well," and in the conversation which ensued, ball was destroyed by the gradual yielding of learned that he was a mile and a half within the the soit copper plate. Had the material been Federal lines. They asked him numerous ques- more rigid, the ball would probably have gone tions, under some of which he began to quake through. The likeness is that of a young and and grow uneasy, fearing his inability, good not unattractive looking female; ard it may well lawyer though he is, to cope successfully with a be imagined that our gallant sold er prizes the cross-examination of such a dangerous charac-"counterfeit presentment " of the southern dam. ter. He accordingly began to look about him sel as the saviour of his life. to discover some means of escape. There was apparently none. He observed standing near him, however, the two muskets of the men, one SKETCHES IN THE HOSPITALS. · - One evening of them with a bayonet, and the other without. I found a lately-emptied bed occupied by a large, The colloquy had not proceeded much further fair man, with a fine face and the serenest eyes I before one of them, looking at him keenly, asked ever met. One of the earlier comers had often him to what regiment, brigade, and division he spoken cf a friend who had remained behind, belonged; and as Pryor hesitated and stammered that those apparently worse wounded than himout his reply, the Yankee sprang to his feet and self might reach a shelter first. It seemed a exclaimed: "You are a rebel, and my pris- David and Jonathan sort of friendship. The oner." In an instant, the General, who is a pow-man fretted for his mate, and was never tired of erful man and as active as a squirrel, seized the praising John, his courage, sobriety, self-denial, gun with the bayonet, and, before his antagonist and unfailing kindliness of heart, always winding could turn, ran him through the body twice. The up with: "He's an out and out fine feller, ma'am, other now jumped to his feet, apparently as if you see if he ain't." I had some curiosity to beto escape, but he also received from Pryor a hold this piece of excellence, and when he came, lunge that left him helpless on the field. Throw-watched him for a night or two before I made ing down the musket, the General moved rapidly away in the direction from whence he came, and after dodging Federal stragglers for an hour or two, had the satisfaction of finally regaining his command.

friends with him; for, to tell the truth, I was afraid of the stately-looking man, whose bed had to be lengthened to accommodate his commanding stature, who seldom spoke, uttered no corplaint, asked no sympathy, but tranquilly observed all that went on about him, and as he lay high upon his pillows, no picture of dying statesman or warrier was ever fuller of real dignity than this Virginia blacksmith.

A most attractive face he had, framed in brown

Anxious to know the fate of the two men whom he had so summarily disposed of, he sent one of his aids the next day to examine the hospitals in that neighborhood, and ascertain, if possible, whether any men were present wounded with a bayonet. The aid returned with the in-hair and beard, comely-featured and full of vigor, formation that he had found one so injured. Whereupon Pryor mounted his horse, and went in person to see him. The man was asleep when he entered the hospital, but the surgeon awoke him, and the General asked if he recognized him. "Yes, sir, I do," was the reply. "You're the man who stuck me." The wounded man was not less surprised when he learned that the author of his misery was the redoubtable Roger A. Pryor.

JAMES GARRABRANT, a member of Co. D., 13th New Jersey regiment, while fighting, at a battle on the Rappahannock, saw a daguerreotype fall from the pocket of a dead rebel. Impelled by curiosity, he picked it up and placed it in the breast pocket of his blouse. Soon he was struck by a bullet and fell. His brother, who was near him, picked him up, supposing him to be killed. Upon examination, the ball was found to have pierced his clothing, gone through the front of the daguerreotype, shivered the glass, and indented deeply the metal plate upon which the likeness was, which, however, it failed to penetrate, thus saving the young man's life, as it lay right over his heart. The wooden back of the picture was shivered to splinters by the concussion. The bullet was shown us with the picture, fitting neatly into the indentation of the plate.

There can be no doubt that the force of the

as yet unsubdued by pain, thoughtful and often beautifully mild while watching the afflictions of others, as if en irely forgetful of his own. His mouth was firm and grave, with plenty of will and courage in its lines, but a smile could make it as sweet as any woman's; and his eyes were child's eyes, looking one fairly in the face, with a clear, straightforward glance, which promised well for such as placed their faith in him. He seemed to cling to life as if it were rich in duties and delights, and he had learned the secret of content. The only time I saw his composure disturbed was when my surgeon brought another to examine John, who scrutinized their faces with an anxious look, asking of the elder: "Do you think I shall pull through, sir?" "I hope so, my man." And as the two passed on, John's eyes followed him with an intentness which would have won a clearer answer from t'em, had they seen it. A momentary shadow flitted over his face; then came the usual serenity, as if, in that brief eclipse, he had acknowledged the existence of some hard possibility, and, asking nothing, yet hoping all things, left the issue in God's hand, with that submission which is of true piety.

The next night, as I went my rounds with Dr P, I happened to ask which man in the room probably suffered most, and to my great surprise he glanced at John.

