fellows. [Renewed laughter.] Riding along, I spied a plantation.  I was thirsty, rode up to the gate and dismounted.  One of these men with sabres by their side, called orderlies, stood by my horse.  I walked up on the porch, where there was an old gentleman, probably sixty years of age, white-haired and very gentle in his manners—­evidently a planter of the higher class.  I asked him if he would be kind enough to give me some water.  He called a boy, and soon he had a bucket of water with a dipper.  I then asked for a chair, and called one or two of my officers.  Among them was, I think, Dr. John Moore, who recently has been made Surgeon-General of the Army, for which I am very glad—­indebted to Mr. Cleveland. [Laughter and applause.] We sat on the porch, and the old man held the bucket, and I took a long drink of water, and maybe lighted a cigar [laughter], and it is possible I may have had a little flask of whiskey along. [Renewed laughter.]

At all events, I got into a conversation; and the troops drifted along, passing down the roadway closely by fours, and every regiment had its banner, regimental or national, sometimes furled and sometimes afloat.  The old gentleman says:—­

“General, what troops are these passing now?”

As the color-bearer came by, I said:  “Throw out your colors.  That is the 39th Iowa.”

“The 39th Iowa! 39th Iowa!  Iowa! 39th!  What do you mean by 39th?”

“Well,” said I, “habitually, a regiment, when organized, amounts to 1,000 men.”

“Do you pretend to say Iowa has sent 39,000 men into this cruel Civil War?” [Laughter.]

“Why, my friend, I think that may be inferred.”

“Well,” says he, “where’s Iowa?” [Laughter.]

“Iowa is a State bounded on the east by the Mississippi, on the south by Missouri, on the west by unknown country, and on the north by the North
Pole.”

“Well,” says he, “39,000 men from Iowa!  You must have a million men.”

Says I:  “I think about that.”

Presently another regiment came along.

“What may that be?”

I called to the color-bearer:  “Throw out your colors and let us see,” and it was the 21st or 22d Wisconsin—­I have forgotten which.

“Wisconsin!  Northwest Territory!  Wisconsin!  Is it spelled with an O or a W?”

“Why, we spell it now with a W. It used to be spelled Ouis.”

“The 22d! that makes 22,000 men?”

“Yes, I think there are a good many more than that.  Wisconsin has sent about 30,000 men into the war.”

Then again came along another regiment from Minnesota.

“Minnesota!  My God! where is Minnesota?” [Laughter.] “Minnesota!”

“Minnesota is away up on the sources of the Mississippi River, a beautiful Territory, too, by the way—­a beautiful State.”

“A State?”

“Yes; has Senators in Congress; good ones, too.  They’re very fine men—­very fine troops.”