh, for a try at youth once more! Oh, for the days gone by! 
 If time would only turn about, and let me backward fly 
 For but one year into my youth, when crime was only play. 
 And all the wicked things I did were but my boyish way ! 
 Oh, for one chance to treat some men I would I never knew 
 To deeds that with impunity none but a boy can do. 
 
 As I have seen the folly of misspent moments, 
 allow me to give my young reader a little advice. 
 Improve your moments; life is short and do not fritter 
 away your time in vain belief that you must have 
 unlimited and unemployed time. In order to become 
 well educated and well informed, you must improve the 
 opportunities of your early life. The plough boy 
 found time for books, though engaged in arduous toil. 
 
Four Years loith the Army of the Potomac. 97 
 
 Cherish the moments as they run. Cultivate habits of 
 thought and contemplation. Read little and think 
 much, rather than read much and think little. It is 
 better to carefully read an hour a day that to skim for 
 a week. Go over and over your pages or paragraphs 
 until you have made the writer's thoughts your own. 
 It is not enough that you can call the exact words 
 before your eyes, you should have the sentiment in 
 your soul. The boys and girls of to-day should be 
 taught to be ambitious to excel, to fit themselves for 
 the best places. This can only be done by concentra- 
 tion of purpose, and application in whatever is under- 
 taken. Application of the rules of composition will 
 lead to correct form of speech. Be careful then how 
 you adhere to or imitate rude and vulgar forms of 
 speech. Good strong, common sense language marks 
 the well educated man or woman. A prominent edu- 
 cator estimates that a half hour a day given to the 
 study of history, science or literature, would be three 
 hours a week, more than twelve hours a month, and 
 more than twelve solid days of twenty-four hours each 
 year. Just think of this and estimate how many half 
 hours you are spending in mere idleness, that might 
 profitably be given to the cultivation of your mind for 
 a noble purpose. 
 
 I will now go back to the history of my sea faring. 
 After the voyage to the Holy Land I remained at home 
 
98 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 through the winter. My money was getting short, 
 except a little that I had laid up for a '^ rainy day." 
 So I thought I would have to try the sea again as there 
 was nothing that I could find to do at home. I went 
 to Boston looking for a job, but failed. I then went 
 to J^Tew York City and shipped on a barkerteen for a 
 general trading voyage. 
 
 In a few days we started for South America, and 
 touched at Cuba, and San Domingo, and from there to 
 Porto Rico, Buenos Ayers, Chili, Valparaiso and Argen- 
 tine Eepublic. We sold out our goods and loaded again 
 with hides at Buenos Ayers and started for home. On 
 our way home one of our shipmates and I planned to 
 buy some "green goods" when we arrived in ISTew 
 York City. Having -heard of their tricks we thought 
 we were as smart as they, and could beat them at their 
 own game. We had about ^ve hundred dollars between 
 us. We got permission to go ashore, so we started to 
 hunt up our man, having the address in our pocket. 
 Before entering we went into a saloon close by and 
 held a council over a stiff glass of whiskey. It was 
 decided that I should try my luck in fooling the '' green 
 goods" man. To make the reader acquainted with the 
 trick, I will state that they have things arranged to 
 suit their own convenience. There are always two 
 men together. They have two rooms with a closet 
 opening into each room. One man keeps hid while the 
 other makes the trade. They have plenty of good 
 
Four Years loith the Army of the Potomac. 99 
 
 greenbacks to show you and offer them to you, two for 
 one. After some dickering he concluded to let me 
 have thirteen hundred dollars for my five hundred dol- 
 lars. A bargain was thus made and he counted out the 
 thirteen hundred dollars and put it in a small grip, and 
 took my five hundred dollars and put it in his pocket. 
 Just then a rap was heard at the door and the man said 
 in a hurried voice, that it might be a detective ; accord- 
 ingly he took my grip and quickly put it in the closet, 
 and went out to see who was there. As soon as the 
 door closed on him I opened the door of the closet and 
 seeing another grip in there I changed places with them 
 and gently closed the door again, and waited for my 
 man to come in again which he did very soon. He 
 then opened the closet door and gave me the same grip 
 that he had put in. After giving me some good advice 
 about being careful he bid me good-bye, and I left. I 
 was met in the entry by another man, who tried to stop 
 me but I showed him a little gun and he let me pass. 
 I hurried down stairs and out on the street eight hun- 
 dred dollars better off* than when I went in. It is their 
 game to substitute a grip full of paper, in the place of 
 the one they count out for you, but he got beat at his 
 own game that time. After getting down to our ship 
 we divided the money and had six hundred and fifty 
 dollars apiece. 
 
 After receiving my pay and laying off for about 
 fifteen days which I spent with my family, I joined a 
 
100 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 crew bound for the South Sea Islands to get a load of 
 cotton. This island being one of the 'New Zealand 
 group. On our way out we met with trade winds and 
 one severe wind storm which came very near casting 
 us away. We finally reached port and unloaded. After 
 loading up with cotton we once more started for home. 
 This voyage lasted about five months. It was October 
 when we got back and I thought I would rest through 
 the winter, for the life of a sailor is laborious as well 
 as dangerous. 
 
 Many of my readers may wonder why I did not 
 learn more of the languages of the people that I have 
 come in contact with. It is simply for the reason I 
 never tried. I did pick up a little French, but as I 
 couldn't speak my own mother tongue properly, I 
 thought I would not try to speak other languages. 
 The least learned are aware that there are many lan- 
 guages in the world, but the actual number is probably 
 beyond the dreams of ordinary people. The geogra- 
 pher Balbi enumerated eight hundred and sixty which 
 are entitled to be considered as distinct languages, and 
 five thousand which may be regarded as dialects. 
 Adulguns, another modern writer on this subject, 
 reckons up three thousand and sixty four languages and 
 dialects existing, and which have existed. Even after 
 we have allowed either of these as the number of lan- 
 guages, we must acknowledge the existence of almost 
 infinite minor diversities; for almost every province 
 
Four Years luith the Army of the Potomac. 101 
 
 has a tongue more or less peculiar, and this we may 
 well helieve to be the case throughout the world at 
 large. It is said there are little islands lying close 
 together in the South Sea, the inhabitants of which do 
 not understand each other. Of the 860 distinct lan- 
 guages enumerated by Balbi, 53 belong to Europe, 114 
 to Africa, 123 to Asia, 417 to America, 117 to Ocean- 
 ica — by which term he distinguishes the vast number 
 of islands stretching between Hindostan and South 
 America. 
 
 There is another little incidence that I saw w^hile 
 on our voyage up the Mediterranean, and that is sponge 
 gathering. The ship starts out prepared to gather 
 sponges, and sails to the place where they are to be 
 found, and drops anchor. They have boats built wide 
 and shallow. The men go in these shallow boats to 
 gather sponges. They have a pair of tongs attached 
 to a long pole ; these tongs will open large enough to 
 take in a half bushel measure. They have a pail with 
 a glass fitted into the bottom of it. They put this pail 
 into the water and look down into the sea. When they 
 see a sponge they run down this pole and grab hold of 
 the sponge, and bring it on board. One writer claims 
 that sponges are the most truly manifold in form of 
 any animal. They are of all sizes, shapes and colors. 
 Some branch out like trees, many resemble a funnel or 
 trumpet, others are divided into lobes, like great fingers. 
 Some are known by the name of sea muffs and sea 
 
102 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 tapers, on account of. their form. A closely allied 
 variety produce regular sponge monuments, which 
 grow from three to six feet high on the submarine 
 rocks. They have a narrow stalk, which at a certain 
 heighth expands considerably and gives the structure 
 the appearance of a cup, symmetrically hollowed out 
 and exactly like an immense drinking goblet. To such 
 a collossal structure the imagination of the sailor could 
 give but one name, that of the supreme God of the sea. 
 This living vase is the cup of Neptune. Some of the 
 sponges found in the Mediterranean are as fine as silk, 
 others are coarse and worth but little. It is quite a 
 sight to see them gather these sponges. 
 
 DEAD BODIES ON SHIP BOARD. 
 
 A dead body on a ship is still considered to be a 
 magnet which attracts calamity. This belief is not 
 only shared by those who go before the mast, but exer- 
 cises great influence among captains of our ocean 
 palaces. So prevalent is this base superstition, that 
 when a passenger dies at sea, it is entirely discretionary 
 with the captain whether the body be kept on board 
 and carried to its destination, or immediately committed 
 to the waves. 
 
 Eecent as the summer of 1878, a case illustrating 
 this dread of dead bodies on shipboard was developed 
 under the following circumstances : 
 
 A gentleman in the last stages of consumption, 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 103 
 
 engaged a passage with his his wife on one of our finest 
 ocean steamers from Liverpool to ]^ew York, — this 
 country being his home. When in mid-ocean the 
 patient was seized with a hemorrhage which speedily 
 terminated his life. Ministering friends at once pre- 
 pared the body at the widow's solicitation, by embalm- 
 ing it, for the remainder of the journey. Scarcely had 
 this been done when the captain learned of the circum- 
 stance, and immediately ordered it cast overboard. 
 The widow was shocked at tbis outrageous command. 
 Her protestations availed nothing. Being very wealthy 
 she offered the captain a large sum of money to allow 
 the body to remain ; and then with cries and heart- 
 broken entreaties, begged that she might keep her dead 
 and consign it to the precious earth beside her children. 
 The captain was inexorable and even used some force 
 in seizing the dead body and casting it into the waves. 
 This officer was hardly so brutal as he appeared, for he 
 was really actuated by a superstitious fear that, if the 
 body was allowed to remain on board some dreadful 
 calamity would befall the ship. 
 
