[18] One day a negro cook of Company C (the same man who took a part in the Sons of Malta ceremonies at the New Orleans Custom House) got into a difficulty with a camp-follower colored boy. Bantered into frenzy by this little devil the cook got a small dagger, and would have committed a murder had not the sergeant-major and Private John Davis, Company H, seized him, as he was about to stab the boy. A short struggle took place before this dagger was obtained. For punishment the negro cook was kicked for some distance down the road. Whatever became of the burly, quick-tempered negro has often been a subject of speculation among those who remember him.
Each night, after taps, the men made this salt warehouse ring with fun and music up to midnight. Many rough remarks were passed to and fro with special reference to the lieutenant-colonel, who, the men thought, was not exerting himself to obtain transportation home. As great injustice was done Lieutenant-Colonel Stedman while at Algiers, it is proper some of the correspondence in relation to securing passage North should be read by the regiment. At first he endeavored to have the paroled men sent home; affairs in the Department would not warrant an application to send home those men able to do duty, as every man was wanted.
“Headquarters 42d Regiment, Mass. Vols.,
“Custom House, New Orleans, La., July 5th, 1863.
“Sir,—I would respectfully present the following facts to the attention of the commanding general of the Defences of New Orleans:
“January 1st, 1863, three companies of the Forty-Second Massachusetts Volunteers, viz., D, G and I, under Colonel I. S. Burrell, were taken prisoners at Galveston, Texas. These men were taken to Houston and kept several weeks, when they were sent to our lines at Baton Rouge and paroled. February 25th they arrived in New Orleans and were ordered by General Sherman to report to me at the camp of the Forty-Second Regiment at Gentilly Crossing, on the Ponchartrain Railroad, since which time they have been in camp at that place.
“These men have had nothing to do or to engage their attention, and as a consequence they have become very low spirited and much reduced in bodily vigor. Several of them have lately died very suddenly, and several are daily taken sick. One sergeant taken sick July 3d was buried July 4th.
“The time of this regiment expires the fourteenth of this month, according to the rule established by the War Department for the service of the nine months troops, this date being nine months from the date of muster of the last company in the regiment. In view of these circumstances and of the fact that these men have been of no service to the Government in their present condition, I would respectfully ask the commanding general that they be sent to their homes as soon as possible.
“Many of these men are from the best families in Boston and vicinity, and their friends are deeply anxious that they should be sent North, and personally I am deeply interested that their case may be acted on at an early day, for if they are kept in this climate even a few weeks longer many more will be lost by reason of sickness, not only to their friends but for future use to the country.
“There are also at Algiers forty-four men from different companies of this regiment who are paroled, having been taken at Brashear City; these with those first spoken of make a total of two hundred and seventy-six paroled men of this regiment.
“By allowing these men to be sent to their homes not only a humane act will be accomplished but a great and never-to-be-forgotten favor will be bestowed on these men, who faithfully served their country when in service, and on many true friends of the Union in Massachusetts.