Recruiting. 49 



told us to stop that fighting and shrieking, which alarmed the 

 whole street- They were much astonished on hearing that the 

 Methodists were only fighting with the devil, and having no 

 desire to hinder such holy contests, they disappeared awe- 

 struck. We afterwards always went out on those evenings. 



Salm succeeded in his endeavours to get a new colonel's 

 commission fi-om the Governor of New York, who appointed 

 him colonel of the 68th Regiment N.Y.V. That regiment was 

 not yet disbanded, and figured still on the list of regiments in 

 the service, but it had dwindled away to scarcely one company 

 who stood in the field. Salm had to reorganise the regiment, 

 and opened a recruiting ofiice in Broadway, No. 619, at Mail- 

 lard's Hotel. He was very sanguine in his hopes, and, being 

 ambitious also, he wanted to raise a whole brigade, for which 

 lie procured the authorisation and the promise of several colo- 

 nels ill partibus^ to serve under his command. 



Things had, however, clianged very much since 186 1. The 

 immense losses sustained in McClellan's peninsular campaign, 

 on the many battle-fields and the swamps of Chickahominy ; 

 the hardships which the solcliers had to undergo, the incompe- 

 tence of most generals, and the barbarous manner in which 

 the soldiers were still treated in the army, had considerably 

 cooled down the military enthusiasm of the nation. When 

 the war commenced most people imagined that it would be 

 soon and gloriously ended,, and, excited by the political ora- 

 tors, and attracted by the novelty of military life, of which the 

 dark and appalling features were not known yet, an immense 

 number of volunteers rushed to the recruiting offices. In fact, 

 the whole first army consisted of volunteers. That was at an 

 end now, and the Governments of the difi"erent States had to 

 resort to all kinds of inducements, which, however, did not 

 induce many, and the advantages and promises granted to sol- 

 diers had to be made more alluring every month. The Gov- 

 ernment of New York offered a bounty of three hundred dol- 

 lars to everyone who. enlisted for three years ; and patriotic 

 societies throughout the United States, and the General Gov- 

 ernment itself, provided means to increase this bounty, which 

 at the end of the war amounted in several states to nearly one 

 thousand dollars. This bounty was, of course, not to be paid 

 at once and in advance, but it was sure £0 be paid at the end 