 Seamen are very peculiar in their superstition. 
 They think that if a shark follows a ship, sonae one on 
 board will die before the end of the journey ; when 
 really the shark is only after the scrapings that the cook 
 throws away. I might mention many other things just 
 as foolish as these, that seamen and officers conscien- 
 tiously believe in ; men with good, sound sense and 
 judgment, on most anything else. 
 
lOJf Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 I have mentioned these incidents of superstition, 
 to show you how peculiar a great many are who go 
 down to the sea in ships. But then we have many just 
 as curious people on land, and all you have to do is to 
 cast about you a little and you can find them every day. 
 
 After returning from my trip to the Holy Land in 
 1873, I spent the winter with my family at home. In 
 April my wife presented me with a girl baby, thus 
 making four children ; three boys and one girl. I now 
 looked about me, for another chance to go to sea. I 
 heard of a ship in Portland, Maine that wanted a crew 
 to go to Eio de Janeiro. As the ship had the name of 
 being haunted, it was hard to get a crew, I took advan- 
 tage of this to get good wages. I had the captain 
 belive I was mortally afraid of ghosts. However, I 
 will say that I never took any stock in ghosts or hob- 
 goblins of any kind, and yet I have seen things, in my 
 time that I could not exactly account for. Oftentimes 
 they would make the hair stand on end. In a few days 
 the crew was complete ; made up of good seamen to 
 man the ship. We sailed to Boston and took on our 
 cargo, and sailed out for our destination, to get a load 
 of coffee. 
 
 Eio de Janeiro, commonly called Rio, is the capi- 
 tal of the Brazillian Empire, and is the largest and 
 most important commercial emporium of South Amer- 
 ica. It is situated on a magnifiicent harbor seventy-five 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac, 105 
 
 miles west of Cape Frio. The harbor or bay of Rio 
 de Janeiro, is said, (and that with justice too,) to be 
 the most beautiful and spacious in the world. It is 
 almost landlocked ; being entered from the south by a 
 passage about a mile in width. It extends inland 
 seventeen miles, and has a breadth of about twelve 
 miles. Of its numerous islands. Governor's Island, is 
 six miles long. The entrance to this bay, guarded on 
 either side by granite mountains, is very deep, and is 
 so safe, that the harbor is made without the use of 
 pilots. On the left of the entrance rises the peak called 
 from its peculiar shape, Sugar Loaf Mountain. All 
 around the bay the blue waters are girdled with moun- 
 tains and lofty peaks, of every variety of picturesque 
 and fantastic outline. The harbor is protected by a 
 number of fortresses. 
 
 The city stands on the west shore of the bay, about 
 four miles from its mouth. Seven green and mound- 
 like hills diversify its side, and the white walled and 
 Vermillion like roofed houses, cluster in the intervening 
 valleys, and climb the eminences in long lines. From 
 the center part part of the city, lines of houses extend 
 four miles in three principal directions. The old town 
 nearest the bay is laid out in squares, the streets cross- 
 ing at right angles, are narrow, and are paved and 
 flagged. The houses, often built of granite, are com- 
 monly two stories high. West of this is the elegantly 
 built new part of the town. The two districts are sep- 
 
106 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 arated by the Campode Santa Anna, an immense square 
 or park, on different parts of which stand extensive gar- 
 risons. The Town Hall, the National Museum, the 
 Palace of the Senate, the Foreign office, a large opera 
 house, etc., are here located. 
 
 From a number of springs on and around Mount 
 Corcovado, three thousand feet high and situated three 
 and a half miles southwest of the city, the water is 
 conveyed by means of an immense aqueduct, and sup- 
 plies the fountains with which the numerous squares 
 are furnished. Most of the streets are lighted with gas, 
 and commodious wharfs and quays are built along the 
 water's edge. 
 
 Rio de Janeiro contains several fine hospitals and 
 infirmaries ; asylums for foundlings ; fifty chapels and 
 churches, finely constructed and costly. The trade and 
 commerce of E-io de Janeiro consists of coffee, cocoa, 
 gold, diamonds, tobacco, hides, cotton, timber, sugar, 
 rum, horse-hair, India rubber and wool. The popula- 
 tion is 450,000. At the proclamation of independence 
 in 1822, Rio de Janeiro became the capital of the 
 empire. 
 
 After getting out our freight, we again loaded with 
 a mixed cargo, consisting of coffee, cocoa, sugar, rum, 
 hides and wool, and some India rubber, in the lower 
 hold. I stated that the ship was said to be haunted, and 
 for a few days after we set sail, there was an unearthly 
 noise heard up in the rigging of the ship near the main 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 107 
 
 cross-tree that could not be accounted for. One day I 
 asked permission to go aloft and find out, if I could, what 
 caused the noise. The captain was somewhat scared 
 himself and would not at first consent. After awhile 
 he gave me permission to go aloft and see what the 
 trouble was up there. I did so, and in less than fifteen 
 minutes I found the ghost and fixed him so he could 
 not groan again. A rope , had got twisted around 
 another, and when the wind was in a certain direction 
 they would rub together and cause the noise that had 
 been scaring poor ''Jack " out of his wits, and making 
 the ship owners pay almost double Avages. Such is life. 
 
 I have already dwelt somewhat at length on Rio de 
 Janeiro, but I was somewhat struck with the place and 
 country. It being very productive, I would like to have 
 remained there and spent the balance of my days, only 
 for the reason of the excessive heat in summer. 
 
 We reached I^ew York again in due course of time, 
 after having a very pleasant voyage. This being Sep- 
 tember, I again went home. I had spent most of two 
 winters idling, and I found that winter would consume 
 all that summer could yield ; so I come to the conclusion 
 to make a winter's voyage. I went to Boston and found 
 no work ; from there to N'ew York, and then to Balti- 
 more, where I struck a ship fitting for the Canary 
 Islands to get a load of guano. As we went under bal- 
 last, it only took a few days to get ready to start. 
 
 We met with some very rough weather on our way 
 
108 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 out. It would be useless to dwell upon a description of 
 these islands ; but suffice it to say, there are millions 
 and millions of birds that winter there, and thousands 
 die there. It is their carcasses and the deposits of these 
 fowls that we were after — to be used as a fertilizer — and 
 is called guano. This guano is put in bags and shipped 
 to the United States and England. Thousands of tons 
 are carried away from these islands every year. The 
 islands are owned and operated by capitalists from the 
 United States, England, France and Germany. We 
 got our load all right and returned to ]^ew York in 
 April, 1874. We were then to lay by for a month for 
 repairs. 
 
 Reader, let me say to you that sailoring is a hard 
 life. Man has to be made of an iron constitution to 
 stand the rough weather and still rougher fare ; for our 
 food is none of the best, and in many cases not enough 
 of that. You will hear sailors say, and declare to God, 
 that if they ever get on shore again it would be their 
 last voyage to sea. As soon as they get ashore they 
 " blow in " their money in drinking and riotous living; 
 then, as they think they cannot make money at any- 
 thing else (and a great many of them cannot), they are 
 again ready to try the sea. Many of them are " taken 
 in " by land sharks and robbed of their money, so they 
 go to sea again and again until old age overtakes them, 
 they can no longer earn a living by work, and frequently 
 the poor-house is the last home of a sailor. These 
 
Four Years loith the Army of the Potomac. 109 
 
 poor-houses are provided by the sailors themselves. 
 They pay about seven dollars a year as long as they are 
 sailors. I paid my assessments for thirteen years, so 
 you see I am entitled to the home of a sailor's " snug 
 harbor." 
 
 More than likely this little narrative will be read 
 by many who have never seen a ship ; I will therefore 
 tell you the different parts of a full rigged ship. Spars, 
 etc. :^mast, top mast, gallant mast, royal mast, yard, 
 tap sail, top gallant sail yard, royal yard, tuck, bow sprit, 
 gibboom, flying gibboom, martingale chain, top cap cross 
 tree, top mast cap, spanker-boom. Sails:— main sail, 
 top sail, top gallant yard sail, royal spanker. Standard 
 rigging :— shoals, top mast shoals, stay, top mast stay, 
 top gallant mast stay, royal stay, top mast back stay, 
 royal back stay, flying gibboom stay, martingale stay, 
 gibboom. martingale stay, bob stay. Running rigging : 
 —lifts, top sail lifts, top gallant sail lifts, royal lifts, 
 braces, top sail braces, top gallant sail braces, royal 
 braces, signal halyards, gib stay, flying gib stay, sheet, 
 peak halyard, topping lifts, spanker sheet. 
 
 These compose all the principal parts of a full 
 rigged ship. Of course these are all above the deck. 
 Then on deck we have capstan for hoisting the anchor, 
 and other things, such as hauling the ship to wharf. 
 In difierent classes of ships slight modifications occur 
 in the rigging, to suit particular circumstances. But 
 the main principles of rigging are as detailed above. 
 
no Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 The question is often asked, how many ropes has a full 
 rigged ship ? Of course hut few can answer this. She 
 has but two ropes as known by that name. One is the 
 bucket rope, the other the fender rope. All others have 
 different names, as you will see by looking over the list 
 above. 
 
 JSTow to return ;— after resting for a mouth or so, 
 I accepted a job on a three mast schooner which was 
 coasting between ports of the United States. We sailed 
 from Boet to Bangor, Me., and got a load of lumber 
 and returned. Thus we sailed from one port to another 
 until ]^ovember, when we took a load of coal to Ports- 
 mouth, l!T. H., at which place we laid up for the winter. 
 I could not well lay idle, so I got a job in a shipyard 
 that winter. The weather was so severe that we could 
 not work more than half the time. But I managed to 
 earn enough to pay my rent and keep my family. 
 
 March, 1875, has come at last and the cold spell of 
 the previous winter is broken. I must now look out 
 for another job, for I have six mouths to feed, six backs 
 to clothe, and I want my children to go to school and 
 wear respectable clothing. In order to do so I must 
 keep at work. As the martyred President would say, 
 " keep pegging away." After making ample provisions 
 for my family, I bid them good-by and went to New 
 York City. I soon found a job on a bark for a general 
 trading voyage in foreign ports. While on this voyage 
 I met with an incident that came very near costing me 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. Ill 
 
 my life. But for kind Providence I would not now be 
 writing this little book. I had a fearful combat with a 
 shark, but was rescued by my captain. 
 
