Among them I met quite a number of my old comrades and neighbors, who tried to induce me to enlist and go south with them.

I had no idea of doing anything of the kind; but one day, after having been under the influence of bad whisky, I awoke to find myself a soldier in the Seventh Kansas.

I did not remember how or when I had enlisted, but I saw I was in for it, and that it would not do for me to endeavor to back out.
In the spring of 1864 the regiment was ordered to Tennessee, and we got into Memphis just about the time that General Sturgis was so badly whipped by General Forrest.

General A.J.Smith re-organized the army to operate against Forrest, and after marching to Tupalo, Mississippi, we had an engagement with him and defeated him.

This kind of fighting was all new to me, being entirely different from any in which I had ever before engaged.