"Oh, no, madam, I guess they will not hurt your chickens?" was the reply.
It was fine to have the colonel a little hard of hearing, sometimes. Very well he knew his boys had no hold on any chicken that "squawked." Some chicken roosts were too near the house, anyway.
May 1st was Sunday. The route led over the usual flat country, through stretches of pine, across savannas, and occasionally here and there a basin-shaped pond or sink-hole. The column passed around the head of Dunn's Lake, the boys supplying themselves with sour oranges from trees near the landing. At night they bivouaced near a corral. They had made eighteen miles.
The boys of Co. G long remembered the camp of that night near Dunn's Lake. It was decided that one of the herd should be butchered. John Wise of Co. G was the butcher of the detachment, but the night in question he politely waived his privilege and an officer was allowed to do the shooting. The result was amazing. The poor creature had been driven all day and yet was strong enough, when dressed, to have pulled a cart. He was a patriarch of the herd. And the boys cut him into small bits and toasted him on sharpened sticks; they threw the meat on the coals to see it curl up like bark; they nibbled at it, they tried to chew it, but the patriarch was to be eaten only in lumps. Many compliments were launched at John Wise, who came forward, explained and was excused. For John was a good fellow.
May 2d was the anniversary of the Chancellorsville fight. After an easy march camp was reached about 5 p.m., at Middleton's farm. As evening came on the cows were driven into a yard and milked by women. No milking stools were necessary, as the native cow of Florida is built on the elevated plan. Milkers placed their heads in front of the cow's hip and slightly bending, drew the milk into the gourd. Each cow yielded nearly one quart of milk, or as one woman said, the forty cows gave, "I reckon, about a bushel." Co. G gathered around the corrall and when milking was over they held out their canteens and had them filled, paying for the milk in cash. When Colonel Carmichael said, "no foraging," he was obeyed.
May 3d the boys marched to Moccasin Branch, an easy tramp of eight miles. There they found the most primitive methods of farm life in the wilderness, still in operation. The old man had his tan vat behind the house. A stump was scooped out to serve as a mortar for making samp or hominy. His apparatus for sugar-making—the rollers for crushing cane and the sugar out-fit generally, all were of the simplest design. But the sour oranges there were fully up-to-date in their intensity.
May 4th, after an absence of one week, Co. G found themselves again in camp at Picolata. The detachment had marched one hundred miles and brought in fifteen hundred cattle of all sizes and ages. Co. G were becoming accustomed to good old Florida beef. The cattle were taken to Jacksonville for army and navy consumption.
The jaunt was rather enjoyed by the old trampers. On the recruits, however, it bore heavily, that being their first march in harness; but they did remarkably well.
The routine of camp life was again established, and quite easy it was. The heat of a far southern sun was becoming stronger and the boys felt languid. Moored along the river banks were dozens of dug-outs of every pattern, prizes taken along the shores; and these little boats afforded a diversion for any who could handle them. Some of the boys set night-lines and caught cat-fish. Others fished at night with torch and spear for the gar fish. Alligators were often seen floating with the current, or at night they were heard among the rushes bellowing like young bulls. Occasionally an alligator was shot.
The greatest pests Co. G found in Florida were mosquitoes and gnats. Many a blacksnake was seen with an occasional venomous snake, and water snakes, but no member of the regiment was bitten although they spread their blankets for the night, on the ground, without thought or precaution. Often small scorpions were found in the tents and rarely a centipede. But fleas were sometimes secreted in the hanging moss.