On going out, I found the most tumultuous sham-fight proceeding in total darkness, two companies playing like boys, beating tin cups for drums.

When some of them saw me they seemed a little dismayed, and came and said, beseechingly,--"Gunnel, Sah, you hab no objection to we playin', Sah ?"--which objection I disclaimed; but soon they all subsided, rather to my regret, and scattered merrily.

Afterward I found that some other officer had told them that I considered the affair too noisy, so that I felt a mild self-reproach when one said, "Cunnel, wish you had let we play a little longer, Sah." Still I was not sorry, on the whole; for these sham-fights between companies would in some regiments lead to real ones, and there is a latent jealousy here between the Florida and South Carolina men, which sometimes makes me anxious.
The officers are more kind and patient with the men than I should expect, since the former are mostly young, and drilling tries the temper; but they are aided by hearty satisfaction in the results already attained.

I have never yet heard a doubt expressed among the officers as to the _superiority_ of these men to white troops in aptitude for drill and discipline, because of their imitativeness and docility, and the pride they take in the service.

One captain said to me to-day, "I have this afternoon taught my men to load-in-nine-times, and they do it better than we did it in my former company in three months." I can personally testify that one of our best lieutenants, an Englishman, taught a part of his company the essential movements of the "school for skirmishers" in a single lesson of two hours, so that they did them very passably, though I feel bound to discourage such haste.