 We were about two days out from Liverpool, Eng., 
 with a cargo of salt for one of the southern ports of 
 the United States. It being the 19th day of July we 
 struck a dead calm which lasted for several days. One 
 evening after a tremendous hot day, some one proposed 
 a swim. As most of the crew were good swimmers 
 we stripped and lowered a boat, and then climbed down 
 into it, and then jumped into the water. We had 
 been bathing but a few minutes when a blood-curdling 
 cry from the deck announced that a shark was bearing 
 down upon us. The captain immediately rushed down 
 into the cabin for his rifle to shoot him if he could. 
 The shark came up within three feet of where I was 
 and made for me. I gave one mighty spring and got 
 away from him about six feet, when a sharp report 
 rang out from the captain^s rifle, sending a ball through 
 the shark's head. This did not prove fatal, but stunned 
 him considerably and gave me one more chance for my 
 life, which I improved to the best advantage I could. 
 The shark seemed to gain consciousness again and 
 made another surge at another man who was a little 
 nearer than I. This gave me time to gain the boat. 
 In the meantime the captain had reloaded his gun, and 
 was watching his chance of again shooting him. He 
 soon got an opportunity, but this time the ball entered 
 
11^ Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea 
 
 his body, thus doing no very serious harm. It how- 
 ever, gave the sailors time to gain the boat. The boys 
 on the ship had lowered another boat, and armed with 
 knives and other weapons, they gave battle to Mr. 
 Shark, who seemed anxious to make a meal of one of 
 our crew. After shooting and knifing him we got him 
 so near killed that a rope was placed around him, and 
 fastening it around the capstan we hauled him on board 
 the deck. By this time the shark had gained enough 
 life to make it real interesting. Another shot from 
 the captain's rifle ended the combat. He was about 
 fifteen feet long, and as thick as a half barrel, and I 
 should judge weighed about a thousand pounds. We 
 had all the sea bathing we cared for on that voyage. 
 A breeze sprang up and filled our sails and we were 
 again on the move. In the course of time we reached 
 Savannah, Ga. We unloaded our cargo and reloaded 
 with cotton for Liverpool and set sail. 
 V There were two men in our crew who had a dislike 
 for each other. They spent most of their time in 
 quarreling, and would often come to blows. The rest 
 of us got tired of their noise, and we told them that 
 unless they stopped it we would report them to the cap- 
 tain. This seemed to have no eflect on them, so after 
 a few days we told the captain that we could stand it no 
 longer, and if it was not stopped we would leave the 
 ship as soon as we reached Liverpool. He told us to 
 keep quiet and say nothing more to them, but the next 
 
Four Years ivith the Army of the Potomac. IIS 
 
 time they got to quarreling, to call him and he would 
 attend to their case. In a few days they were at it again 
 hot and heavy. We reported to the captain and told 
 him what was up. He came on deck. and called the two 
 men together, and ordered them to go and get a tool- 
 chest that stood aft, and fetch it midship. He then 
 ordered the crew to lash the two men to the chest, facing 
 each other. After this was done he stood over them 
 with a rope and made them fight. Every time they 
 stopped he gave them a cut with the rope. This chest 
 was about four feet long, two feet high and two feet in 
 width, and they were strapped down fast to it, so they 
 could only move their bodies and arms. They fought 
 for about thirty minutes, when they began to want to 
 quit. After promising not to fight again, the captain 
 had them untied and told them to go and bathe their 
 faces, and if he heard any more of their quarreling he 
 would put them in irons and order them arrested, as 
 soon as they reached port, for mutiny This had the 
 desired effect and we heard no more quarreling from 
 them. Upon arriving at Liverpool they got the ^'G. B.'' 
 and we shipped two Englishmen in their places. We 
 got out our cargo and took on another of salt, and set 
 sail for l^tw York. 
 
 We had it very rough all the way over on this trip. 
 When about three days out I was taken sick with 
 the typhoid fever, I tried to work it off, but to no pur- 
 pose, I kept getting worse every day. The captain was 
 
ii^ Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 very kind and did all he could for me, but I was very- 
 sick ; it being very rough, I rolled from one side of my 
 bunk to the other day and night till we reached New 
 York. I was then sent to the seaman's hospital, and in 
 three weeks was able to start for home, although very 
 weak. 
 
 I found my family well. I thought I would stay at 
 home that winter and gain strength. In January of 
 1876, another son was born to us. I remained home 
 until April, when I got a job on one of the Reading 
 coal and iron steamers as oiler ; she was to ply between 
 Port Richmond, Pa., and Portsmouth, 1^. H., so I moved 
 my family to Portsmouth. 
 
 The Centennial Exposition opened on the tenth of 
 May, and as I had nothing to do with the loading or 
 unloading, I used to go and see the show; I put in ten 
 days during the summer sight-seeing. Everything went 
 smoothly that summer and we got our pay regular, but 
 the work was very hard to all the crew. My duty was to 
 keep the machinery oiled, and to make myself useful in 
 general in the engine room. I always found plenty to 
 do, as the coal dust was always flying and kept every- 
 thing dirty. In November we pulled in for the winter. 
 
 I found it had taken nearly all my summer's wages 
 to keep my family, and I could not well afford to lay 
 idle that winter, as I was paying eight dollars a month 
 rent. I got a chance to ship for Cuba. This voyage 
 would be of little interest to the reader, therefore suflice 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 115 
 
 it to say that we returned to New York by the first of 
 April. I remained at home till the first of May, 1877, 
 and then made arrangements for a long voyage to China. 
 We took on a cargo of general merchandise and 
 set sail. We met with a very severe hurricane on this 
 trip, and were obliged to lay to for repairs, which took 
 about three weeks. We then proceeded on our jour- 
 ney and reached Canton in July, we soon disposed of 
 our cargo and took on another consigned to San Fran- 
 cisco, Cal., where we arrived in September. I found 
 letters awaiting me there which told me all were well 
 at home. 
 
 To make this little narrative interesting to the 
 reader, I will now describe some of the sights that I 
 have seen while on the briny deep. First, I will tell 
 you about corals and coral reefs. 
 
 The coral with which we are best acquainted has a 
 pinkish red color. But coral is also frequently found 
 bearing a dozen diff'erent shades of red ; so that it is 
 classified technically, among the divers and traders, as 
 "blood foam," "flower of blood," "first blood," ^^ second 
 blood" and "third blood." There are many different 
 opinions respecting the nature of coral ; some maintain- 
 ing that it is vegetable, others that it is mineral. But 
 it has been demonstrated that they are all wrong, and 
 that coral is the direct result of a polyp, (many footed) 
 animal, which builds its fairy castles and grottoes by 
 
116 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 secreting calcareous matter. These singular creatures 
 bear no small resemblance to other flower animals, and 
 are sometimes mistaken for sea flowers. The tropical 
 district of the Pacific Ocean particularly, abound with 
 prodigious quantities of coral, which have become verit- 
 able palaces of the sea, as gorgeous as ever fairy raised 
 in the creative mind of youth. 
 
 Plants of fiber fine as silk-worm thread ; 
 
 Yea beautiful as a mermaid's golden hair, 
 Upon the waves bespread. 
 
 Others like the broad banana growing 
 Raised their long, wrinkled leaves of purple hue. 
 
 Like streamers wide outflowing. 
 When to their father's hall at festival, 
 
 The sea nymphs repair in emulous array 
 Their charms display to grace the 
 
 Banquet and the solemn day. 
 
 The growth of coral ceases when the worm which 
 creates it is no longer exposed to the washing of the 
 tide. Thus a reef rises in the form of a giagantic 
 cauliflower, till its top has gained the level of the 
 highest tide, above which the polyp has no power to 
 carry on its operations. The reef consequently, is no 
 higher, but extends itself laterally in all directions, this 
 growth being probably as rapid at the upper edge as at 
 its lower. The steepness of the face of the rock is pre- 
 served, and it is this circumstance which renders this 
 species of rock so dangerous to navigation. In the 
 first place they are seldom seen above the surface of the 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 117 
 
 water ; and in the next, their sides are so abrupt that a 
 ship's bow may strike against them before any change 
 y of sounding indicates the approach of danger. It is 
 principally in the South sea and the Red sea that the 
 coral builders abound. At the approaches of the Maldine 
 Islands they form extraordinary masses, and is a very 
 pretty sight. Having no further space to give to 
 this beautiful coral, I will, therefore, pass on. 
 
 Well, I left off at San Francisco. We disposed of 
 our cargo and took on another for Australia, and the 
 Sandwich Islands. But before I describe this,voyage, I 
 wish to relate an incident that I was eye-witness to in 
 China. 
 
 A man was publicly beheaded, — what for I could 
 not learn, — but will tell you how it was done. Capital 
 punishment in China is different from what it is in our 
 country. One fine morning while we lay at Canton we 
 noticed a great stir on shore. Several of us thought 
 we would go and see what was up. We soon found that 
 a man was about to be beheaded. They had a block 
 about three feet high and one foot broad. The poor 
 fellow was lashed down to this block, so that his neck 
 would just reach the top. The executioner had a 
 cleaver or sword about two feet long and very sharp. 
 A bamboo handle was attached to it, and when all was 
 ready, a powerful blow upon the back of the neck sev- 
 ered the head from the body. The blood spurted from 
 the victim fully ten feet, the body quivered for a moment, 
 the muscles contracted and twitched, and all was over. 
 
118 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 Now to my narrative : We sailed for Australia 
 October 15, 1877. After experiencing some very rough 
 weather we landed at Honolulu, the capital of the 
 Sandwich Islands. After stopping there about three 
 weeks we set sail for Queensland, to dispose of the 
 balance of our cargo. We then took on a cargo of 
 wool in bales, and started for I^ew York, which we 
 reached early in May, 1878. We received our pay and 
 were discharged. 
 
