Cam}:) Life at Aquaia Creek. 43 



of this and many other things in their place, but only mention 

 here that the care for the extra and private comfort of the sol- 

 diers was in the American army not left to such low and desti- 

 tute wretches as we have seen disgracing the German by their 

 rapacity. The sutlers were regularly appointed and enrolled, 

 and wore unifornis, and many of them were very substantial 

 people, kept well-supplied stores, and had many subordinates 

 and agents. Of abuses and other inconveniences in this 

 respect, I shall have occasion to speak later. Liquors were 

 prohibited in the American army, which would appear quite 

 intolerable to German soldiers ; but with Americans it was 

 necessary ; especially in regiments where the Irish element 

 prevailed. Germans are reasonable in the use of liquor ; 

 Americans, 1 am sorry to say, are in general not ; and besides 

 it must be considered that disciphne in an army formed Uke 

 the American cou-ld not be maintained in the same manner as 

 in the German army. 



Of the sanitary arrangements I must speak more at length 

 later ; I shall drop the subject, and return to our delightful 

 camp life near Aquaia Creek, which was a string of amuse- 

 ments. 



In the daytime we wentabout visiting ourneighbours, amongst • 

 whom were very pleasant people. And every evening we had 

 receptions in our tent. We played a rubber of whist, whilst 

 Groeben was brewing punch or eggnog for our guests, who 

 retired always at midnight. 



There were, of course, plenty of newspaper reporters in our 

 camp ; and as they had not much to write about the war, they 

 described our sports and festivals, which descriptions tempted 

 many people to pay us a visit ; and even Mr. Lincoln, or per- 

 . haps Mrs. Lincoln, could not resist. The announcement of 

 this visit caused, of course, great excitement ; and preparations 

 were made to entertain them as well as possible. They were 

 to stay at General Hooker's head-quarters ; but the real maitre 

 de plaisirs was General Sickles, who had been in Europe, and 

 who knew all about it. He wanted to introduce even some 

 novelties of a monarchical smack, and proposed to appoint for 

 the time of the visit some ladies of honour to attend on Mrs. 

 Lincoln. This plan, however, was not to the liking of the 

 American ladies, each of whom thought herself quite as 

 sovereign as the wife of the President. 



