Tuesday, October 8, 1861

From October 3 to October 8 was in camp at Washington.  During this week I visited fortifications around Washington.  While here there was a little trouble in Company G.  That Company had some rather rough, ill-behaved set of men.  The cooks of the company were much annoyed by constant complaints among the men regarding their food and by their repeated visits to the cook-house.  They declared that the next intruder should suffer.  It happened to be an old man named Beede.  He was an inoffensive, harmless creature, with a stammer in his speech, and for these reasons he was the butt of the company.  Some words passed between him and the younger of the two cooks, and it ended in the young fellow seizing a stick and knocking the old man down.  He was thought to be dead at first and the culprit was sent to the guardhouse.  The old man, however, recovered and his assailant was subsequently released, with no further punishment.