Tuesday, 20th–I went early this morning to Inland, where all who enlisted were to meet and go to Davenport.[i] Several of the friends came in to see us off. There were forty-five of us and at 9 o’clock we left in wagons for Davenport. After a hot, dusty ride we arrived at Davenport at 4 o’clock in the afternoon, and marched out to Camp McClellan, where they received us very kindly. We had very fine barracks to go into and the boys of the Eighth Iowa had a good supper for us. It was our first meal in the army and consisted of boiled potatoes, fried bacon and baked beans. We have lots of straw to sleep on at night. We were to meet a part of a company from Le Claire under command of Captain Foster and together form one company in the Eighth Iowa Infantry. But Captain Foster did not come, and since there are only eight Le Claire boys here we have not enough to make a company.
[i] When I bade father good-by, he said: “Well, Alec, as you have made up your mind to go into the army, I want you to promise me that you will not enter into any of the vices that you will come in contact with while in the army, but try to conduct yourself just as if you were at home.” Of course I was not an angel while in the army, but I always remembered father’s advice and to that I attribute what little success I have had in life—and this is my seventy-second year. Father was in his forty-sixth year, but he told me that if it were not for leaving the family alone, he would go with me. He was a strong Union man, and his father had served all through the War of the Revolution, in the command of General Wayne.—A. G. D.