Previous to this said event my sister Julia had been married to a gentleman named J.A.  Goodman, and they now came to reside at our house and take charge of the children, as my mother had desired that they should not be separated.  Mr. Goodman became the guardian of the minor children.

I soon left the home now rendered gloomy by the absence of her whom I had so tenderly loved, and going to Leavenworth I entered upon a dissolute and reckless life—­to my shame be it said—­and associated with gamblers, drunkards, and bad characters generally.  I continued my dissipation about two months, and was becoming a very “hard case.”  About this time the Seventh Kansas regiment, known as “Jennison’s Jay-hawkers,” returned from the war, and re-enlisted and re-organized as veterans.  Among them I met quite a number of my old comrades and neighbors, who tried to induce me to enlist and go south with them.  I had no idea of doing anything of the kind; but one day, after having been under the influence of bad whisky, I awoke to find myself a soldier in the Seventh Kansas.  I did not remember how or when I had enlisted, but I saw I was in for it, and that it would not do for me to endeavor to back out.

In the spring of 1864 the regiment was ordered to Tennessee, and we got into Memphis just about the time that General Sturgis was so badly whipped by General Forrest.  General A. J. Smith re-organized the army to operate against Forrest, and after marching to Tupalo, Mississippi, we had an engagement with him and defeated him.  This kind of fighting was all new to me, being entirely different from any in which I had ever before engaged.  I soon became a non-commissioned officer, and was put on detached service as a scout.

After skirmishing around the country with the rest of the army for some little time, our regiment returned to Memphis, but was immediately ordered to Cape Girardeau, in Missouri, as a confederate force under General Price was then raiding that state.  The command of which my regiment was a part hurried to the front to intercept Price, and our first fight with him occurred at Pilot Knob.  From that time for nearly six weeks we fought or skirmished every day.

I was still acting as a scout, when one day I rode ahead of the command, some considerable distance, to pick up all possible information concerning Price’s movements.  I was dressed in gray clothes, or Missouri jeans, and on riding up to a farm-house and entering, I saw a man, also dressed in gray costume, sitting at a table eating bread and milk.  He looked up as I entered, and startled me by saying: 

“You little rascal, what are you doing in those ‘secesh’ clothes?” Judge of my surprise when I recognized in the stranger my old friend and partner, Wild Bill, disguised as a Confederate officer.

“I ask you the same question, sir,” said I without the least hesitation.

“Hush! sit down and have some bread and milk, and we’ll talk it all over afterwards,” said he.