It is necessary also for their superiors to treat the non-commissioned officers with careful courtesy, and I often caution the line officers never to call them "Sam" or "Will," nor omit the proper handle to their names.

The value of the habitual courtesies of the regular army is exceedingly apparent with these men: an officer of polished manners can wind them round his finger, while white soldiers seem rather to prefer a certain roughness.

The demeanor of my men to each other is very courteous, and yet I see none of that sort of upstart conceit which is sometimes offensive among free negroes at the North, the dandy-barber strut.

This is an agreeable surprise, for I feared that freedom and regimentals would produce precisely that.
They seem the world's perpetual children, docile, gay, and lovable, in the midst of this war for freedom on which they have intelligently entered.

Last night, before "taps," there was the greatest noise in camp that I had ever heard, and I feared some riot.