"Well, this a'n't the place to get ammunition. Go to the ordnance officer, and see if you can't get it of him." I did as I was directed, but found no cartridges. I returned to the tent, and said to him, "Colonel, that officer didn't have any cartridges." "Are you a soldier?" "Yes, _sir_, I'm a soldier." "Well, you had better go to your quarters." "Oh, yes, I'll go to my quarters! I'd like to see General McPherson first, though; he told me to come here. Haven't you got some whisky, that you can give me two or three hundred swallows before I go?" "Yes, I'll give you some whisky if you'll leave and go to your quarters." "Oh, yes, I'll go to my quarters if you'll give me some whisky!" He turned me out enough for three drinks, to spite me, I suppose, for my impudence in asking him for it, and I deliberately drank it all down. "Thank you!" said I, and went out. Before I had got out of hearing, General McPherson entered, and I heard some one tell him that there was a man just in to see him, and that he had stepped out. The General came out and called me back. "Well, Bunker," said he, "I haven't got those cartridges yet; but you go over to General Grant's head-quarters, and tell his Chief-of-Staff that I sent you over to get some cartridges for your rifle. He has got a rifle of that kind, and I presume that he has got some cartridges." "Well, I'll go and see. But it's a pretty warm morning, General, and I hate to come all the way up here for nothing. I think your Adjutant-General has got some pretty good whisky in there; can't you induce him to give me a drink before I go back?" "Yes! Adjutant, give Bunker two or three hundred swallows of whisky!" The Adjutant-General looked at me and then at General McPherson, as if about to say that I had just had some, and then, as if recollecting that it was military to obey orders without questioning them, turned me out a _large tumblerful_, which I drank, and then went out. By the time I had reached my quarters, my physical nature was so much under the influence of the "spiritual," that I deferred my visit to General Grant's head-quarters until the next morning. In the morning, early, I went over to General Grant's head-quarters, and told him that General McPherson had sent me there to see if I could get some ammunition for my rifle from his Chief-of-Staff. He told me that his Chief-of-Staff had gone to St. Louis, and had taken his rifle with him. "Do you know of any body that has got any of that kind of cartridges?" I inquired. "I think," said, the General, "that Admiral Porter has got ammunition of that kind, and I will give you a request to carry to him, and you may go and see him about it." He wrote a note for me to hand to Admiral Porter, and commenced to write me a pass, but was interrupted by some business, so he handed me the note, and told me to step over to the Provost-marshal and ask him to write me a pass.