As before stated, we were camped at the ranch of Van Bremer Bros.  On our return Col.  Bellinger and I had to give up our quarters in an out house to accommodate the wounded men and after that we slept, when we slept at all, on the frozen ground with two thicknesses of blanket beneath us.  Under such circumstances it may easily be imagined that our periods of sleep were of short duration.  We would drop asleep and in an hour wake up shivering.  We would get up, cut off some beef and roast it before the fires that were constantly kept burning, get warm and then lie down again.  I mention this, not because we were undergoing hardships more trying than others, but to show how all, officers and men, fared.  There was no difference.  One day a surgeon came to me and asked if I could obtain some eggs for the wounded men, so I went to Van Bremer and got half a dozen eggs and paid 50 cents each for them.  He would not take script but demanded and received the cash, nearly all I had.  From that time until our departure I spent a considerable portion of my time in studying human villainy with the Van Bremers as a model.  But I got even with them—­and then some.  Before leaving I asked Gen. Ross for permission to settle our hay bill in place of the Quartermaster, Mr. Foudray.  Capt.  Adams and I then measured the hay used respectively by the regulars and volunteers, and I feel safe in saying that those eggs cost the Van Bremer Bros. $50 each.

Of course they raved and ranted, declaring that we were worse than the Modocs, but when they saw the tents of the regulars and blankets of the volunteers being pulled down and rolled up they came to me and asked what it meant.  I told them that we had been ordered to the mouth of Lost River on Tule Lake to protect the Oregon settlers, and that the regulars were going also, but that Gen. Wheaton was going to leave a detail at the Fairchilds ranch and that if they did not feel safe with the Modocs they could move up there.  They lost no time in loading a few effects into a wagon and started with us to the Fairchilds ranch.  On the road they mired down and every man, regular and volunteer, passing them had something bitter and mean to say to them.  The story of the eggs was known to all, and if ever men paid for a scurvy, mean trick it was the Van Bremers.

We moved around to Lost River and struck camp, where we remained about ten days.  As Gen. Wheaton felt competent to protect the settlements, and as the term of enlistment of the volunteers had expired more than a month before, we proceeded to Linkville and from there to Jacksonville where the command of Capt.  Kelley was disbanded, Applegate’s company having been discharged at Linkville.  I then returned to Salem and a few days later paid a visit to Gen. Canby at Ft.  Vancouver in company with Governor L. F. Grover.  The entire situation was gone over, Gen. Canby expressing entire confidence in the ability of Gen. Wheaton and his officers.  Fortunate, indeed, would it have been had that brave officer and splendid gentleman been left to develop and carry out his plans, but unhappily that was not to be, for the churches succeeded in hypnotizing the grim soldier in the White House, and the result was the “Peace Commission.”