a long cherished desire to enter upon the study of medicine Without influence and with but a limited supply of money he, however, soon found favor with Dr. Treat, of Rochester into whose office he entered; but, after the lapse of a few months, the dread disease, cholera, appeared in that city, and when Levi Ward, then Mayor of Rochester, issued a public appeal for nurses, this young man quickly responded, and throughout that anxious period, won, for valiant and heroic conduct, the best opinions in particular of the medical fraternity, and their brightest predictions of his future usefulness. Following the cessation of this epidemic, he decided to enter Amherst College, Mass., that the foundation for his medical course might be made as broad as possible; but after passing two courses at Amherst, he became restless to begin the studies that would fit him for the profession of which he so earnestly wished to become a member, and consequently, at the very earliest session of the Berkshire Medical College, at Berkshire, Mass., then one of the best medical schools in the United States, he was duly installed as a student. At the age of twenty-two he graduated from this institution with high honors; and on the departure, in the same year, of its Demonstrator of Anatomy, Dr. Timothy Childs, for an extended trip in Europe, Dr. Barnes was selected to fill his post,-a position in which he continued for eight years, and was the tutor of many who are now eminent in their profession. At the beginning of the civil war, though intending at that time to make a visit to Europe, the fervor of his patriotism led him to sacrifice a valuable practice in Rochester, N. Y., to enter the 27th N. Y. Volunteers as surgeon, which position he held until the regiment was mustered out, in 1863; but not content with this service, he applied for the position of surgeon in the regular army, and as there was no vacancy in that grade, after passing the required examination at Washington, he willingly accepted the rank of Assistant Surgeon, from which, after a service of three months, he was promoted as Surgeon, and in a brief time was made Medical Director successively of the Sixth, Tenth, Eighteenth and Twenty-fourth Vol

BIOGRAPHY OF DR. BARNES,

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unteer Army Corps, and later Medical Chief of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, with headquarters at Norfolk, Va., positions which he filled with distinction. He retired from the army with an enviable record, in 1868. For gallant and meritorious conduct at the battle of Fort Fisher, President Lincoln bestowed upon Dr. Barnes the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. At the close of his army service he returned to Rochester, N. Y., but remained only a few months, going thence to Chicago, Ill., and when on the high road to success, with the certainty of achieving a distinguished professional standing in the region of his new home, the loss of sight overtook him, and doomed him in the flower of manhood, to inactivity and mournful reflection. Much may be attributed to the domestic association of Dr. Barnes, in its bearing upon his early manhood, and the source of consolation it was in his years of suffering and decline. He was united in 1856 to Miss Kitty Burbank Williams, of Deerfield, Mass., a lady of the highest cultivation and literary ability, whose death occurred in 1873. He was again united in matrimony, to Miss M. Augusta McPherson, of Chicago, in 1874, upon whom, through the long and trying sickness that followed, devolved the exacting duty of tenderly nursing and consoling her afflicted husband.

A Soldier's Dream.

BY DR. N. S. BARNES.

I sometimes dream I'm once more on the battle-field,

There, where wounds are given, and where wrongs are healed; Once more I hear the steady tramp of marching men,

The rushing fight, the cannon roar, through bush and glen.

Once again I hear the cannon's thundering sound :

I see its belch of fire, and feel it jar the ground;

See once more, the cavalry charge through flame and smoke, With carbine fire, bayonet thrust, and saber stroke.

High above clouds, on Lookout's crest, the old flag waves,
Carried by Union hands, held there by Union braves;
And all along that crimson battle front I hear,
Ringing in the air, the glorious Union cheer.

And so unlike that horrid, shameful Rebel yell,
More like the shrieking cry from the demons of hell.
I see the surging columns advance, break and reel,
Rallying again, they meet the foemen, steel to steel.

Thus rages the combat, till, with the curtain of night,
Comes glorious victory for the Union and right;
Again, high in the heavens, Independence sun
Looks down on a battle fought, and Gettysburg won.

