A Camp Supper. 41 



pleasure party, dinner, or ball ; and for the entertainment of 

 the soldiers care was taken likewise. 



Some of these festivals were indeed sumptuous, and I espe- 

 cially remember one given by General Sickles, in a hall impro- 

 vised from canvas by uniting a dozen or more large hospital 

 tents in a convenient manner. 



This immense tent was decorated inside and outside with 

 flags, garlands, flowers, and Chinese lamps in great profusion, 

 and offered a fairy-like aspect. The supper laid under the tent 

 for about two hundred persons, ladies and gentlemen, could 

 not have been better in Paris, for the famous Delmonico from 

 New York had come himself to superintend the repast, and 

 brought with him his kitchen aides and batteries, and immense 

 quantities of the choicest provisions and delicacies, together 

 with plate and silver, and whatever was required to make one 

 forget that it was a camp supper. The wines and liquors were 

 in correspondence with the rest, and no less, I suppose, the 

 bill to be paid. 



It is true it was an unheard-of luxury displayed on this 

 occasion, and had such a festival taken place in a German 

 camp it would have created throughout the country a bad feel- 

 ing, and the press would have commented on it in no pleasing 

 manner. It was. however, far different in America. Soldiers 

 and people likedand approved such display ; they would have 

 blamed parsimonious generals, whilst they did not control too 

 closely those who freely spent what they perhaps made in 

 consequence of their position. Moreover, many of them were 

 very rich. The soldiers did not grudge the generals their 

 luxurious habits either ; they found an amusement in such 

 festivals, and were sensible enough to understand that they 

 could not all partake in them. It would have been different 

 if the Government had been stingy towards the army, but 

 that was by no means the case. ' Uncle Sam ' opened his 

 strong boxes, and the army was paid and supplied with pro- 

 visions in a manner quite unheard of in Europe. If accidents 

 inseparable from such a war prevented the arrival of |Drovis- 

 ions for a time, there was always plenty, and not only the- main 

 necessities of life, but things were furnished which never 

 appear in the stores of a German army, and which would be 

 there considered as preposterous. Though the immense dis- 

 tances and the bad state of the roads made this branch of the 



