Shen-Yan, where, amid a very mixed company of poker players,

could get East. In no sense did I anticipate what was to happen to

me afterward, nor that I was to gain any distinction from it. I was

ready to do my duty to the best of my ability wherever I might be

called, and I was young, healthy, insensible to fatigue, and desired

opportunity, but high rank was so distant in our service that not a

dream of its attainment had flitted through my brain.

During the period running from January to September, 1861, in

consequence of resignations and the addition of some new regiments to