INCIDENTS OF EVERY-DAY LIFE.
The companies each gave a ball in turn during the winter, and the
preparations were begun long in advance. There was no place to buy
anything, save the sutler’s store and the shops in the little town of
Bismarck, but they were well ransacked for materials for the supper.
The bunks where the soldiers slept were removed from the barracks,
and flags festooned around the room. Arms were stacked and guidons
arranged in groups. A few pictures of distinguished men were wreathed
in imitation laurel leaves cut out of green paper. Chandeliers and side
brackets carved out of cracker-box boards into fantastic shapes were
filled with candles, while at either end of the long room great logs in
the wide fireplaces threw out a cheerful light.
The ball opened, headed by the first-sergeant. After this the officers
and their wives were invited to form a set at one end of the room,
and we danced several times. One of the men whose voice was clear and
loud sang the calls. He was a comical genius, and improvised new ways
of calling off. When the place came in the quadrille to “Turn your
partners,” his voice rose above the music, in the notes of the old
song, “Oh swing those girls, those pretty little girls, those girls
you left behind you!” This was such an inspiration to the fun-lovers
that the swinging usually ended in our being whirled in the air by the
privileged members of our family.
The soldiers were a superb lot of men physically. The out-door life
had developed them into perfect specimens of vigorous manhood. After
the company tailor had cut over their uniforms, they were often the
perfection of good fitting. The older soldiers wore, on the sleeves of
their coats, the rows of braid that designate the number of years in
the service. Some had the army badges of the corps in which they fought
during the war, while an occasional foreign decoration showed that
they had been brave soldiers in the fatherland. We were escorted out
to the supper-room in the company-kitchen in advance of the enlisted
men. The general delighted the hearts of the sergeant and ball-managers
by sitting down to a great dish of potato-salad. It was always
well-flavored with the onion, as rare out there, and more appreciated
than pomegranates are in New York. We ladies took cake, of course, but
sparingly, for it was also a great luxury.
When we returned to watch the dancing, the general was on nettles for
fear we should be wanting in tact, and show our amusement by laughing
at the costumes of the women. There was but a sprinkling of them:
several from Bismarck and a few white servants of the officers. Each
company was allowed but three or four laundresses. The soldier was
obliged to ask permission to marry, and his engagement was a weary
waiting sometimes. In order to get a vacancy for his sweetheart, he had
to await the discharge of some other soldier from the company, whose
wife held the appointment of laundress. These women were at the ball in
full force, and each one brought her baby. When we removed our wraps
in the room of the first-sergeant we usually found his bed quite full
of curly-headed infants sleeping, while the laundress mothers danced.
The toilets of these women were something marvellous in construction.
In low neck and short sleeves, their round, red arms and well-developed
figures wheeled around the barracks all night long. Even the tall
Mexican laundress, hereafter specially mentioned, would deck herself
in pink tarletan and false curls, and notwithstanding her height and
colossal anatomy, she had constant partners.
The little Dutch woman, who loved her husband more devotedly after each
beating, and did not dance with any one else, was never absent from the
balls. Her tiny little figure was suspended between heaven and earth
while her tall soldier whirled her around the long hall in the endless
German waltz. Some officer would whisper slyly in my ear, as she bowed
and smiled in passing, “Do you see the get-up of ‘Old Trooble Agin?’”
She had long before earned this sobriquet, when coming to me for help
out of her misfortunes, beginning each story of woe with “Trooble
agin.” Wherever we were, when the orders were issued for a campaign,
she soon appeared claiming sympathy. No one could feel at such a time
more than I the truth of her preface, for if we were to be left behind,
it was, indeed, “Trouble again.”
The pack of hounds were an endless source of delight to the general.
We had about forty: the stag-hounds that run by sight, and are on
the whole the fleetest and most enduring dogs in the world, and the
fox-hounds that follow the trail with their noses close to the ground.
The first rarely bark, but the latter are very noisy. The general
and I used to listen with amusement to their attempts to strike the
key-note of the bugler when he sounded the calls summoning the men to
guard mount, stables, or retreat. It rather destroyed the military
effect to see, beside his soldierly figure, a hound sitting down
absorbed in imitation. With lifted head and rolling eyes there issued
from the broad mouth notes so doleful they would have answered for a
_misericordia_.
The fox-hounds were of the most use in the winter, for the hunting
was generally in the underbrush and timber along the river. I never
tired of watching the start for the hunt. The general was a figure
that would have fixed attention anywhere. He had marked individuality
of appearance, and a certain unstudied carelessness in the wearing of
his costume that gave a picturesque effect, not the least out of place
on the frontier. He wore troop-boots reaching to his knees, buckskin
breeches fringed on the sides, a dark navy blue shirt with a broad
collar, a red necktie, whose ends floated over his shoulder exactly
as they did when he and his entire division of cavalry had worn them
during the war. On the broad felt hat, that was almost a sombrero, was
fastened a slight mark of his rank.
