hundred colored men to be enlisted, and no more, until further orders.
Colonel Eaton took this work for his breakfast spell. As he came in
rather late for his morning meal he said, "I have enlisted the
required number, and quite a company went away crying because they
could not enlist. I comforted them by telling them that I presumed
there would be another call soon." I had built a bed for myself in one
corner of the commissary building, and as we were occupying the
weakest point at the post, we were ordered to have no light in our
tents, but before dark to have every needed article at our bedside,
ready at a moment's warning to be conducted to Fort Pickering.
Soldiers were kept in readiness for action, as the enemy was
threatening to retake Memphis. At two, o'clock A. M. the loud
cry, "Halt!" at the corner where I was sleeping, aroused me. This was
quickly followed by a still louder "Halt! May be you don't know who I
is; I holds a gun, an' her's off."

"Well-well, I only want to come to you; I don't want to go farther."
The officer approached, saying, "That is right; if I had taken one
step after you cried halt the third time, you should have shot me
through, no matter who I am, if it was the President himself."

At the breakfast table Colonel Eaton remarked: "A number of our new
colored soldiers were put on picket guard last night on trial, and not
one sleepy head was found among them. Since we accept these men as
soldiers I am confident it will do away the necessity of drafting men,
as some think must soon be done."

I spent a few days in visiting hospitals, often reading portions of
Scripture, and kneeling by the cot of the suffering and dying
soldiers, imploring the Great Physician to heal the sin-sick soul. For