66

Every breath he draws is like a stab; for

away his face, laid the flowers against his lips, as if he would hide some quiver of emotion at the thought of such a sudden sundering of all the dear, home ties.

These things had happened two days before. Now, John was dying, and the letter ad not come. I had been summoned to many death beds in my life, but tc none that made my heart ache as it did then, since my mother called me to watch the departure of a spirit akin to this, in its gentleness and patient strength. As I went in, John stretched out both hands.

"I knew you'd come! I guess I'm moving on,

ma'am."

nearly gone, and had laid down the fan, believing its help no longer needed, when suddenly he rose up in his bed, and cried out with a bitter cry that broke the silence, sharply startling every one with its agonized appeal. "For God's sake, give me air!"

It was the only cry pain or death had wrung from him, the only boon he had asked, and none of us could grant it, for a. the airs that blow were useless now. Dan fing up the window; the first red streak of dawn was warming the gray east, a herald of the coming sun. John saw it, and with the love of light that lingers in us to the end, seemed to read in it a sign of hope; for He was, and so rapidly, that even while he over his whole face broke that mysterious exspoke, over his face I saw the gray veil falling pression, brighter than any smile, which often that no human hand can lift. I sat down by him, comes to eyes that look their last. He laid himwiped the drops from his forehead, stirred the self down gently, and stretching out his strong air about him with the slow wave of a fan, and right arm, as if to grasp and bring the blessed waited to help him die. He stood in sore need air to his lips in fuller flow, lapsed into a merciof help, and I could do so little; for, as the doc-ful unconsciousness, which assured us that for him tor had foretold, the strong body rebelled against death, and fought every inch of the way, forcing him to draw each breath with a spasm, and clench his hands with an imploring look, as if he asked, "How long must I endure this, and be still?" For hours he suffered dumbly, without a moent's respite or a moment's murmuring. His Inbs grew cold, his face damp, his ips white, and again and again he tore the covering off his breast, as if the lightest weight added to his agony; yet, through it all, his eyes never lost their perfect serenity, and the man's soul seemed to sit therein, undaunted by the ills that vexed his flesh.

suffering was forever past.

As we stood looking at him, the ward master handed me a letter, saying it had been forgotten the night before. It was John's letter, come just an hour too late to gladden the eyes that had looked and longed for it so eagerly yet he rad it; for aftor I had cut some brown locks for his mother, and taken off the ring to send her, telling how well the talisman had done its work, I kissed this good son for her sake, and laid the letter in his hand, still folded as when I drew my own away.

-

At the bat

A BABY ON THE BATTLE-FIELD. One by one the men woke, and round the tle of the Hatchie, when the conflict was waging room appeared a circle of pale faces and watchful fiercest, upon advancing, midway between the eyes, full of awe and pity; for, though a stranger, contending forces, we found-what do you John was beloved by all. Each man there had think? Not a masked battery- not an insidiwondered at his patience, respected his piety, ad-ous trap, inviting but to destroy - not any terrimired his fortitude, and now lamented his hard ble engine of death but a sweet little bluedeath; for the influence of an upright nature had eyed BABY. Sweet little thing, as I saw it there, made itself deeply felt even in one little week. hugging the cold earth, its only bed - the little Presently Jonathan, who so loved this comely tear on its cheek,David, came creeping from his bed for a last look and word. The kind soul was full of trouble, as the choke in his voice, the grasp of his hand, betrayed; but there were no tears, and the fare-Unalarmed 'mid the awful confusion of that fearwell of the friends was the more touching for its brevity.

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That nature bade it weep, turned

An ice-drop sparkling in the morning beam."

ful battle, with the missiles of death flying thick about it and crowding close upon its young existence, yet unhurt, it seemed a wonderful verification of the Divine declaration: "Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings I will ordain wis

"Can I say or do anything for you any-dom." That little "child of war," as it lay in its wheres?"

Good by, Ned.”

Good by, John, good by!”

They kissed each other tenderly as women, and parted; for poor Ned could not stay to see his comrade die. For a little while there was no sound in the room but the drip of water from a pump or two, and John's distressful gasps as he slowly breathed his life away. I thought him

miraculous safety, seemed to say to me these I words of profound instruction: "My helplessness and innocence appealed to God, and he preserved me in the midst of this wrecking carnage. If you will make your plaint to Heaven, God will preserve your poor bleeding country."

