REMINISCENCES. BY RANDOLPH B. MARCY, U. S. Army ; AUTHOR OF THE PRAIRIE TRAVELLER, THIRTY YEARS OF ARMY By GENERAL R. B. MARCY. ARMY LIFE ON THE BORDER. Thirty Years of Army Life on the Border. Comprising Descriptions of the Indian Nomads of the Plains; Explorations of New Territory; a Trip across the Rocky Mountains in the Winter; Descriptions of the Habits of Different Animals found in the West, and the Methods of Hunting them; with Incidents in the Life of different Frontier Men, &c., &c. By Brevet. Maj.-General R. B. MARCY, U.S.A. 8vo, Cloth, Beveled Edges, $3 00. THE PRAIRIE TRAVELLER. A Hand-Book for Overland Emigrants. With Maps, Illustrations, and Itineraries of the Principal Routes between the Mississippi and the Pacific. By Brevet Maj.-General R. B. MARCY, U.S.A. Published by Authority of the War Department. 16mo, Cloth, $1 00. PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. Sent by mail, postage prepaid, to any part of the United States, on receipt of the price. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFAC E. ALTHOUGH not in exact accord with my own inclination, I have been induced, by the solicitations of friends in the army and in civil life, to permit the publication of the following pages. The very kind and flattering reception given to my other books by the public and the press encourages me to hope that an equally indulgent greeting may be extended to this volume, which is a miscellany of fugitive recollections-a compilation of random sketches written in leisure hours during a period of several years, and which will be found somewhat desultory and disconnected; yet, as they, for the most part, are records of the results of long personal experience in a sphere of life that has hitherto found but few chroniclers, they may hereafter possess some historic significance. However this may be, if they have no other value, they can be relied upon as truthful memoirs of persons with whom the writer has been thrown in contact during a protracted military career in the Far West, and as faithful delineations of incidents and adventures without the coloring of romance, excepting in the few instances where the fact is expressly stated. Should any of the individual specimens of frontiersmen, the traits of whose characters I have endeavored to depict in bold relief, seem unnatural or overdrawn, I beg the reader to remember that the life, habits, and associations of the borderer are necessarily of such a peculiar nature as to produce strange types of character and remarkable developments of humanity. The fact should also be borne in mind that my illustrations have been drawn from the most anomalous and salient specimens of those types. In preparing the manuscript for publication, I have endeavored to collate and arrange the different parts in as connected, homogeneous, and attractive a form as possible, and if the book serves to while away pleasantly the ennui of a dull hour, my chief object will have been accomplished, and I shall be content. CONTENTS. A Major of the Old Regime.-Quadroon Ball.-High Game of Faro. -Lafitte the Pirate.-Whaling Voyage.-Absence without leave. Education in the Army.-Any Thing in Reason.-Toledo Blade.- The Mess-table.-Hard Fare.-The handsomest Man.-The ugli- est Man.-Old Beeswax.-Captain Forbes Britton.-His Patriot- ism illustrated.—Tally-ho!-Colonel T*****.-Perfect Police.- Colonel Morgan.-Bad Wine.-Short Pants.-Review and Inspec- Lieutenant Derby.-General Up-to-snuff.-Reciprocating Hospitali- ties.-Ball at Detroit.-Mess-banquet at London.-An English Enlisted Men.-Captain M‘Cabe. -Private Orr as a Witness.-Any thing the Cap'n plaizes.-A veteran Drummer.-Improvised Dis- tillery. Novel Writ of Ejectment. Cold Weather. Colonel T*****.-How Visit to the Moon; what he saw there.-Song of the old Quarter- master's Mule.--Colonel S*********.-Diving for Oysters.-Tak- |