Having now spent six months in the infantry, and mastered the details of a soldier’s common duties, I was heartily sick of the life.  I sought a transfer to the ordnance department and obtained it, with the rank and pay of ordnance sergeant.  Acting on the ever-present purpose, to keep my eyes and ears open and my mouth generally shut, to see and hear all and say little, I knew the ordnance department would open a new field for observation, which might perchance be of use in the future,—­a future that was very uncertain to me then, for I could see no daylight as to escape.  I may as well admit here, that whenever I reflected on the violation of an oath,—­the oath to bear true allegiance to the Confederate Government,—­I had some hesitation.  An older and wiser head would perhaps have soon settled it, that an oath taken under constraint, and to a rebel and usurped power, was not binding.  But I shrunk from the voluntary breaking of even an involuntary bond, in which I had invoked the judgment of God upon me if I should not keep it.  To this should be added the consideration, which perhaps had too much weight with me, that as I was trusted by the authorities with a position of some importance, my honor was at stake in fulfilling all my obligations.  The idea that I should betray those who were reposing confidence in me at the time and become a deserter, with its odium forever following me, was more than I could contemplate with pleasure.  I state this as the exact truth in the case, not as an apology for my conduct.  Under this general feeling, I confess I strove more to acquire knowledge where I was, than to escape from the Rebel service.

During the six weeks I was attached to the ordnance department, I learned some facts which it were well for the North to know.  Since reaching home, I hear wonder expressed at two things:  the vast energy of the South; and their unexpected resources, especially in the procuring of cannon, small-arms, and ammunition.  How have they secured and manufactured an adequate supply of these, during such a protracted and destructive struggle?

In answer to this inquiry let me say:  The immense supply of cannon—­to speak of them first—­which that stupendous thief Floyd traitorously placed in the Southern forts and arsenals during his term of office, made a very good beginning for this arm of the service.  It was also said by Southern officers, that a large number of guns which had been used in the Mexican war were still stored in the South,—­I have heard, at Point Isabel.  These were soon brought into use.  Many old Mexican and Spanish brass guns were recast into modern field-pieces.  These were said to have made the finest guns in the Rebel service, because of the large percentage of silver contained in the metal.