Little child of destiny, born 'mid the flash of musketry, the thunder of cannon, and the clash of armis, I will watch your course through life, and witness whether an existence so auspiciously begun will pass by the masses unnoticed, and end without leaving a name damned to everlasting

44

ANECDOTES, POETRY, AND INCIDENTS.

fame!" Who would suppose that in the wild, on board, but the master managed to procure a
fierce battle of the Hatchie, when the field was piece of timber about five feet long and a foot in
strewn with the dead, and the shrieks of the diameter, which, with a little paint, he managed
wounded rent the heavens with agony, a great so as to make resemble a cannon, covered it
a.my would pause in the thickest of the conflict with a tarpaulin, and mounted it on a pair of
to save a harmless, a helpless child? Yet the trucks, and, thus armed, prepared to meet the
brave Fourteenth, that never yet has quailed in enemy. Arriving at Curlew, they found fifty
nothing, but brought up from the hold a number
battle, did pause, and an officer of the regiment guerrillas drawn up in line, who incontinently de-
ordered "our little baby" carried to headquar-manded their surrender. Those on the boat said
ters and tenderly cared for.
of small pieces of limestone sewed .p in canvas
bags to represent animunition, and carefully laid
them alongside the gun. The harmless bit of
wood was then turned towards the rascals, and the
tarpaulin was about to be removed, when the
doughty warriors took to their heels, and ran as
about forty, who had crossed over the night pre-
if the Old Nick was after them. At Battery Rock,
on the Illinois shore, another party, numbering
vious in an old flatboat, essayed the same un-
dertaking; but these, too, were put to flight by
this mighty piece of ordnance.

I remember having read, somewhere in Grecian history, a story something like the one I have related. A little child was found on the battlefield, and by an infuriated soldiery trampled in the dust. After the battle the victorious general, in an address to his army, said: "But for the blood of a little child that mars it, our victory would be complete." Thank God, the blood of no little child mars our victory.

The next day after the battle "our babe" was brought before the Fourteenth, and unanimously The following incident adopted "Child of the Regiment." Three or A UNION WOMAN. · four days later, strange as it may seem, a poor, heart-stricken, poverty-pinched mother came searching the battle-field in quest of her child. My dear reader, imagine if you can the wild ex-is told concerning the independent and successclamations of thanksgiving that burst from that ful stand taken by a woman in New Orleans, on poor woman's heart, when informed that her child behalf of the Union. She and her husband-a had been rescued, and with a mother's tender- Mississippi steamboat captain-occupied the ness cared for. I saw the mother receive her middle front room of the lowest range of sleepof secession. She refused to allow the illumichild, heard her brief prayer for the soldiers who ing apartments in the St. Charles Hotel, at the nating candles to be fixed in the windows of her saved it, and, with the blessings of a thousand time when the city was to be illuminated in honor room, and the proprietors remonstrated in vain men following her and hers, she took away

"Our little baby

Little blue-eyed, laughing baby."

A NEW WAY TO ATTACK FORT PICKENS.
A Southern paper put forth the following propo-
sition:

she finally ordering them to leave the room, of which she claimed, while its occupant, to have entire control. The rest of the story is thus told:

"Determined not to be outdone in a matter of such grave importance, the captain, who was not go "Let General Bragg detail a few thousand of in the room during the above proceedings, was his ten thousand to the work of catching snakes, next found and appealed to. He heard their with them to the room and see if the matter and as soon as they have collected several cart-case; said his wife had reported him correctly on loads of these interesting reptiles, let tin or sheet- the Union question; nevertheless, he would iron shell or canisters be charged with them the enclosure being cylindrical and of size to fit could be amicably arranged. The captain's disthe largest mortar, and so made that it will break position to yield was not to be seconded by his to pieces, and liberate its contents upon falling better half. The proprietors next proposed to We would warn those who vacate the best chamber in her favor, in some within the fort. charge the shells to put only the same species into other part of the house, if that would be satiseach, as if the different snakes were mixed they factory; but the lady's 'No!' was still as perwould sting each other to death before having a emptory as ever. Her point was gained, and chance to operate on Billy Wilson's Zouaves. the St. Charles was doomed to have a dark front The corners and interstices in each shell might chamber. Pleased with this triumph, Mrs. be filled up with a few quarts of tarantulas, scor-devised the following manoeuvre to make the pions, centipedes, and lizards, however, to make close work, as the snakes would pack loosely."

On the passage of
A CAPTAIN'S STRATEGY.
the steamer Fitzhugh up the Mississippi River,
her officers were informed that they would proba-
bly meet with trouble from a company of guer-
rillas stationed at Curlew, Kentucky, and were
advised to be on their guard. There was not a gun

she sent him out to procure for her an American flag, which, at dusk, she suspended from her most of her victory. Summoning a servant, window. When evening came, the streets, animated by a merry throng, were illuminated; but, alas! the St. Charles was disfigured by its sombre chamber, when suddenly a succession of lamps, suspended on both sides of the flag, revealing the Stars and Stripes, were lit up, and the ensign of the Union waved from the centre of a hotel

illuminated in honor of its overthrow! The effect was, to give the impression that the whole house was thus paying homage to the American flag; and what is more significant, is the fact that the latter was greeted by the passing crowd with vociferous applause. So much for the firmness of a true Union woman."