 I stopped at home until after the 4th of July, when 
 I again started for sea ; but this time on a coaster to 
 trade in domestic ports. We plied between New York 
 and the southern ports of the United States during this 
 summer, and when fall came we ^' lay in " for the win- 
 ter. Nothing happened during this summer of any 
 particular interest, but when I was discharged, I 
 thought I would follow my wife to the eastern part of 
 Maine, where she had gone on a visit to her father. I 
 had to remain in Boston some time before getting my 
 pay. While waiting for it I visited an old school-mate 
 of mine living in Brooklin. So one Saturday afterneon 
 we received our pay but got it too late for the afternoon 
 train, and decided to take the midnight train. There 
 was a servant girl working at the place where I stopped 
 and she having received a complimentary ticket to the 
 theater that evening, asked me to accompany her. I 
 accepted, thinking I could spend the evening that way 
 until train time. But the theater lasted rather late ; I 
 
Four Years loith the Army of the Potomac. 119 
 
 only escorted her part way home, in order to make my 
 train. I bid her good-night at one of the street corners, 
 and she started for home, but was soon murdered on 
 the way. She was found dead in an alley in about 
 thirty minutes after I left her on the street. Of course 
 circumstances pointed strongly toward me. I was fol- 
 lowed and arrested the next day and taken back to 
 Boston and landed in jail. On Tuesday I had a prelim- 
 inary trial, and everything was brought to bear to prove 
 me guilty. They came very near doing it too, only by 
 the help of an unseen power it would have been done. 
 It seems that after I had left her she had been seen and 
 spoken to by a policeman who was acquainted with her. 
 After I arrived at the depot, abouc a mile distant from 
 the scene of the murder, I asked the agent the time, as 
 I had no watch. The trial was nearly over and I nearly 
 convicted of the crime, before the policeman and agent 
 came forward in my behalf. They both testified that 
 they were strangers to me, and had no direct interest 
 in my behalf, the policeman testified to the time of the 
 passing of the girl, which coincided with the time of 
 the agent upon whom I had called. I was thus exon- 
 erated from all blame and turned loose. 
 
 Once more it was a close call for me. Circumstan- 
 tial evidence was strong against me. After all there 
 were some in and around Boston who seemed to think 
 me in some way connected with the murder. Even 
 some in my own town looked upon me with suspicion. 
 
120 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea 
 
 Ilad a little common sense and good judgment been 
 used, they could have seen my innocence. In the first 
 place I had no motive whatever in killing the girl. In 
 the second place, she was killed with a piece of buggy 
 shaft, taken from a carriage shop more than a mile 
 from where the murder was committed. In the third 
 place, the girl was seen and spoken to after I had arrived 
 at the Boston and Maine B. R. station. They had several 
 arrested on suspicion, but could not fasten the crime on 
 anyone. Finally, about two years after this incident, 
 one Piper, a sexton in one of the churches of Boston, 
 allured little Mabel Young into the belfry of the church, 
 there ravished and killed her. He was arrested and 
 covicted of the crime and sentenced to be hanged. He 
 then confessed that he was the murderer of the Lanne- 
 han girl ; this being her name. 
 
 After my trial and acquittal I went back to my 
 family and stayed about two weeks, and then returned 
 home with them and spent the balance of the winter. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 I have not told you any of my boyish pranks. I 
 will tell you how my brother William and I wearied 
 Windy Brown's bull. 
 
 Dan Rice was responsible for the whole business. 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 121 
 
 Dan had pitched his circus tent in a little village where 
 I was wont to romp about in my boyhood days. 
 One of the prominent features of the show was a band 
 of scouts, who got out on the commons and threw 
 lassoes, and shot into the air. This turned the head of 
 every boy in town. While the scouts performed I 
 stood on the hill and scratched my little sunburnt calf 
 with a toe that had no nail ^on it, and longed for the 
 freedom of the plains and the excitement of the bufialo 
 chase. After the show had left town I casually remarked 
 to brother William, that it might be a good thing for 
 us to learn the art of throwing the lasso. For there 
 was no knowing what might happen to a fellow. 
 
 William agreed that the life of the rollicking scout 
 had its attractions, and he yearned for further enlighten- 
 ment. " I'll tell you. Bill, how we might get at this," 
 says I, as we were seated on the old bob sleds back of 
 the barn; " we might begin on Windy Brown's bull." 
 ^ov7 it happened that Windy's bull had been addicted 
 to the pernicious habit of breaking into our cornfield, 
 and Bill remembering this fact, agreed with me that it 
 would be no more than right to begin on the bull and 
 learn him the sense of doing his duty by staying at 
 home, and learning us to throw the lasso as well. 
 Father, in those days, was the owner of an old mare 
 that was sedate, reasonable, and ready at at all times to 
 perform anything that she was called upon to do, if it 
 lay in her power. It was also a fact that father owned 
 
1^2 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 the first horse-power hay fork ever used in that town, 
 and the old mare used to yank the hay into the barn. 
 Well, after due deliberation we decided to take about 
 fifty feet of the line that belonged to the hay fork 
 equipment, and convert it into a lasso. For a week 
 Bill and I could be seen galloping over the farm with 
 the old mare, lassoing fence posts, throwing nooses 
 over the heads of our younger brothers; we were 
 rapidly becoming scouts of the first water. Finally, 
 one day, father had to go to mill, and all other condi- 
 tions being considered favorable, we decided that the 
 time for operations had come, and we would capture 
 Windy Brown's bull. 
 
 In the preliminary practice Bill had shown more 
 skill than I in throwing the noose, so it was decided 
 that Bill was to ride the old mare, and I was to recon- 
 noiter in the cornfield and drive the bull down the run- 
 way. Bill had mounted the old mare, " now Bill," says 
 I, " I guess you had better tie a few slip-knots in that 
 rope, so as to bring him down easy, he might jerk you 
 into kingdom-come if the old mare was to loose her 
 * footen.' " Bill said he had not thought of that, and 
 instead of tying the rope to the saddle, he tied it 
 around the old mare's neck. After Bill was ready, I 
 took the family shot gun, loaded it with dried peas, and 
 the two scouts started out on their perilous venture. 
 
 During all this time the bull was tramping green 
 corn under foot, not knowing what excitement was soon 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 1^3 
 
 in store for him. The cornfield was on a hill side, at 
 the bottom of which was a narrow ravine. I said to 
 Bill, " You stay in the gulley and I will go up and shoot 
 the bull with the peas and drive him down to you and 
 you can lasso him easy." The program was carried out 
 to the letter. I stole up through the corn until I got 
 within range, and then let the bull have it in the side. 
 With a bellow that made the welkin ring for half a 
 mile around, the bull started for the ravine, kicking up 
 the turf and knocking down the corn. I soon lost 
 sight of him, but by what I could hear I knew there 
 must be trouble down below. I could'nt see much at 
 first but flying cornstalks and dirt. When I got near I 
 saw Bill standing there wringing his hands and calling 
 me for heaven's sake to hurry up. The bull and the 
 old mare were both down, and I could see at a glance 
 that the " dickens " was to pay. 
 
 Bill had lassoed the bull all right, but the slip-knots 
 didn't work as we expected. The old mare was jerked 
 off her feet at the bull's first jump; then the bull got 
 mixed up with the old mare and rope, so that when I 
 got there they were both stretched out on the ground. 
 At first we thought we would cut the bull loose so as to 
 save the rope, and not let father find out what we had 
 been doing. But it occurred to us, in case the bull was 
 set free, he would probably gore the old mare. Finally 
 we decided to cut the old mare loose and let the rope 
 go. I would be easier to explain the loss of the rope 
 
12Jf, Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 than the killing of the old mare. When the bull got 
 up there were lumps on his side where the peas had hit 
 him, as large as walnuts. He went home as fast as he 
 could, taking the rope with him, and he never got into 
 our cornfield again. 
 
 In a few days father started to put a load of hay 
 into the barn. Bill and I had carefully fixed the rope, 
 after taking off a piece, as near the way it was as we 
 could, and said nothing about it. When father got his 
 first fork-full up in the air his rope gave out ; and the 
 result was we had to confess the whole thing. Father 
 used up what little rope was left on Bill and I, and we 
 concluded that scouting life was too swift for us, so we 
 grew up as plain, every-day fellows, fishing and hunting 
 when the circumstances were favorable, and working 
 when we had to. Windy Brown never found out what 
 was the matter with his bull. 
 
 Poor brother Bill, he answered to the first call for 
 troops from tha State of Maine, and was killed in the 
 Peninsular Campaign and his bones left to bleach on 
 the plains of old Virginia. 
 
 As I now write, my dear old wife is sitting on the 
 opposite side of the room. She jokingly remarked, 
 " Are you not going to give me a few pages in your 
 book?" As I think she well deserves it, the following 
 poem is suggested to my mind, and I think will cover 
 the whole ground; for she surely has had her share of 
 this world's troubles; being left alone most of the time 
 for twenty years, with only her children and lots of care. 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 125 
 
 She can peel and boil potatoes, 
 Make a salad of tomatoes, 
 But she doesn't know a Latin noun from Greek. 
 And so well she cooks a chicken, 
 That your appetite would quicken, 
 But she can not tell what's modern from antique. 
 She knows how to set a table. 
 And make order out of babel. 
 But she doesn't know Euripides from Kant. 
 Once at making pie I caught her— 
 Jove ! an expert must have taught her— 
 But she doesn't know true eloquence from rant. 
 She has a firm conviction. 
 One ought only to read fiction, 
 And she doesn't care for science, not a bit. 
 And the way she makes her bonnets. 
 Sure is worth a thousand sonnets, 
 But she doesn't yearn for «« culture" not a whit. 
 She can make her wraps and dresses. 
 Till a fellow fast confesses, 
 That there's not another maiden half so sweet. 
 She's immersed in home completely. 
 Where she keeps all things so neatly, 
 But from Browning not a line can she repeat. 
 Well, in fact, she's just a woman. 
 Gentle, lovable and human, 
 And her faults she is willing to admit. 
 'Twere foolish to have tarried. 
 So' we went off and got married. 
 And I tell you I am mighty glad of it. 
 
