The first great misery to be endured by these regiments will be the military lesson of obedience which they must learn before they can be of any service.  It always seemed to me, when I came near them, that they had not as yet recognized the necessary austerity of an officer’s duty.  Their idea of a captain was the stage idea of a leader of dramatic banditti—­a man to be followed and obeyed as a leader, but to be obeyed with that free and easy obedience which is accorded to the reigning chief of the forty thieves.  “Waal, captain,” I have heard a private say to his officer, as he sat on one seat in a railway car, with his feet upon the back of another.  And the captain has looked as though he did not like it.  The captain did not like it; but the poor private was being fast carried to that destiny which he would like still less.  From the first I have had faith in the Northern army; but from the first I have felt that the suffering to be endured by these free and independent volunteers would be very great.  A man, to be available as a private soldier, must be compressed and belted in till he be a machine.

As soon as the men had left the vessel we walked over the side of it and took possession.  “I am afraid your cabin won’t be ready for a quarter of an hour,” said the clerk.  “Such a body of men as that will leave some dirt after them.”  I assured him, of course, that our expectations under such circumstances were very limited, and that I was fully aware that the boat and the boat’s company were taken up with matters of greater moment than the carriage of ordinary passengers.  But to this he demurred altogether.  “The regiments were very little to them, but occasioned much trouble.  Everything, however, should be square in fifteen minutes.”  At the expiration of the time named the key of our state-room was given to us, and we found the appurtenances as clean as though no soldier had ever put his foot upon the vessel.

From La Crosse to St. Paul the distance up the river is something over 200 miles; and from St. Paul down to Dubuque in Iowa, to which we went on our return, the distance is 450 miles.  We were, therefore, for a considerable time on board these boats—­more so than such a journey may generally make necessary, as we were delayed at first by the soldiers, and afterward by accidents, such as the breaking of a paddle-wheel, and other causes, to which navigation on the Upper Mississippi seems to be liable.  On the whole, we slept on board four nights, and lived on board as many days.  I cannot say that the life was comfortable, though I do not know that it could be made more so by any care on the part of the boat owners.  My first complaint would be against the great heat of the cabins.  The Americans, as a rule, live in an atmosphere which is almost unbearable by an Englishman.  To this cause, I am convinced, is to be attributed their thin faces, their pale skins, their unenergetic temperament—­unenergetic