He was at this time thirty-five years of age, weighed one hundred
and seventy pounds, and was nearly six feet in height. His eyes were
clear blue and deeply set, his hair short, wavy, and golden in tint.
His mustache was long and tawny in color; his complexion was florid,
except where his forehead was shaded by his hat, for the sun always
burned his skin ruthlessly.
He was the most agile, active man I ever knew, and so very strong and
in such perfect physical condition that he rarely knew even an hour’s
indisposition.
Horse and man seemed one when the general vaulted into the saddle. His
body was so lightly poised and so full of swinging, undulating motion,
it almost seemed that the wind moved him as it blew over the plain. Yet
every nerve was alert and like finely tempered steel, for the muscles
and sinews that seemed so pliable were equal to the curbing of the most
fiery animal. I do not think that he sat his horse with more grace than
the other officers, for they rode superbly, but it was accounted by
others almost an impossibility to dislodge the general from the saddle,
no matter how vicious the horse might prove. He threw his feet out of
the stirrups the moment the animal began to show his inclination for
war, and with his knees dug into the sides of the plunging brute, he
fought and always conquered. With his own horses he needed neither
spur nor whip. They were such friends of his, and his voice seemed so
attuned to their natures, they knew as well by its inflections as by
the slight pressure of the bridle on their necks what he wanted. By the
merest inclination on the general’s part, they either sped on the wings
of the wind or adapted their spirited steps to the slow movement of the
march. It was a delight to see them together, they were so in unison,
and when he talked to them, as though they had been human beings,
their intelligent eyes seemed to reply.
As an example of his horsemanship he had a way of escaping from the
stagnation of the dull march, when it was not dangerous to do so,
by riding a short distance in advance of the column over a divide,
throwing himself on one side of his horse so as to be entirely out
of sight from the other direction, giving a signal that the animal
understood, and tearing off at the best speed that could be made.
The horse entered into the frolic with all the zest of his master,
and after the race the animal’s beautiful, distended nostrils glowed
blood-red as he tossed his head and danced with delight.
In hunting, the general rode either Vic or Dandy. The dogs were
so fond of the latter, they seemed to have little talks with him.
The general’s favorite dog, Blücher, would leap up to him in the
saddle, and jump fairly over the horse in starting. The spirited
horses, mounted by officers who sat them so well, the sound of the
horn used for the purpose of calling the dogs, their answering bay,
the glad voices, and “whoop-la” to the hounds as the party galloped
down the valley, are impressions ineffaceable from my memory. They
often started a deer within sound of the bugle at the post. In a few
hours their shouts outside would call me to the window, and there,
drooping across the back of one of the orderlies’ horses, would be a
magnificent black-tailed deer. We had a saddle of venison hanging on
the wood-house almost constantly during the winter. The officers’, and
even the soldiers’, tables had this rarity to vary the monotony of the
inevitable beef.
After these hunts the dogs had often to be cared for. They would be
lame, or cut in the chase, through the tangle of vines and branches.
These were so dense it was a constant wonder to the general how the
deer could press through with its spreading antlers. The English
hounds, unacquainted with our game, used to begin with a porcupine
sometimes. It was pitiful, though for a moment at first sight amusing,
to see their noses and lips looking like animated pin-cushions. There
was nothing for us to do after such an encounter but to begin surgery
at once. The general would not take time to get off his hunting-clothes
nor go near the fire until he had called the dog into his room and
extracted the painful quills with the tweezers from his invaluable
knife. I sat on the dog and held his paws, but quivered even when I
kept my head averted. The quills being barbed cannot be withdrawn, but
must be pulled through in the same direction in which they entered. The
gums, lips, and roof of the mouth were full of little wounds, but the
dogs were extremely sagacious and held very still. When the painful
operation was over they were very grateful, licking the general’s hand
as he praised them for their pluck.
Sometimes, when the weather was moderate, and I rode after the
fox-hounds, one of them separated himself from the pack, and came
shaking his great, velvet ears and wagging his cumbrous tail beside my
horse. The general would call my attention to him, and tell me that
it was our latest surgical patient, paying us his bill in gratitude,
“which is the exchequer of the poor.”
Among the pack was an old hound that had occasional fits. When he
felt the symptoms of an attack he left the kennel at the rear of the
house, came round to the front-door, and barked or scratched to get
in. My husband knew at once that the dog was going to suffer, and that
instinct had taught him to come to us for help. Rover would lie down
beside the general until his hour of distress, and then solicit the
ever-ready sympathy with his mournful eyes. The general rubbed and
cared for him, while the dog writhed and foamed at the mouth. He was
always greatly touched to see the old hound, when he began to revive,
try to lift the tip of his tail in gratitude.