 It was well along in February, 1878, when I got 
 through with my trouble in Boston. I made a short 
 visit with friends in the east and settled once more at 
 
126 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 home in Portsmouth. I thought I would take a little 
 needed rest, and get a little better acquainted with my 
 family. So I concluded to stay at home the balance of 
 the winter. But *' time and tide wait for no man," and 
 spring soon came again. One day I receive^ a letter 
 from Captain Shurland, with whom I had been to sea 
 before. He wanted me to go with him on a voyage. 
 He said he didn't know where he would go, but would 
 be ready in about two weeks. I sent back word that I 
 would be ready to come at a moment's notice. In a 
 short time I received word to come to ^N'ew York, as 
 the ship would be ready in a few days. Upon arriving 
 I learned that the ship was going on a general trading 
 voyage to the Indies and would be gone about a year. 
 I can not go into details of this voyage, for it would 
 take up too much time and space. Suffice it to say that 
 our year wore away and we again returned to 'New 
 York in the spring. Our voyage was very profitable to 
 the owners of the ship. After receiving my pay, the 
 spring of 1879 found me at home again. 
 
 As I have but about four more years of which to 
 write, I shall speak but little of my life from this time 
 on. I will therefore go back a little and tell of some 
 things I have seen and heard. I don't suppose there is 
 a man living who has not some religious and political 
 views. Of course I am not an exception to the rule. 
 Those who read this book may want to know my views 
 on these important subjects. I will briefly tell you and 
 give a few of my reasons why. 
 
Four Years ivith the Army of the Potomac. 127 
 
 Politically I am an uncompromising Republican. 
 My reason is, in the first place, this government is the 
 best on God's green earth. I claim the Republican 
 party made it what it is. When they took the reins of 
 this government in 1861, we were on the verge of the 
 most gigantic rebellion that the world ever saw. We 
 were without arms, money, credit or a navy. Notwith- 
 standing, we crushed out the rebellion, established our 
 credit in all the money markets of the world, and got 
 most of the national debt paid off before we turned 
 over the government to the Democratic party. 
 
 As for my views on religion, I will say that I 
 take but little stock in the apostolic doctrines as they 
 are taught to-day. I do believe in an Almighty God, 
 the Father of all living beings, and the ruler and gover- 
 nor of the world. That he made all things for a pur- 
 pose, and that all things fill that purpose, for which 
 they were made. I believe that the human family is 
 punished for all violations of the laws of nature, as fast 
 as they are violated, and that the punishment is all that 
 we can bear. I think that many things as taught in 
 the bible do stand in the light of reason, and are con- 
 trary to the laws of nature. I have seen with my own 
 eyes and heard with my own ears, things that very 
 plainly contradict. I could write page upon page on 
 this subject, that would bear me out in this statement; 
 but I am willing that every one have his own views on 
 this point, and I wish to be accorded mine. Amen. 
 
1^28 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 As for my views ou the temperance question, will 
 say that I am a temperate man, but not a tetotaler. I 
 can drink a glass of whiskey or beer or I can let it 
 alone, but I don't think the people have a right to legis- 
 late what a man shall eat or drink. However, I think 
 there should be some restrictions on the liquor traffic. 
 
 After getting home in the spring of 1879, 1 remained 
 there a few weeks and then went to sea again on a three 
 mast schooner, in our own waters. Was in Mobile 
 when I got a dispatch that our little daughter was very 
 sick, and for me to come home. I did so and found 
 her her very low with dropsy of the brain. On the 2d 
 day of September she breathed her last. This was a 
 sad affair to all of us, she being our only daughter, and 
 was far advanced for her years. She was six years and 
 four months old. This was the first time that death 
 had entered our family. We laid her away to rest and 
 returned to our sad home. The family chain was 
 broken and a link was missing, never to be replaced. 
 
 Soon after this sad occurrence I received a letter 
 from my sister stating that my mother was very sick, 
 but did not say there was any danger. Of course I did 
 not feel like leaving my wife in sadness after the death 
 of our dear child. I did not go and see my mother 
 who lived in Yassalboro, Maine, then, and about the 
 23d of September I received word that mother was 
 dead. She had died on the 21st and was buried beside 
 my stepfather. I was then called to mourn again ; this 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 129 
 
 time for a mother whose place could never be filled in 
 this world. 
 
 As I did not feel like going to sea again this winter, 
 I got a job on the navy yard as a reamer, in the calkers 
 gang. I went to work and remained till spring. We 
 got our ship calked and were discharged. 
 
 Congress had passed the arrearage pension act, and 
 as I had been suffering all these years with my wounds, 
 I thought it no more than right that Uncle Sam should 
 give me a pension. I employed a pension agent to 
 make application for me. After furnishing the required 
 evidence my pe^nsion claim was allowed, at the rate of 
 six dollars a month, and dated back sixteen years; and 
 amounted to $1151. 80. This was in June, 1881. 
 
 After the death of our little girl I thought I would 
 not go to sea again. But after being discharged from 
 the navy yard in the spring of 1880, I could get no 
 work, so I thought I must go to sea again. It's no task 
 to get a chance to ship if you are an able seaman. Ship 
 crews are made up of three classes. Able seamen, 
 ordinary seamen and landsmen. Able seamen are those 
 who understand all parts of a ship; who can steer, 
 mend sails, splice ropes and turn their hands to anything 
 that is needed to be done on a ship. An ordinary sea- 
 man is one who knows only a part of all this duty. A 
 landsman is one who never was to sea before. I being 
 one of the first class, was not long in getting a job. 
 This time on a bark for Liverpool. 
 
ISJf Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 watched my chance and sold my tin outfit, but at some 
 loss. So my hard earnings and pension money is all 
 gone, except what little I have in my home and what I 
 got for my rig ; I suppose I must go to sea again in 
 order to make a living for myself and family. 
 
 As most of my readers are but very little ac- 
 quainted with the briny deep, probably a description 
 of some of the inhabitants of the sea will interest and 
 instruct you more than my humstrum life. It has been 
 my purpose and indeed my chief aim, to bring to 
 the attention of my readers only those things which are 
 best calculated to inspire the loftiest conception of the 
 Maker of the universe, and to incite a desire in both 
 young and old to become better acquainted with nature; 
 and to bring us into a closer relation, a better under- 
 standing and an infinite wisdom of nature's God. A 
 storm on land is but a lamb compared with the storm 
 lion on the sea. Several times in my life I have been 
 a witness to the fury of the elements of the sea and air, 
 that are sometimes exhibited to the luckless mariner. 
 
 During my second voyage across the Atlantic, on a 
 staunch built ship that was able to withstand the fierce 
 onsets of wind and wave, in the evening at the close of 
 a lovely day, with no thought of impending danger 
 until the captain appeared and said " a storm is brew- 
 ing, make all things snug, fasten down the hatch ways, 
 and everything that is laying around loose put in 
 
Four Years loith the Army of the Potomac. 1S5 
 
 proper places." In less than half an hour the storm 
 struck us broadside ; onward we sped through the in- 
 creased fury of the storm ; the man at the helm kept the 
 vessel headed on ; the billows would rise before her like 
 mountains, nobly would she dive through the liquid 
 barrier, then vault up again and toss the water, like a 
 monstrous creature shaking the brine from its mane. 
 
 My dear reader, a night like this will make the 
 stoutest heart think of God, home and mother. There 
 is no use crying for help, for there could be no help 
 save from G-od alone. I thought of the thin barrier 
 which separated us from eternity; should this break, 
 great disaster would follow ; our ship would soon be 
 reported overdue, then the papers will tell how some of 
 the crew acted the part of cowards through fear. I had 
 implicit confidence in the ship and her crew, never 
 doubting whether we would weather the gale. All 
 things must have an end, so did the storm, but it was 
 an experience that I never shall forget. 
 
 But still more dangerous than the storm is a water- 
 spout at sea ; though so small is the space that it affects, 
 it is seldom that vessels fall within its power. Our 
 modern definition of water-spout is a dense cloud highly 
 charged with electricity, moving irregularly and with 
 amazing rapidity, with inclination to dip. This cloud, 
 owing to an apparent tendency to fall while girating 
 with extraordinary velocity, inwardly assumes the shape 
 of a reverse cone. Its color is a deep gray, its aspect 
 
132 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 It was now the last of April, 1881 ; a letter had 
 come to me from the pension department, telling me 
 that my claim was now believed to be complete and 
 was before the board of review for final settlement. 
 Of course that was good news to me, for I had already 
 laid by $1500 and I knew that I should get back pay to 
 date of my discharge from the army, and if I was rated 
 low it would amount to quite a sum, and by adding this 
 to what I already had, I could buy me a little home 
 and spend the rest of my days on land ; for I had now 
 been away from home nearly twenty years. And when 
 I bid them good-bye each time, I did not know but that 
 it would be for the last time. For a sailor's life is full 
 of danger, and like the soldier, he takes his life in his 
 own hands when he goes down to the sea in ships and 
 does business on the great deep. 
 
