I do not attempt to criticise General McClellan in mentioning these facts. I refer simply to my own personal observations on this point, as testified to before the Committee of Congress, after I had gotten home again. I beg to refer the reader to volume 3, page 380 of the printed Government Record for a part of my sworn testimony referring to these dates.
After a long day's hunt for news, visiting about every place in the city, like a reporter, where I thought I could learn anything--among the rest, Libby Prison guard--I returned to the hotel in the evening.
A NARROW ESCAPE--RECOGNIZED BY TEXAS FRIENDS AT A RICHMOND THEATRE--PERSONNEL OF THE MARYLAND BATTERY--REFUGEES FROM IRELAND--CAMP LEE, NEAR RICHMOND--OUR CAPTAIN--LIEUTENANT CLAIBORNE, OF MISSISSIPPI--OUR SECTION-DRILLS--HORSES FOR OUR USE IN TOWN AND ADJOINING COUNTY--VISITS OF LADIES--CAPITOLA--POPULARITY OF REFUGEES--THE ENTERTAINMENT FOR MARYLANDERS--TABLEAU--JEFF DAVIS STRIKES THE CHAINS FROM THE ENSLAVED MARYLAND BEAUTY.
Richmond hotels during the war were very like those in Washington City during the same period. Every evening the offices, billiard rooms, and even the bar-rooms, would be filled with that class of a city's population that usually congregate in these places. As the crowded hotel lobbies in Washington City nowadays are just the places the newspaper men seek to obtain news for their papers, so it was in Richmond as well as Washington during the war.
Everybody agreed on one point--that something was up, but just what it was nobody seemed able to tell, and I was unable to find out. But I had a night's adventure, which served to dispel any scruples I had entertained about the propriety of entering the Rebel Army.
I met at the hotel office my companion, the Colonel, who, upon seeing me, rushed over the office floor to say:
"Why, where the devil have you been? We have been hunting you every place."
I explained that I had been poking about the city all day, and was so tired that I was going straight to bed.
"No you ain't; we are going to initiate you to-night. We got our orders to-day. Elkton has his commission, and has authority to enlist his men--you know we have nearly all we need for our section. I am to be Sergeant in charge of the piece and you are to be Corporal."