The Return Home 209 



On August 6th we were ordered to embark, and 

 next morning we sailed on the transport Miami. 

 General Wheeler was with us and a squadron of the 

 Third Cavalry under Major Jackson. The General 

 put the policing and management of the ship into 

 my hands, and I had great aid from Captain Mc- 

 Cormick, who had been acting with me as adjutant- 

 general of the brigade. I had profited by my ex- 

 perience coming down, and as Dr. Church knew his 

 work well, although he was very sick, we kept the 

 ship in such good sanitary condition that we were 

 one of the very few organizations allowed to land 

 at Montauk immediately upon our arrival. 



Soon after leaving port the captain of the ship 

 notified me that his stokers and engineers were in- 

 subordinate and drunken, due, he thought, to liquor 

 which my men had given them. I at once started a 

 search of the ship, explaining to the men that they 

 could not keep the liquor; that if they surrendered 

 whatever they had to me I should return it to them 

 when we went ashore; and that meanwhile I would 

 allow the sick to drink when they really needed it; 

 but that if they did not give the liquor to me of their 

 own accord I would throw it overboard. About 

 seventy flasks and bottles were handed to me, and I 

 found and threw overboard about twenty. This at 

 once put a stop to all drunkenness. The stokers and 

 engineers were sullen and half mutinous, so I sent a 