With the sword's slash, cannon's shot, and with rifle lead,
The ground is strewn with the wounded and with the dead;
I sometimes have wished, irreverent though it seem,
That there among my comrades, still that wish I mean-

That with victory won, at the close of a hard-fought day,
When all is hushed-battle shout and bloody fray;
I might have lain me down there upon a soldier's bed,
A soldier's eternal rest, and a soldier dead.

No, not dead, but only changed to other life,
Where warring ceases, and there is an end of strife;
Where we no longer hear the sentinel's weary tramp,
A rainbow-silver and gold, horizons the camp.

Comrades, somewhere and somehow, in that other sphere,
We will better, then, know why we have battled here;
And if there be rank in the Lord's eternal plan,

'Tis moral worth, and not wealth, that will rank the man.

BIOGRAPHY OF GENERAL SEDGWICK.

249

GEN. JOHN SEDGWICK

Was born in Cornwall, Ct., September 13, 1813, and graduated at West Point, July, 1837. In this year, as a junior Second Lieutenant of Artillery, he made a campaign against the Seminoles in Florida. Subsequently he served upon the Northern frontier, in the Canada border troubles. Young Sedgwick accompanied Scott's expedition to Vera Cruz, and participated in the battles that followed the surrender of that post, winning for gallantry displayed at Cerro Gordo, Cherebusco, Molino del Rey and Chepultepec the brevets of Captain and Major. He was present during the assault upon the Mexican capital, and at its capture. He was made Lieutenant-Colonel of Cavalry in the Second United States; afterwards, in the same year, was commissioned Colonel of the First United States Cavalry. This was in August, and in the latter part of that month he was made Brigadier-General of Volunteers.

During the fall and winter of 1861, Gen. Sedgwick commanded a brigade of Heintzleman's Division. In the Peninsula campaign, he was at the head of a division of Sumner's Corps, which participated in the seige of Yorktown, and the battle of Fair Oaks, where their arrival after a toilsome march largely contributed to the favorable ending of that engagement. His command distinguished itself at Savage's station, June 29th, and at Frazer's Farm, June 30th, where its General was wounded, as he was also three times, severely, at Antietam. The wounds received at this place deprived the nation of his services until the following December.

The changes of corps commanders which resulted from the change in the Chief Command of the Army of the Potomac, after the winter of 1862, found Gen. Sedgwick at the head of the Sixth Corps, as the Commander of which he is known to fame.

In May, 1863, he was ordered by Gen. Hooker to carry the heights of Fredericksburg, and form a junction with the main army at Chancellorsville. The town was occupied on

Sunday morning, May, 3d, with but little opposition, but the storming of the heights behind it cost the lives of several thousand men. The advance of the Sixth Corps was checked at Salem Heights, about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, by a superior force detached by Gen. Lee from the main army confronting Hooker. The force opposing Gen. Sedgwick was further strengthened the next morning, May 4th, and it was only by great skill and hard fighting that the General was able to hold his ground during the day, and to withdraw at night across the Rappahannock.

On the morning of June 30th, 1863, the Sixth Corps, the right of the army following Gen. Lee, was at Manchester, northwest of Baltimore, thirty-five miles from Gettysburg. The events of the hour demanding the concentration of the army at the last place, the Sixth Corps made the march thither in twenty hours, arriving before 2 P. M., July 2d. The corps participated thenceforth in the action of the 2d and 3d of July.

Gen. Sedgwick commanded the right of the Army of the Potomac, at Rappahannock Station, November 7th, also at Mine Run, November 26th to December 7th, 1863.

Gen. Sedgwick was conspicuous in the battles of the Wilderness, and those at Spottsylvania. On the 10th of May, 1864, he was killed by the bullet of a sharpshooter. He was universally beloved. In the Sixth Corps he was known as "Uncle John," and his death cast a gloom over the command, which was never dispelled. A monument, wrought of cannon captured by the Sixth Corps, was erected to his memory at West Point.