With the stag-hounds, hunting was so bred in the bone that they
sometimes went off by themselves, and even the half-grown puppies
followed. I have seen them returning from such a hunt, the one who led
the pack holding proudly in his mouth a jack-rabbit.
The wolves in their desperate hunger used to come up on the bluffs
almost within a stone’s-throw of our quarters. It was far from pleasant
to look out of the window and see them prowling about. Once when the
stag-hounds were let out of the kennel for exercise, they flew like the
winds over the hills after a coyote. The soldier who took care of them
could only follow on foot, as the crust on the snow would not bear the
weight of a horse. After a long, cold walk he found the dogs standing
over the wolf they had killed. When he had dragged it back to our
wood-shed he sent in to ask if the general would come and see what the
dogs had done unaided and alone, for he was very proud of them.
As the family all stood talking over the size of the coyote and its
fur, I said, triumphantly, “Now, I shall have a robe!” It was enough
for them, and they made no end of sport about my planning a robe out
of one small skin. After we had all gone into the house, the soldier,
who was not accustomed to hear such badgering, went in to Mary, and
indignantly exclaimed, “Be jabers, and they’ll not tease her about that
long!” After that, during the winter, he walked frequently over the
plain with the dogs, and when they had started a trail and run almost
out of sight, he patiently followed until he readied the spot where
they had brought down the game. Even in that bitter weather he brought
in enough foxes, swifts, and coyotes to make me a large robe. When it
was made up, I triumphantly placed myself on it, and reminded my family
of their teasing, and the time, so lately past, when I had been an
object of jest to them.
The weather seemed to grow colder and colder as the winter
advanced--from 20° to 30° below zero was ordinary weather. The officers
were energetic enough to get up sleighs, even with all the difficulties
they had to encounter. There was no lumber at the post except
unseasoned cotton-wood. The man who could get a packing-box for the
body of his sleigh was a Crœsus. The carpenter cut and sawed the edges
into scallops and curves; the rudest bobs were ironed by the company
blacksmith; and the huge tongue of an army wagon was attached to the
frail egg-shell. The wood-work was painted black, and really the color
and shape reminded one of a little baby hearse. Sister Margaret and I
disliked sleighing even under favorable circumstances, but that made
no sort of difference; we were expected to go twice a day, and try in
turn each new sleigh.
My husband found a sketch in some of the illustrated papers, which he
thought such a fitting representation of us that he added some lines
and drew some applicable features to the picture, and wrote underneath,
“Margaret and Libbie _enjoying_ a sleigh-ride!” (two wretched,
shivering beings, wrapped in furs, sit with their feet in a tub of
ice-water, while a servant rings a dinner-bell over their heads). When
we were thus taken out, as a sacrifice we were enveloped in so many
wraps we had literally to be carried and dropped into the sleigh, and
after hot bricks were adjusted to our feet, we assumed the martyr look
that women understand how to take on when persuaded against their will,
and off we flew. It made no impression if we were speechless--the
dearth of women made the men far from critical. Sometimes we went to
the Hart River, which empties into the Missouri, and which we were not
afraid to drive over, as it was frozen solid. And yet it should be
understood that we preferred to go and be frozen rather than stay at
home and be comfortable, for we were a band of friends sharing the same
isolation, and each took comfort in contributing to the enjoyment of
the rest.
One sort of sleighing we really did enjoy. One of the officers got up
a long sleigh, using the bed of an army wagon for the box. He was his
own coachman, and stood in front driving an excellent four-in-hand. We
all placed ourselves in the straw and robes, and nothing of the whole
party was visible except two rows of “tip tilted,” rosy-tinted noses
peeping out from under fur caps and gay mufflers. If any one rashly
left a seat to play some prank it was never regained. The space closed
up instantly, and it was a choice of standing for the rest of the
distance, or uncomfortably sitting on the spurs, arctics, or buffalo
over-shoes of the others. Another of our number tried driving tandem;
and as his horses were very fleet and his sleigh very frail, it was a
study from first to last how soon we should gather up the fragments of
our scattered selves from the white plain over which we flew at eagle
speed.
When the thermometer went down to 45° below zero, the utmost
vigilance was exercised to prevent the men from being frozen. The
general took off all the sentinels but two, and those were encased
in buffalo overcoats and shoes, and required to walk their beat but
fifteen minutes at a time. There were no wells or cisterns, and the
quartermaster had no means of supplying the post with water, except
with a water-wagon that required six mules to haul it around the
garrison. The hole in the river through which the water was drawn was
cut through five feet of ice. It was simply dreadful on those bitter
days to see the poor men whose duty it was to distribute the supply.
My husband used to turn away with a shudder from the window when they
came in sight, and beg me not to talk of a matter that he was powerless
to remedy. The two barrels at the kitchen-door were all that we could
have, and on some days the men and wagon could not go around at all. We
husbanded every drop, and borrowed from a neighbor, if any neighbor was
fortunate enough not to have used all his supply.