Indeed, nothing was more touching, in all that I saw in Savannah, than the almost painful effort of the rebels, from Generals down to privates, to conduct themselves so as to evince respect for our soldiers, and to bring no severer punishment upon the city than it had already received. There was a brutal scene at the hotel, where a drunken sergeant, with a pair of tailors’ shears, insisted on cutting the buttons from the uniform of an elegant gray-headed old Brigadier, who had just come in from Johnston’s army; but he bore himself modestly and very handsomely through it. His staff was composed of fine-looking, stalwart fellows, evidently gentlemen, who appeared intensely mortified at such treatment—wholly unmerited, by the way, since they had no clothes save their Rebel uniforms, and had, as yet, had no time to procure others—but they avoided disturbance, and submitted to what they might, with some propriety, and with the general approval of our officers, have resented. What these men may become, under a lax rein, can not be said; but, supposing themselves under a tight rein, they are now behaving, in the main, with very marked propriety. Half a dozen pretty women were keeping up a busy chatter, all to themselves, in an ice-cream saloon, where we sat down for a few moments. “I’m going North, in a few days,” said one, “to buy some clothes.” “But, Laura, you musn’t do that; you’ll have to take the oath to get a pass; and, you know, you’re just as much of a Rebel as ever you were.” “Yes, of course,” with a pretty shrug of the aforesaid Laura’s pretty shoulders, “but, then, one must have clothes, you know!” Of old, it was discovered that sermons might be found in running brooks. May not Generals and higher authorities, who believe in hard swearing as a means of grace, take a lesson in statesmanship from an ice-cream saloon? ----- Footnote 20: General Carl Schurz, who subsequently examined these contracts critically, said they substantially renewed the slavery of the freedmen who entered into them CHAPTER XV. Florida Towns and Country—A Florida Senator.