The negroes are a
great deal of trouble, and I have to use all my patience to keep from cursing them. The
great trouble with them is they are very ignorant and they expect too much. They
thought they would be perfectly free when they became soldiers, and could almost quit
soldiering whenever they got tired of it, and could go and come as they pleased. But
they find they were very much mistaken. It is very hard to make them understand that
they are bound to stay and soldier until discharged, and they do not know now that it
is for three years. But we are gradually letting them know it. We did not force one of
them to come into the Regiment. I believe, though, if we had told them it was for three
years, every one of them would [have] been forced in. You asked me in your letter of the 8th
if I thought I could fill my place and do my duty as a Captain. I think I am, although
I find sometimes it takes all my brass and a little more to come up to the scratch, and
sometimes I
