5( 



Ten Years of my Life. 



of the war, or after three years, or sooner if the soldier should 

 be killed, or die when in service, to his heirs. 



It was very natural that thS attention of sharpers, and all 

 sorts of people who wanted to make money in an easy manner, 

 was soon directed to this recruiting business. Promises, how- 

 ever great and sure, have not much attraction for common 

 men ; they prefer a hundred dollars in cash to a thousand to 

 be paid after three years, and there were plenty of people 

 ready to furnish such cash, well satisfied with the certainty of 

 getting six or ten times the amount after three years. A colo- 

 nel raising a regiment, and desirous of reaching as soon as 

 possible the number required for his acceptance by the Gene- 

 ral Government, could not succeed without the assistance of 

 agents, who hunted out people willing to enlist on payment of 

 a small sum, and to cede all their claims to them. 



The agents were, however, not the only persons who had an 

 eye to business ; the men on whom they speculated were just 

 as sharp as themselves, and amongst them were precious 

 rogues who liked the money but not the service. Knowing 

 that most of these recruiting agents were sharpers, and not 

 particular in regard to the honesty of their transactions, they 

 did not think it a crime to cheat them. Circumstances favoured 

 their fraudulent intentions, and they had hundreds of means to 

 carry them out. In European States everybody is, as it were^ 

 labelled by the police as soon as he is born, and in the books 

 of this institution is to be found' his biography. That is not 

 so in America, where the police only take notice of a person 

 when committing some breach of the law. Many persons 

 enlisted under a false name, and deserted, after having received , 

 money, to a neighbouring State, where they repeated the same 

 trick. Those who practised this business were called ' bounty- 

 jumpers,' and they were severely punished — if caught. 



Poor Salm, though a very brave soldier, was very little fit for 

 this kind of business, and became utterly disgusted with it : 

 necessity compelled him to go on as well as he could, but he 

 made indeed but little progress. 



It was natural that he reflected on some more effective 

 manner of raising men for his brigade, and as so many people 

 came from Europe attracted by the war, his eyes were longingly 

 directed towards that country where recruiting under such 

 favourable terms would have been the most easy work in the 



