CHAPTER XIII.
July—In New Orleans—At Algiers.
New Orleans on a Sunday during the summer of 1863 would have shocked those staid old New Englanders who believed in a proper observance of the day. Army and navy officers, soldiers and sailors, who could obtain furloughs, did not hesitate to use the day for a grand spree. All the elements were there to have a merry time, and upon the Shell-road there was seen a cosmopolite crowd bent on enjoyment of the day. The colored population was always out in full force. Until one got so used to it that the novelty was gone, all this excitement, in endless variety, was not to be lost by those who could take part.
The Fourth of July was made a gala-day. Salutes were fired morning, noon and night. A street parade was made by the Forty-Second Massachusetts and a few small companies from the One Hundred and Seventy-Sixth New York, Twenty-Third Connecticut Infantry and Twenty-Fifth New York Battery, with two squadrons cavalry, as an escort to a procession of citizens, mostly dark colored. Fireworks in front of the Custom House at night closed the jubilations of the day.
At the Custom House the regiment remained until July 14th, on provost duty and on guard over Confederate prisoners, confined in the best part of the building. The treatment of these prisoners was good; their food was the same furnished to the regiment on guard, and except deprivation of their liberty they had no reason to complain. It was a hot time the day these Confederate officers arrived from Port Hudson. A large crowd of sympathizers were on hand to welcome them, so boisterous in behavior the cavalry-men, who assisted the infantry guard, in a number of cases lost their temper and drove the people into stores and houses by backing their horses into the crowd; sabres were also used a few times. The crowd threatened at one time to make an attempt to seize some stacked arms in a street near the Custom House, after the prisoners were placed in quarters. In a day or two quiet was restored and all expressions of sympathy ceased.
While on duty in the city all drills were suspended; parades of ceremony, guard-mounting and dress parade, took place on the reserved ground in the centre of Canal Street. These parades were gone through with in an indifferent manner on account of hot weather and debility, which began to affect a great majority of the men. Not being acclimated the extreme hot weather told on their health in a marked degree; not exactly in a condition to be called sick, they did not feel well; what duty had to be done was made easy as possible. Guards for hospitals, men for patrol, funeral escorts, and regular sentry duty at quarters kept at work every man able to do duty. One funeral escort was furnished every day, always at six o’clock in the afternoon.
After several assaults had been made upon solitary unarmed soldiers by the rough element in the city, an order was issued July 11th for every officer and soldier to wear his side-arms whenever upon the street. Several men had been roughly handled, and reports were current of the assassination of two men in the suburbs, but of the truth of this report there is no definite knowledge. The night patrol had orders to prevent more than three persons assembling together and to arrest all officers and men of the army without side-arms. The patrol furnished by the Forty-Second consisted of one lieutenant and eighteen men, who covered all streets within the limits of—from St. Mary’s Market to Eliseum Field Street, to Dauphin Street, to Canal Street, to St. Charles Street, to Julia Street, to Tchoupitoulas Street, and to Custom House Street. These limits covered many questionable places of resort and afforded night patrols an opportunity to see very curious incidents. At reunions of the regiment these incidents form the basis of a large number of amusing anecdotes.
To while away care and to lighten the burden of duty a few officers and men conceived an idea of forming a mock Sons of Malta Lodge. Prominent in this amusement were Captain Leonard, Lieutenants Sanderson and Phillips, Sergeant-Major Bosson, Sergeants Nichols, Vialle, Attwell, and others. The first move was to secure a victim for an initiation ceremony. It was decided to try Sergeant John Binney, of Company A, a man well known to all on duty at the Custom House. After broaching the subject in a careful way to the sergeant, he was anxious to join such a lodge, which he was informed had already been formed, and thought it an excellent idea. He was kept in suspense a few days on the plea that his name would have to go before the lodge, and if not black-balled he would be admitted on a certain evening. Binney caught at the bait like a hungry fish.
When everything was ready the pseudo-lodge members assembled, masked, in a dimly-lighted room in the Custom House, prepared for fun. A bugle, trombone, bass-drum and cymbals were procured from the band, officers appointed, and the sergeant, blindfolded, was admitted after passing through certain mock forms at the door. All worked well; the questions and answers and chorus from lodge members were carried out with due decorum until the moment the embrace of fellowship was to be given.
There was attached to Company C, as cook, an immense large negro, a regular old plantation hand, tall, burly looking, black as coal, with an odor about him as bad as from a skunk. With some difficulty, and not without threats, this negro was got into the room and made to strip naked to the waist. As the arms of Binney were placed around this negro and his head laid upon the bare, black breast the whole ceremony came near being spoiled by those present bursting into a roar of laughter; fortunately this was stifled, and amid a crashing din, made by band instruments, gas was turned on and the bandage removed from the eyes of candidate Binney. For a moment dead silence reigned, while Binney stared around and then at the negro in such a manner those present can never forget. Suddenly he kicked him, and with an exclamation more forcible than polite he proceeded to kick him out of the room amid peals of laughter. The negro did not lose any time in escaping from Binney’s wrath, for the poor fellow had been almost frightened out of his wits during the initiation; large drops of sweat stood out upon his face and breast like moisture on a well-filled ice pitcher.
Binney was mad. It was some time before he was cooled down. Finally he saw the joke, took it good-naturedly, and had his revenge in assisting at the initiation of others. Quite a number were “put through,” but as the proceedings leaked out candidates became scarce, and the lodge adjourned sine die.