From the Covington Journal of April 27, 1861, I imagine this description was true of new volunteers throughout the land, north and south.
The Cincinnati volunteers, especially the lads started off on the march to camp in high glee. They regarded it as a holiday frolic, and anticipated "lots of fun." The fun of the thing is already over, if we may credit a dispatch from Camp Jackson to the Cincinnati Times. It says:
"The dissatisfaction in regard to provisions in the camp seems to be very general; dishes were broken this morning, and potatoes were occasionally carried away on the points of bowie-knives. I am assured there will be no discrimination in regard to the disposition of troops. The slightest display of partiality will cause trouble in an hour."
"Fun!" Why, this looks like mutiny.
We are assured that at Camp Harrison, near Cincinnati, affairs are in much the same condition. It costs more a day, per man, than is charged at a first class hotel, and yet the "boys" say the rations are not fit for a dog.
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The next brief article combines two reports from a Cincinnati newspaper. The first one - claiming that politics and whiskey led to violence - is quite believable, though I wonder how the differentiated "street-brawls" from "fights."
AFFAIRS IN CINCINNATI
Demoralization
The disorderly element was rife last night and street-brawls and in some instances fights, were the results. An undue pressure of politics and a large demand for whisky (sic) were the "head and front of the offending." -- Enquirer
A brilliant achievement
The Sixth Ward Home Guard on Sunday evening captured a flatboat, in the Ohio River, hear the foot of Fifth-Street, having on board two hundred sacks of corn, consigned to a firm in Augusta, Georgia. -- Enquirer
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