PETER APPLE, of Oakland, Marion County, Indiana, was recruited for the Eleventh regiment of that State, and took part in the attempt to storm one of the Vicksburg batteries. The rebel fire was so destructive, that the Union forces recoiled. Apple, the "raw recruit," "didn't see" the backward movement, and kept going ahead, until he came right up to one of the rebel guns, caught a gunner by the collar, and brought him within our lines, saying: "Boys, why didn't you come on? Every fellow might have got one."

"I saw an intelligent looking man with his whole diaphragm torn off. He was holding up nearly all of his viscera with both hands and arms. His face expressed a longing for assistance and an apprehension of fatality.

66

"On going to the field the second day, our regiment strode on in line over wounded, dying, and dead. My office detaching me from the lines, I had an opportunity to notice incidents about the field. The regiment halted amidst a a gory, ghastly scene. I heard a voice calling, Ho, friend! ho! for God's sake, come here.' I went to a gory pile of dead human forms in every kind of stiff contortion; I saw one arm raised, beckoning me. I found there a rebel, covered with clotted blood, pillowing his head on the dead body of a comrade. Both were red from head to foot. The dead man's brains had gushed ou in a reddish and grayish mass over his face. The live one had lain across him all that horrible, long night in the storm. The first thing he said to me was, 'Give me some water. Send me a surgeon won't you! O God! What made On that peaceful Sunday morning of April you come down here to fight us? We never 6, 1862, the sun was rising with splendor. I had would have come up there.' And then he affecwalked out to enjoy the fresh air, and, returning tionately put one arin over the form, and laid his by my friend Lieut. D's tent, I called upon him. bloody face against the cold, clammy, bloody face Said he, H., take a cup of coffee; I have found of his dead friend. I filled his canteen nearlysome milk.'Don't care if I do,' said I. I always reserving some for myself-knowing I might be write home on Sunday morning, and like to do in the same sad condition. I told him we had no it over a good cup of coffee.' 'Yes, I mean to surgeon in our regiment, and that we would have write to my little wife,' said D. 'I expect to re- to suffer, if wounded, the same as he; that other sign soon. Don't you want a pair of new shoul-regiments were coming, and to call on them for a der straps, H., and bran new pair of gauntlets? I told D. I would take them; and in a moment left his tent, after making him promise to take tea with me.

REMINISCENCES OF SHILOH. - An eye-witness gives the following pictures of the battle-field of Shiloh :

surgeon; that they were humane. 'Forward!' shouted the Colonel; and Forward!' was repeated by the officers. I left him.

"The above recalls to mind one of the hardest

"But how were things at tea time? D. was principles in warfare- where your sympathy and mangled and dead, lying by the roadside, at the humanity are appealed to, and from sense of exhospital by the Landing, with hundreds of oth-pediency you are forbidden to exercise it. After ers, and I had passed the most momentous day our regiment had been nearly annihilated, and of my life had participated (I am since told were compelled to retreat under a galling fire, a creditably) in one of the greatest battles, exceed-boy was supporting his dying brother on one arin, ing in fury, courage, waste, stupendousness, and and trying to drag him from the field and the adgallantry, the wildest dreams of my youth. vancing foe. He looked at me imploringly, and Should your happy city, on some bright Sunday said: Captain, help him - won't you? Do, Capmorning, be sunk, with all its life, by an earth- tain; he'll live.' I said: 'He's shot through the quake, and the cold waves rolling over it in eter-head; don't you see? and can't live he's dying nal sclitude before night, the change could be no now.' 'O, no, he ain't, Captain. Don't leave more unexpected, nor could it come upon you me.' I was forced to reply: The rebels won't with more bewildering and stunning suddenness and awfulness. On the evening of the 5th, the 18th Wisconsin infantry arrived, and were assigned to General Prentiss's division, on the front. Said Colonel, who had preceded them, looking for the General's quarters, Here they come- the bully boys-they weigh just 166 pounds apiece. Just left home six days ago.' The 18th Wisconsin cooked their first suppers in "I ate my dinner on Monday within six paces the field that night at nine o'clock, and wrapped of a rebel in four pieces. Both legs were blown themselves in their blankets, to be awakened by off. His pelvis was the third piece, and his head the roar of battle, and receive, thus early, their and chest were the fourth piece. Those four bloody baptism. Before they had been on the pieces occupied a space of twelve feet square. ] field one day, their magnificent corps was deci-saw five dead rebels in a row, with their heads

hurt him. Lay him down and come, or both you and I will be lost.' The rush of bullets and the yells of the approaching demons hurried me away- leaving the young soldier over his dying brother.

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Nearly every rebel's face turned black immediately after death. Union men's faces retained the natural pallor two or three days.