 After my return in the spring of 1881, from the 
 island of Jamaica, I remained at home a few weeks, 
 and not hearing any more from my pension, I thought 
 I would go to sea again. I accepted a chance to ship 
 for Europe. We sailed from Boston to Bangor, Me., and 
 got a load of lumber for Savanna, Ga. ; we then took 
 cotton, resin and turpentine for London. While in 
 London I received a letter from my wife stating that 
 my pension had been allowed, and wanted me to come 
 home at once, but I thought I would get home as soon 
 to stay by my ship. I sent word to the pension agent 
 that I would return in the fall, and told him to hold 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 13S 
 
 my papers until then. After getting our cargo out in 
 London, we went to Liverpool, from there to France 
 and back to Liverpool, and there took on a cargo of 
 cordage for New York. We landed in Brooklyn navy 
 yards all right, and in about three weeks we got our 
 pay and were discharged. I started for home and 
 reached thereabout the middle of September. After 
 remaining at home for a few days, I went to Concord 
 and drew my pension. 
 
 I then fully made up my mind that I would quit 
 the sea, for a while at least, as it was a duty that I owed 
 to my family, and I could now stay at home without 
 any hardship to myself or them. After looking 
 around awhile, I bought me a house and lot, paying 
 $575 for it; I put the rest of my money in bank until 
 such time as I would want to use it. After being idle 
 for two or three months I found it was telling on me. 
 I had not been idle since I was fifteen years old, 
 and I could not stand that kind of life. I told my 
 wife that I must find something to do; work was not 
 very plenty, so I bought a tin peddler's outfit and 
 thought I would try tin peddling for awhile. After 
 drawing from the bank enough to pay for my horse, 
 wagon and stock, I had $960 left. I found that trade 
 was not very brisk, and I could only pay expenses with 
 my trade. 
 
 In June, 1882, the bank where I had my money 
 suspended payment, and I was left in the " soup." I 
 
130 Sixteen Years on the Dm^k Blue Sea, 
 
 r bid my family farewell, and on the 21st of April 
 set sail from Boston, Mass. We reached our destina- 
 tion in about four weeks from the time we started. 
 We had some head winds to contend with which 
 delayed our progress somewhat. We unloaded our 
 cargo of wool and spoke timber, and took on a load 
 of salt for l^ew York. We arrived in [N'ew York on 
 the 2d of September. The captain wanted me to stay 
 and go on a voyage with him to the West Indies for 
 a winter voyage. But he would not be ready before 
 about the first of October. He said he would pay my 
 way down home and back if I wished to go home, if 
 I would promise to come back when he sent for me. 
 It old him I would go with him and then went home. 
 
 On the 9th of September anolslier daughter was 
 born to us. After she was about ten days old I kissed 
 all good-bye and again left home for the raging sea. 
 
 We left New York on the 3d day of October, 1880, 
 bound for the West Indies with a mixed cargo of mer- 
 chandise. We reached our port early in December, 
 and found the natives getting ready to put in their 
 second crop. We landed on the island of Jamaica. 
 You are acquainted with the geography of the West 
 Indies. I will, therefore, not describe this island, but 
 will only say that it is a very fertile island, with an area 
 of about 6400 square miles and is populated with whites 
 and blacks. Its principal exports are sugar and log- 
 wood. We secured a cargo of this and started for home. 
 
Four Years ivith the Army of the Potomac. ISl 
 
 In February, 1881, while on our way back, and about 
 sixty miles south of Cuba, we were struck by a severe 
 squall, and lost main top sail and royal yard arm, and 
 had our sails considerably damaged. We had to lay up 
 at Cuba for repairs. 
 
 The smallpox was raging in Cuba at this time but 
 we were ignorant of the fact. In about ten days our 
 ship had been repaired and we were ready to sail for 
 home. Most of the crew had been on shore before we 
 found out that smallpox was there. We felt somewhat 
 shaky about it, but as there was no help for it we had 
 to do the next best thing, just grin and bear it. After 
 we had been a few days out, one of the crew showed 
 symptoms of smallpox. Captain Shurland being well 
 acquainted with the disease, shut him up in the cabin 
 and turned the ship over to the first mate. He stayed 
 with the fellow and took care of him. It proved to be 
 smallpox sure enough ; but none of the rest of the crew 
 happened to take it. When we neared New York 
 harbor we hoisted the red flag for the quarantine 
 ofilcers. They soon made their appearance, and had us 
 landed on quarantine island. After laying there for 
 fifteen days and no new cases breaking out we were 
 pronounced out of danger. We were thoroughly 
 cleansed and disinfected, and then went up to the city. 
 I there took my discharge, burned all my old clothes, 
 took a good bath, bought a new suit, and started for 
 home. I found my wife and babies well and the, little 
 one growing like a pig. 
 
136 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 frightful beyond expression. And no less so is the ele- 
 mentary display, which precedes it. The sky becomes 
 dreadfully lowering, and unnatural drakness prevails, 
 caused by a sickly yellowish sunlight, and the atmos- 
 phere is often inpregnated with sulphurious fumes. A 
 hurricane, or, more properly, cyclone, sweeps over the 
 breaking waves with ominous screeching and dull roar. 
 It seems as if a volcano were pouring forth from the 
 deep bowels of the earth. While the lightning darts 
 and blinding flashes reign supreme, and terrific crashes 
 of thunder swiftly follow each other. Then the water 
 spout falls nearer and nearer the water which becomes 
 violently agitated underneath, until rising into a cone 
 of water, and the two are united in a roar so terrible 
 as to be fairly deafening. The cyclone on land is the 
 water-spout at sea. And woe to the luckless vessel 
 that chances to be within its influence; for it would 
 almost certainly dismantel and swallow her up, how- 
 ever strong she might be. 
 
 The infinite life which pervades the ocean, requires 
 an encyclopedia for its description. Hence it will be 
 necessary to pass over many interesting things in order 
 to give space to the most important. I should liked to 
 have mentioned medusa or jelly fish, which are so 
 curious and have aflforded me many hours of amusement. 
 Also the sea hedge hog, benus girdle, and a score of 
 other plant animals as they are called. But I must 
 forego my wishes else this work must necessarily be 
 
Four Years ivith the Army of the Potomac. 137 
 
 stretched out to an uncompromising length ; for no 
 one book could contain it all. So I have but a few 
 more words about the briny deep, then I am done with 
 the sea. Many have asked me how long after a storm 
 at sea before it settles down to its usual calmness. 
 It takes several days. I have known it to be quite 
 rough for ten days after a storm ; but there is always 
 more or less bluster on the sea at all times. 
 
 I have not mentioned all the countries that I have 
 seen during my travels, nor half the funny things that 
 happened. The following is a partial list of the coun- 
 tries in which I have been: England, Italy, Spain, 
 Japan, China, South America, Sandwich Islands, Ber- 
 muda Islands, Solomon Islands, Australia, Palestine, 
 South Sea Islands, Isle of Man. There are hundreds 
 of other places that I will not mention, as there are 
 many ports in each country and some of them I have 
 already described. 
 
 After losing my money at bank and selling my tin 
 wagon I went to Boston to look for another job to 
 go to sea. This was in March, 1883. I walked down 
 toward the wharf to see what the prospect was. I saw 
 a notice in an office window saying, "men wanted, 
 inquire within." They wanted men to go to Indiana 
 to put up telephone lines, and they would be ready 
 to start the next day, and would give one dollar per day 
 and expenses, including Sundays. As I did not wish 
 
H^ Sixteen Years on the Bark Blue Sea, 
 
 the top of the towers. The great hubs were then 
 placed on the shaft and the work of hanging the wheel 
 began. Beginning at the bottom the heavy castings 
 which form the rims of the two wheels — for there are 
 two with the cars hanging between—were hung one by 
 one on rods which carry the weight of the wheel. 
 Slowly the circle was completed and the last of the 
 sections, each of which weighs ^ve tons, was raised 
 two hundred and seventy feet to drop into its place. 
 The false work around the wheel to put it together 
 contained ?12,000 worth of lumber. 
 
 When the last section was hung and the thirty-six 
 cars were placed between the rims of the two wheels, 
 it was ready to turn, and it did turn, as easily, as 
 steadly, and under as complete control as the wheel 
 of a sewing machine. That was the great test. That 
 was where the doubting Thomases had to open their 
 eyes and surrender to the young bridge-builder who 
 always said it would turn, while they said never. Here 
 was a bridge built in a circle and hung to an axle by 
 thousands of steel rods until it looked like a mammoth 
 bicycle wheel, and weighed 1,300 tons, or 2,600,000 
 pounds. And it turned the first time that Mr. Ferris 
 gave the signal to the engineer, and it has been turning 
 forward or backward, stopping at the right place to an 
 inch, and in fact, obeying that engineer ever since as 
 only the most perfect mechanism can obey. The 
 engineers who doubted have surrendered, and the new 
 principle has been established. Mr. Ferris has demon- 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. US 
 
 strated that a great tension wheel can be hung together 
 from an axle by rods and still keep its perfect circle. 
 The engineers said it wonld become ellipitcal when they 
 tried to make it turn. The weight is all a hanging 
 weight, and there are no stiff spokes. Each rod when 
 it becomes vertical above the axle is free from all weight, 
 the distribution beginning each side of it on the rim 
 and the weight centering at the bottom of the wheel. 
 Other wheels have been built on a small scale, but they 
 were on the old plan, a stiff wheel with spokes bearing 
 up the weight above as well as that suspended below. 
 This is the first attempt to build a tension or hanging 
 wheel of large proportions. 
 
 The highest point of the wheel is two hundred and 
 sixty-five feet above the surface of the earth. The 
 diameter is two hundred and fifty feet, and the circum- 
 ference eight hundred and twenty-five, the entire thing 
 being raised fifteen feet above the ground. 
 
