We expended a few moments in closing our lines at the point at which the road cut them, with an old wagon and a score or two of fence-rails disposed á la chevaux de frise, and waited.

We had not long to wait: a cloud of dust in our front, told of the hurried advance of cavalry, and the next instant, the glitter of spur and scabbard revealed to us a long line of horsemen, rapidly deploying under cover of a wood that rav parallel to our line, and about half a mile in front of us. Then we missed our cannon! Our venerable muskets were no worth a tinker's imprecation, at longer range than a hundred yards, and we were compelled, per force, to watch the preparations for our capture or slaughter, much after the fashion that a rational turtle may be presumed to contemplate the preliminaries of a civic dinner in London. A little of that military coquetry called reconnoissance, determined our enemy to feel us first with a small portion of his command, and on came, at a sweeping gallop, a gallant company of troopers with as confident an air as though all that was necessary was that they should "come" and "see" in order to "conquer." Every one saw that this was a party we could easily manage, and we possessed, therefore, our souls in great patience, till we could see the chevrons on the arm of the non-commissioned officer who led them-a brave fellow-and then there broke forth (from such amiable muskets as could be induced to gc off) a discharge that scattered the cavaliers like chaffthree riderless horses being all of the expedition that entered our lines.

The incident was trifling in the extreme, but it saved Petersburg, and probably prolonged for months the surrender.

The Federals now became convinced that no cavalry charge

would frighten these ununiformed and half-armed militiamen from their posts, and that a regular attack au pied must be made. For this purpose two regiments of their cavalry were cismounted and deployed on either side of the road, in a ino double the length of our own, and it was evident that they had determined to flank us on both sides.

The welcome rattle of artillery horses brought now a cheer to every lip as they observed a field-piece falling into position on our right, and the sharp shriek of a shell curvetting over the Yankee line, was an agreeable variation of the monotonous silence in which, to the right and left, their skirmish line was stretching away to encompass us. This occasioned another check, and provoked an artillery response, which continued for twenty minutes, with about the effect currently attributed to sacred melodies chanted in the hearing of a certain useful hybrid, deceased. But these were all golden moments for Petersburg-cannon and horses were pouring into town. Graham's and Sturdivant's batteries were wheeling into position, and Dearing was hastening to the scene with his cavalry -Dearing, the gallant trooper, who gave away his noble life in the gathering gloom of the last hours of the Confederacy. "Green be the turf above thee!"

Meanwhile, the long line of foemen was stretching around us-manifold more than we in numbers, and, as we soon found, armed with the Spencer rifle, repeating sixteen times. And there we fought them; fought them till we were so surrounded, that the two nearest men to me were shot in the back while facing the line of original approach; till both our guns were captured; till our camp, in the rear of our works, was full of the foe; till the noblest blood of our city stained the clay of the breast work as they gave out their lives, gun in hand and face fɔeward, on the spot where their officers placed

them. Taeir faces rise before me now: the calm, grave countenances of Bannister and Staubley; the generous, joyous frankness of Friend and Hardee; the manly, conscientious fire of patriotism in all-Bellingham and Blanks, Jones, Johnson, and the rest-all gallant gentlemen and true; one of whose lives was well worth a hecatomb of the bummers and bountyjumpers before them; and I could but ask myself then as now, the prophetic question whose answer has in all ages sustained the martyrs of freedom as of faith, "Can such blood fall in vain ?"

Truly, the cause is lost; but no man, in all the ages, died for what he thought the right and true, in absolute fruitlessness.

One by one, my comrades of an hour fell around me-Bellingham the last; and as I turned, at his request, and stooped to change his position to one of greater comfort, the enemy trooped over the earthwork behind me, and the foremost, presenting his loaded carbine, demanded my surrender with an unrepeatable violence of language that suggested bloodshed. All avenue of escape being cut off, I yielded with what grace I could to my fate, captive to the bow and spear of a hatchetfaced member of the First District Cavalry, greatly enamored of this honorable opportunity of going to the rear.

A FRIENDLY WARNING.

DURING the retreat of the Confederates through South Carolina, Sergeant McD of Western North Carolina, was sent on detail to the town of M where a regiment of home guards were stationed. These valorous heroes,

seeing a soldier from the front, gathered around him eagerly, "News!" said Mack, solemnly, "I

inquiring the news. believe thore is none. of much importance.

Yes, there is a little, too, but it's not Old Hardee burnt up a regiment of home guards at Florence the other day, to keep them from falling into the enemy's hands." Mack walked coolly on, leaving his auditors in a state of semi-bewilderment.

JUST FOR A SICK MAN.

DURING General Lee's advance upon Manasses, in the fall of 1863, the musicians of Cook's and Kirkland's North Carolina brigades, were left behind to attend to and nurse the wounded of their commands. When the army com. menced to retire to the Rappahannock, these men were moved forward to rejoin their commands. They had been so much bedeviled, and hooted at by the troops, that they tried to avoid them by going through the fields, and away from the road, but go where they would, they were sure to meet some of the much dreaded arms bearing men; till, at last, they betook themselves to the road in despair, assuming a sullen, indifferent air, never daring to turn their heads to any of the hailing appeals of "I say, mister," "I say, you man with the horn," etc., etc. The most shining mark, and apparently the most sullen and worst worried of them, was the bass drummer of the band of the twenty-seventh infantry (Cook's brigade), who was a tall, handsome, digni. fied looking man, carrying one of the largest drums in the army. He was greeted on all sides, but heeded nothing, till attracted by a most pitiful and doleful sound of "Mister! oh

mister!" several times repeated very near him. He turned, and discovered that it proceeded from a most woe-begone, tall, cadaverous-looking Georgia soldier, standing about half hent, his hands resting on the muzzle of his gun, and his

in on his hands, his uncombed hair hanging over his eyes, and his under lip (from which dripped saliva) hanging about half an inch below his chin-altogether, looking such a picture of misery and bodily suffering, that said musician's sympathies were at once enlisted, and he asked in a tone of commiserating kindness: "What can I do for you?" With a very beseeching air and trembling voice, the Georgian said: "Won't you please be so kind as to pick a tune on that ar' thing for a sick man."

The poor musician went on his way supremely disgusted, amid the shouts and laughter of all within hearing. So long as the war lasted, he never heard the last of it, and many were the applications made to him for the soothing tones of "that ar' thing."

SELLING A PARSON.

AT the depot in, a clergyman had an affecting and earnest conversation with some soldiers en route to —. Пе gave them a good deal of wholesome advice and wholesome warning, to which they listened most respectfully. At length, the whistle blew, and the soldiers ran and sprang upon the flat cars. Just as the train began slowly to move, one of them cried out to the preacher: "Oh, parson, I have left my oven behind. We can't cook without it. Please throw it up here." Picking up the oven pointed out, the good minister ran after the cars, and succeeded in pitching it