Benjamin mainly boasts of knocking down an African American man and almost shooting him. He notes that the man was taken by other Union soldiers to receive a cold shower at the guard house. Benjamin describes the guard house as a "nasty" place in which head lice ran rampant, a common problem within the crowded barracks hastily constructed to handle the growing population of freedpeople (many of whom were sick or malnourished upon arrival) who flooded the camps around Alexandria for protection, employment, and to aid in the Union war effort.
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