 There are thirty-six cars on the wheel, each capable 
 of comfortably seating forty people. The cars are 
 twenty-seven feet long, thirteen feet wide, and nine feet 
 high, and each weighs thirteen tons. The motive power 
 comes from a 1,000-horse power engine under the wheel. 
 Some spectators and visitors have asked what 
 would be the effect if one-half the cars were loaded all 
 on one side of the wheel. At this question the young 
 engineer smiles. Man is a very important bit of flesh 
 and blood and he watches the fly on the wheel without 
 thinking that it can add any weight. Mr. Ferris regards 
 
llfi Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 early Colonial muster rolls are sprinkled with the 
 names of Eaton in large numbers; they answered 
 for duty in the war for independence. Several sons of 
 Eaton suffered cruel imprisonment by the British in the 
 early years of this country, and later helped with a will 
 to fight for sailors' rights. Finally, from every loyal 
 State in 1861, unnumbered Eatons joined the Union 
 host, many of whom marched through victory to a free 
 and nobler union. Much more might be written in 
 praise of our name, but I dare not take more time for 
 this work, when only the leasure moments of a busy life 
 are available. 
 
 Now to return to the World's Fair. The greatest 
 novelty of the exposition was the Ferris wheel. I should 
 have thought that I had missed the best part of the 
 Fair if I had not taken a ride on this big wheel. Here 
 is a short sketch of this monster and the difiiculty of 
 the inventor in getting permission to put this wheel on 
 the ground. 
 
 When Mr. Ferris submitted his plan there was long 
 deliberation by the Fair managers, but his concession 
 was granted July 1, 1892, only to be recalled and 
 regranted December 16, just four and one-half months 
 before the Fair was to open. Mr. Ferris had met all 
 sorts of discouragements, but firmly believed in the 
 feasibility of his plan. 
 
 December 28 every pound of the steel in the Ferris 
 wheel was pig iron. June 21, less than six month later, 
 it was spun out into the most monstrous spider web 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. HI 
 
 ever conceived and was revolving without hitch with 
 hundreds of passengers riding on its rim as unconscious 
 of the sensation of fear as one of the flies that light on 
 the big fly- wheels of the engines that furnish the motive 
 power for the Fair. 
 
 The different parts of the wheel were made by nine 
 of the largest steel plants in the country, and when 
 they reached Chicago they went together as perfectly 
 as if made by one hand. 
 
 Work on the base was begun January 3; the foun- 
 dations were laid thirty-five feet below the surface and 
 the excavation had to be through twenty feet of quick- 
 sand and water. Three steam pumps were kept at work, 
 and with the mercury ten degrees below^ zero live steam 
 was used on the concrete to prevent its freezing before 
 it could be put in place with the massive steel bars which 
 built up the eight foundation towers. These towers 
 under the ground are twenty feet square and thirty-five 
 feet deep. To these concrete towers are firmly bolted 
 the steel towers which rise one hundred and forty feet 
 in the air to support the axle of the Ferris wheel, and 
 the steel towers cannot be toppled without pulling up 
 the concrete foundations. 
 
 The axle on which the wheel revolves is the largest 
 shaft ever forged. It is forty-five feet long, thirty-two 
 inches in diameter, weighs fifty-six tons and was forged 
 by two men and a boy at the Bethlehem Iron Works in 
 Pennsylvania. This gigantic shaft had to be raised 
 one hundred and forty feet and placed in its sockets on 
 
1S8 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 to go to sea any more I accepted the job and signed 
 the contract. On the next day started for Anderson, 
 Ind., which place we reached on the 7th day of March, 
 1883. 
 
 Afer working for about fifteen months in difl'erent 
 parts of the State, I sent for my family and settled in 
 Dunkirk, Ind. In a few weeks I got through with my 
 job on the line and went home. After this I worked 
 at whatever I could find to do, such as cutting wood, 
 husking corn, or digging ditches. But owing to my not 
 being acquainted with work on land, I found it a hard 
 matter to keep my family from want. I spent all my 
 hard earnings long before I had become accustomed to 
 work on shore. 
 
 In 1884 I moved to the Franklin switch, near Red 
 Key, Ind. Here I made friends and soon found all the 
 work I could do. In the spring of 1885 I moved to 
 Red Key, and worked at what I could find to do, and 
 with my pension was able to make a living, having ^t 
 my pension increased to sixteen dollars per month. 
 After renting for a while, I bought a house and lot, on 
 easy payments, and got it all paid out in due time. On 
 the 24th of January, 1889, 1 had the misfortune of hav- 
 ing my house and all its contents consumed by fire, with 
 no insurance whatever. Nothing daunted me, and I 
 w^ent to work on another house before the ashes were 
 cold, and on the 19th of March I moved into my new 
 house on the same lot. The people of Red Key were 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 1S9 
 
 very kind and helped me all they could ; also the G. A. 
 E. post of Eed Key and Ridgeville lent a helping hand. 
 I worked at what I could find to do until 1890, when I 
 borrowed one hundred dollars from the bank of Red 
 Key and bought me a horse and dray, and went into the 
 draying business for a livelihood. 
 
 I have taken a lay-off each year to attend the 
 l^ational Encampment, also the department encamp- 
 ment ; I having been commander of Post 213, Depart- 
 ment of Indiana, which made me eligible to a seat in 
 that body. I was taken with the typhoid fever in 
 November, 1891. I was very sick for five weeks. After 
 recovering thoroughly, I went to work again with my 
 dray, and am still in that business at this date, October 
 29, 1893. On the 23d day of April, 1890, I got my 
 pension increased to twenty-five dollars per month, for 
 total deafness in one ear and partial deafness in the other. 
 On the 14th day of October, 1893, I started for 
 Chicago to see the World's Fair, and will, for the 
 benefit of those who did not have the good fortune to 
 attend, give a brief description of what I saw. Of 
 course in my vast experiences there were many things 
 that I had already seen, and it was not so grand a sight 
 to me as it was to many others. But I will speak of 
 what I saw further on, as I have some other things 
 of which I wish to write 'ere I finish my little book. 
 A line or two to emphasize the name of Eaton, 
 which will no doubt give satisfaction to every Eaton 
 in whose heart burns the torch of patriotism. The 
 
m Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea^ 
 
 all the men and women who ride on the Ferris wheel 
 like so many flies. Its weight is so great of itself that 
 the weight of all the passengers who can crowd into 
 the cars — and 2,160 people can at one time — is of no 
 more importance than the weight of so many flies on 
 the fly-wheel of the engine below. The wheel has 
 1,300 tons revolving and 2,150 men crowded into the 
 cars, each weighing one hundred and fifty pounds, 
 could not add more than one hundred and fifty tons, 
 or only about one-tenth of the weight of the wheel 
 that carries it. There is, therefore, no danger from 
 careless loading. 
 
 The Ferris wheel is as attractive by night as by 
 day, and more so when viewed from a distance. Its 
 great rim is studded with 1,400 incandescent electric 
 lights which revolve with it. The grounds and build- 
 ings surrounding the wheel are also illuminated by 
 1,100 additional lamps, and the display now rivals the 
 illumination in the Court of Honor. 
 
 The cost of constructing the Ferris wheel was esti- 
 mated at $300,000, and the contract of Mr. Ferris and 
 his partners with the Exposition managers provided 
 that after this sum had been taken, Mr. Ferris was to 
 pay half of his receipts to the Fair. The actual cost 
 of the wheel was $327,000, and that sum had been taken 
 in by September 15. The daily receipts at the wheel 
 were between |4,000 and $5,000 in August, and greater 
 since. The Exposition and the Ferris company will 
 realize from $50,000 to $100,000 on the gigantic wheel. 
 
Four Years ivith the Army of the Potomac. I45 
 
 A person can hear all kinds of qu,estions. " What 
 sort of ore is that?" asked a man in the Colorada State 
 building. " That's gold," replied the attendant. " Dug 
 out of the mine like that ? " " Certainly, all the speci- 
 mens you see before you are free gold." *^ Well then, 
 just wait a moment till I open this satchel, I want one 
 of those chunks to take home." 
 
 "What fish is that ?" asked a G. A. R. man with 
 long hair, as he thrust his finger against the glass front 
 of the tank in the Fisheries Building. " That's a G. A. 
 R. pike," replied the guard. '' Well," replied the visi- 
 tor, " I see he has lost an eye, can you tell me what 
 pension he is drawing ? " 
 
 " Have you a hop exhibit? " asked a beefy brewer 
 of Milwaukee, of an attendant in the Australian booth 
 in Agricultural Hall. " J^one that we are proud of," 
 replied the attendant ; " the best we have is that one 
 over there." And the thin white finger of the young 
 man was turned upon a stufled kangaroo. 
 
 '' Isn't there a good deal of water in this wine ?" 
 asked a visitor, who had just drawn his beak from a 
 glass of red juice in the California building. "Possi- 
 bly," replied the attendant, " you see it was made during 
 the rainy season." 
 
 Many of the questions asked the guards would 
 make a horse laugh. I have no doubt the guards had 
 lots of fun telling one another about the "gags" they 
 got ofl' on the " Jays " while at the Fair. 
 
H6 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 THE COLUMBIA LIBERTY BELL. 
 
 It rang out for the first time on California day. 
 This bell was placed on the piazza west of the Adminis- 
 tration Building. On G. A. R. day, September 9th, it 
 was rung again. This bell is to be rung on all great 
 liberty anniversaries in this and other countries. It was 
 cast in Troy, N. Y., during the early days of the Kevo- 
 lution. It was intended to have a fac-simile of the bell 
 produced by having Mrs. President Cleveland press a 
 button, which would release a mass of moulten metal, 
 and allow it to pour into the mould. A severe storm 
 prevented this, and the button was pressed by a daughter 
 of the American Revolution. The first cast was per- 
 fect, and after considerable polishing and engraving the 
 bell was completed. Pieces of relics of American and 
 foreign struggles for liberty enter largely into its com- 
 position. These relics were cheerfully forwarded by 
 their owners from all over the world. Among the 
 relics were sabers, musket barrels, bayonets, cannon 
 balls and bullets, and many thimbles that were used in 
 sewing for the soldiers of the American rebellion ; gold 
 and silver from the mines in every State and Territory, 
 and over twenty-five thousand pennies from the school 
 children. The bell is seven feet high, seven feet four 
 inches in diameter at the mouth, and weighs thirteen 
 thousand pounds. The tongue and bolts weigh seven 
 hundred pounds, and are largely made from swords and 
 cannon balls of the late war. When hung, the entire 
 bell will measure eleven feet. The inscriptions are 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. I4.7 
 
 interesting, especially around the rim. This inscription 
 proclaims liberty throughout the land to all the inhabi- 
 tants thereof. Trom the old liberty bell around the top 
 are these words. " Glory to God in the highest and peace 
 on earth, good will to men." On the Philadelphia Cen- 
 tennial bell on one side is this, "A new commandment 
 I give unto you, that ye love one another." 
 
