in the lungs, and the long confinement and exposure I have been compelled to endure has tended greatly to increase my feebleness.

I have been held under charges which I never committed, which many of your officers, high in rank, who were familiar with the circumstances, could attest.

These charges have been removed, and I am now held as a prisoner of war, for exchange. I was captured prior to any interruption of exchanges under the cartel. All officers captured months after have been exchanged. I was held under charges which, being removed, should entitle me to an immediate exchange.

If you should reject the above application for my exchange, can I not be permitted to go South, on parole for a period of sixty or ninety days, with the understanding that if my government will not release an officer of equal rank now held by it, I will return to captivity at the expiration of the parole? Very respectfully,

ROBERT W. BAYLOR, Captain Twelfth Virginia Cavalry.

But the above application for exchange and parole were refused, and my father remained in close confinement until October, 1864, a period of twenty-two months in all, when he was finally exchanged and released from a cruel barbarity. Holy Writ teaches us there is a great tribunal where justice is fully administered and the wrongs of this world are righted. Somebody must answer for the misery caused and the cruelty inflicted on my father, and I will only say, as one of our pious artillerymen used to pray, as he touched off his guns, "May the Lord have mercy on their souls."

Wm. C. Frazier.

CHAPTER X.

The fierceness of the fight! How saber drove

At sword! How swift and strong the strokes that fell!
Their dreadful deeds I pass unsung; they dwell

With unessential night, whose awful screen,

Hid them from notice; they were deeds that well
Deserved a noon-day sun, and to have been

By the whole world at once in cloudless glory seen.

Tasso.

On the 21st of April, our brigade, under General William E. Jones, broke camp at Lacey Springs, Rockingham county, Virginia, and moved westward across the mountains on what was familiarly known as Jones's West Virginia raid.

On arriving at Moorefield we found the Potomac swollen by recent rains and impassable. The brigade was compelled to ascend the river to Petersburg to effect a crossing, and even at that point the passage was attended with danger and loss of life, and our artillery, the loss of which was soon realized, had to abandon the trip and return to the Valley.

The passage of the Potomac was alarming and exciting and many sad and many laughable incidents occurred. Some feared to cross and remained anxious spectators on the bank. Two men in the Sixth Cavalry were drowned. Sergeant-Major Figgat, of the Twelfth, was swept from his horse, but saved himself by grasping his horse's tail, and was safely landed with his steed about a quarter of a mile below. Many of our officers and men prepared themselves for the emergency by shifting their coats and arms to their horses, and making all necessary preparation for a struggle with the waters. As the art of swimming was unknown to me, I trusted in God alone to bear me safely over. I remember yet the depressing stillness of the men on this occasion, as the column slowly moved through the water. The Israelites never moved through the

Red Sea with more awe and solemnity. As we neared the opposite bank, beyond the danger line, this awful silence was broken by the stentorian voice of Sergeant Trussell, "Close up, men; bear up the stream." This great display of courage, after the crisis was passed, caused much mirth among the boys at the Sergeant's expense, and the order was often repeated along our journey, never failing to provoke laughter and jollity.

On arriving at Greenland Gap we sorely missed our artillery, as the enemy was found in buildings commanding the pass and his dislodgment cost us a loss of six men killed and twenty wounded. With one piece of artillery this loss would have been avoided and precious time saved.

In the attack on this place, seventy-five prisoners, arms, and equipments, and several wagons were captured. Hurrying on from Greenland Gap and reaching the Northwestern Grade, the Maryland Battalion and the Twelfth Cavalry were sent to Oakland. Company B had the advance, and entered Oakland at 11 A. M. on the 27th of April (Sunday), and surprised and captured a company of fifty-seven infantry and three officers. Many of the Federal soldiers were found (much to their credit) at church with their sweethearts, and it was with much regret that we were compelled to sunder these loving hearts for a short time. We found the girls more pugnacious and less tractable than the men. A very pious member of our company, ordered to arrest a Yankee who was walking with a girl, approached the couple with a courtly bow, tipping his hat and courteously informing the combatant he was a prisoner. The soldier recognized the situation and succumbed at once, but the girl broke out in a most awful tirade of abuse, which culminated in, "You bald-headed son of a As our pious comrade returned with his prisoner, he exclaimed, "Please God, I never heard a woman talk that way before."

It was on this occasion that ex-Postmaster-General Wilson humorously accosted a lady, apparently not pleased with the

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new visitors, and asked if she did not think the rebels were better looking than the Yankees," to which she contemptuously replied: "You good looking! You look like your moustache had been dyed three weeks in buttermilk." This was not very flattering to the pride of our embryo PostmasterGeneral, who even yet prides himself on that moustache.

Destroying the railroad bridges east of the town, the railroad and turnpike bridges over the Youghieny, and a train of cars, our column moved on Cranberry Summit (now Terra Alta), capturing a lot of maple sugar and fifteen soldiers and twenty home-guards, who were paroled and released, as were also the prisoners taken at Oakland.

Moving rapidly west, Kingwood and Morgantown were entered without opposition, and on the morning of the 28th, our force rejoined General Jones and the remainder of the brigade near Independence.

While in Morgantown our boys cut down the Stars and Stripes, found floating from the top of a tall flag-pole near the court-house, and as I have no expectation of running for office, I must, in justice to the truth of history, penitently acknowledge that I was an accessory before, in, and after the fact. It was while in this town that two of the most gallant and chivalrous members of Company B were with difficulty prevented from fighting a duel in the street of the town over the charms of one of its fair ladies. After resting a few hours near Independence, we again entered Morgantown, capturing many fine horses, which had been successfully run off at our first entrance and brought back after it was supposed our forces had made their final departure. Hon. W. L. Wilson's canvass for Congress in after years was much burdened by the capture of these horses, as he was charged with having stolen them all.

Passing over the bridge at Morgantown, we started in the direction of Uniontown, Pennsylvania, but prudence counselling us that a further advance into the enemy's country was dangerous, in the extreme, we counter-marched and moved south.