SOLDIER 15 



and so crowded that part of the men are compelled to stay 

 on the upper deck. 



Good-bye, all hands, with ever so much love to all. 



HENRY. 



P. S. I ' ve found out where our expedition is going. It 's 

 going to sea. One thing is certain we are going pretty 

 far South. 



There was considerable confusion and much delay in 

 getting off. Some of the transports were so crowded that 

 the captains refused to sail. Part of the remaining com- 

 panies of the 25th were taken on board the Che Kiang. 

 Goodell, with one hundred and twenty men of his regiment, 

 sailed from New York December 18, in the Merrimac, 

 with fifteeen hundred troops on board. The passage down 

 the Atlantic coast was very rough, the machinery of the 

 ship was disabled, and they were obliged to put into Hilton 

 Head for repairs. From here he writes December 27 to 

 a classmate a very realistic account of his experience. 



"You would have laughed the first day, could you have 

 seen the guards of the vessel from stem to stern lined with 

 anxious sea-gazers, their knees knocking together, their 

 countenances ashen, and a very intimate connection evi- 

 dently existing between the stomach and the mouth. Even 

 my risibles were excited, though myself not entirely in- 

 sensible to the attractions of Neptune. Thou hast heard, 

 friend of my soul, of that unhappy man mentioned in the 

 Holy Writ, who had seven women hanging to the skirts of 

 his coat; but his condition was not a circumstance to be 

 compared to that of the unfortunate Quartermaster and 