 I will now give the official number of visitors of 
 the Fair up to October 9, 1893. 
 
 When the Columbian Exposition opened, it was 
 estimated that the admissions would be from 12,- 
 000,000 to 20,000,000, and some enthusiasts placed the 
 number as high as 25,000,000. In the first five months, 
 or up to October 1, the total paid admissions was 14,- 
 600,000, The week ending August 26, was the first 
 in which the number of admissions exceeded a million, 
 and it was then predicted that in the remaining two 
 months there would be an average attendance of a 
 million a week. Besides the paid admissions there are 
 from 80,000 to 40,000 free admissions daily, consisting 
 of attendants, waiters, guards, officials, members of the 
 press, etc. The attendance has been much greater than 
 at the Centennial at Philadelphia, in 1876. It falls con- 
 siderably below the attendance at Paris in 1889, how- 
 ever, but it must be remembered that the nominal admis- 
 sion fee at Paris, was but one franc, (twenty cents,) and 
 that the actual price, owing to discount, was only about 
 ten cents. Following are the paid admissions at Chicago 
 on the days named: 
 
U8 
 
 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 Opening day 128,965 
 
 Decoration day 115,578 
 
 Infanta day 135,281 
 
 German day 165,069 
 
 Fourth of July 283,273 
 
 Swedish day 129,873 
 
 Bohemian day 151,971 
 
 British day 168,861 
 
 Illinois day 243,951 
 
 New York day 160,382 
 
 Wisconsin day 175,409 
 
 Penna. and Brazil day 203,460 
 
 California, G. A.R., Utah, 
 stationary engineers and 
 
 transportation day 231,522 
 
 Kansas and French engi- 
 neers' day 160,128 
 
 Ohio day 196,700 
 
 Texas, railway and New 
 
 Mexico day 202,376 
 
 Fishermen's, Iowa and 
 
 sportsmen's day 199,174 
 
 Knights of Honor day 215,643 
 
 I. O. O. F. day 195,210 
 
 Indiana day 196,423 
 
 Irish day 107,853 
 
 Total for May 1,050,037 
 
 Total for June 2,675,113 
 
 Total for July 2,760,263 
 
 Total for August 3,515,493 
 
 Total for September 4,658,901 
 
 Total to October 1 14,659,808 
 
 October 1 47,928 
 
 October 2 128,196 
 
 October 3 145,133 
 
 October 4 174,755 
 
 October 5 180,454 
 
 October 6 142,826 
 
 October 7 222,196 
 
 October 8, Sunday 88,045 
 
 October 9, (Chicgo day). ..700, 000 
 Greatest day in Paris, 1889, 397,150 
 Greatest day in Philadel- 
 phia, 1876 217,526 
 
 The crowd at the Fair on Chicago day, October 9, 
 was the largest ever gathered inside an enclosure. In 
 round figures 700,000 people were there, and every 
 means of conveyance was required to carry them to and 
 from the grounds. Over 30,000 people rode on the 
 Ferris wheel, and one young woman distinguished her- 
 self by making the circuit on top of a car, waving the 
 stars and stripes. There was a grand parade, and in 
 the evening the most gorgeous display of fireworks 
 ever witnessed, given in various parts of the grounds 
 and on the water front. The programme was carried 
 out without a hitch. Next to the day of the great fire, 
 of which this day was the twenty-second anniversary, 
 October 9, 1893, will live uppermost in Chicago's his- 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 14,9 
 
 tory. One event which made the day specially memor- 
 able was the payment of the last dollar of the debt of 
 the Fair. To do all this, Treasurer, Seeberger drew a 
 check for $1,565,310, one of the largest ever made in 
 Chicago. 
 
 It was my intention to write up the battle of Getty- 
 burg, the decisive battle of the war of the great rebell- 
 ion, but to do the matter justice it would take more 
 space than I have, in a little book like this. I will, 
 however, give a brief description of the battlefield, 
 which covers an area of twenty-five square miles, not 
 including the cavalry battlefield, but simply the battle- 
 field proper. According to the estimate of Gen. Hunt, 
 chief of artillery, there was expended five hundred and 
 sixty-nine tons of deadly missiles, including all the 
 various kinds of shells and balls known to this country 
 and to Europe. There lay dead at one time on the 
 battlefield 10,000 soldiers and one lady, (Mrs. Jennie 
 Wade,) with 5,000 dead horses and mules. While 
 thousands more lay mangled and wounded, strewn all 
 over the bloody field, groaning and moaning and dying 
 every minute. Of generals killed there were Reynolds, 
 Weed and Zoak. Those wounded, Hancock, Sickles, 
 Doubleday, Barlow, Barnes, Gibbon, Warren and Gra- 
 ham. Officers below the rank of general, and enlisted 
 men, numbered in killed, 3,072; wounded, 14,497 ; cap- 
 tured or missing, 5,443 ; total loss 23,003. On the con- 
 federate side, there were killed or mortally wounded, 
 
150 Sixteen Years on the Dark Blue Sea, 
 
 Gens. Armistead, Barksdale, Garnet, Pender, Pettegrew 
 and Semmes. The union army captured 13,621. The 
 wounded and missing is estimated to be not less than 
 28,000, making a total loss to Lee's army of 41,621. 
 The union army also captured three cannon, 28,178 
 small arms, and forty-one standards, and 24,978 small 
 arms were gathered on the battlefield. 
 
 Such were some of the scenes of that great conflict. 
 The most stubborn and hard fought battle ever fought 
 in this or any other country. It was my good fortune 
 and pleasure to visit this battlefield in September, 1892. 
 I there passed over the scenes of nearly thirty years 
 ago. When I call to mind the part I had taken in that 
 great battle, I feel thankful to a kind Providence, that 
 I am still in the land of the living. I also visited many 
 of the battlefields of old Virginia and the National 
 Cemetery at Arlington Heights, where many of my 
 comrades in arms are now sleeping, whose bones were 
 gathered from the battlefields of Bull Kun and the 
 route to the Rappahannock. May they rest in peace 
 is the humble prayer of the writer. 
 
 Dear reader my little book is nearly done, and I 
 sincerely hope that it has interested, instructed and 
 amused you. And to all who have bought my little 
 book, whether bought through curiosity or for charity, 
 or any other motive, please accept my heartfelt thanks 
 and bear in mind this was written by a wayfaring man, 
 whose education is very limited. So I will close with 
 these few rhymes of my own. 
 
Four Years with the Army of the Potomac. 151 
 
 THE OLD G. A. R. BOYS. 
 
 You may talk about the Masons, 
 
 The Odd Fellows and such, 
 And say they're so fraternal, 
 
 As to fairly beat the Dutch ; 
 You may praise them if you choose. 
 
 With their mysteries and their noise, 
 But they cannot hold a candle 
 
 To the old Grand Army boys. 
 
 For a man that's got the money, 
 
 Can learn about their craft ; 
 Can get degrees and pass words 
 
 That would make a funeral laugh. 
 They may be loaded down with symbols, 
 
 But for true faternal joys, 
 They cannot hold a candle 
 
 To the old Grand Army boys. 
 
 You may talk about your badges, 
 
 But the one that has the call. 
 Is the stars, and flag and eagle. 
 
 It's far alDOve them all. 
 It was won where cannons thundered. 
 
 Amidst battle crash and noise ; 
 So there's nothing holds a candle 
 
 To the old Grand Army boys. 
 
 Why ! we fought and bled together. 
 
 And shared the prison pen ; 
 We faced the front in battle. 
 
 With the elbow touch of men; 
 And the comfort was cemented 
 
 Amidst the battle crush and noise ; 
 So there's nothing holds a candle 
 
 To the old Grand Army boys. 
 
 Are they freternal? Well I reckon, 
 
 And their charity is all right. 
 Are they loyal ? Yes, they proved it. 
 
 For they left their homes to fight. 
 And the nation owes them homage 
 
 For the peace it now enjoys; 
 For there's nothing holds a candle 
 
 To the old Grand Army boys. 
 
152 lears on the Dark Blue Sea. 
 
 My little book is now completed. I have read the 
 manuscript over and reviewed my past life. I see many 
 chances for improvement, both in my life and book. 
 But time's wheels never move backward and I cannot 
 improve my past life if I would. I have spent too much 
 time on my book to turn back for improvement. Still 
 I look with some degree of satisfaction to myself and 
 don't think I^would make very many changes if I could, 
 either in my life or book. 'Tis true my life has been 
 full of ups and downs. I have seen the time when my 
 check would be honored for ?3,000. But again I have 
 seen the time when one cent would cover my pile. 
 Being born on the snow-clad hills of New England, 
 was bred in poverty ; want sat by my cradle. I know 
 what it is to ask my mother for bread when she had 
 none to give. I know what it is to be foot-sore and 
 hungry but, thank God, not discouraged, and every 
 impulse of my nature, every conviction of my soul, is 
 with the poor classes of the country. I am a poor man 
 and expect to go down to my grave as such. 
 
 I have been as liberal with the poor as my means 
 would allow, and if God deals with me as liberally and 
 with as much charity as I have with my fellow men, I 
 shall be satisfied when I am called upon to pass in my 
 checks. 
 
 ^5-^^THE END-