boars, those lying around the point and against the Louisi aua shore, and also most, if not all, his mortar boats. The latter had crept up during the night previous, and were lying just below the point and immediately under the bank on our own shore, thus getting nearer our batteries and commanding the town. Their masts, we observed, were wrapped with the limbs or foliage of trees, intended, we suppose, as a disguise to aid them in getting so closely in upon us.

About eight o'clock at night the enemy again opened a terrific and deafening fire. The scene was fearful and grand in the extreme. The air and sky at times seemed one sheet of living flame, while shells burst in mid-air, scattering their dreadful missiles of death around and over the devoted city.

This was kept up for at least two hours, when, it seemed to us, from sheer exhaustion of the combatants, the firing ceased, and stillness and midnight, like a pall, darkened and fell over the scene. Nothing but the light of morning could reveal the death and desolation which had ensued. When that morning came, more appalling and fearful still was the scene which it presented. Several of the principal gunboats, with the flagboat of the enemy, for some purpose, of course unknown to us, ran the gauntlet of our batteries, and at about four o'clock in the morning were at the landing, and directly under and opposite the town.

Here, in conjunction with about twenty of their mortarboats and a concealed battery upon the opposite bank of the river, they all simultaneously opened fire. We were awakened from our dreams of peace by a report and reverberation scarce equaled in volume by the terrific peals of "Heaven's artillery." The whole broad bosom of the river was one sheet of liquid flame, the houses and hills seemed to rock upon their very foundations. First came the whirring,

whizzing noise of the shell, awakening the echoes far and near, and then the booming sound of the report. To an uneducated ear, the peculiar sound made by the shell, when first projected from the mouth of the mortar, is terrible in the extreme. I still hear it in my ears, and every loud, crashing sound almost startles me into the belief that I am still "under fire."

After remaining within walls for some time, we at length determined to try the open streets, where, at least, was offered a better chance for dodging than in doors. When we reached the street, we then began to see the effects of the bombardment upon the few remaining inhabitants of the town, and upon the houses along our route. As we were merely amateurs, and our presence not absolutely essential to the safety or defence of the town, it was, upon a council of war, determined to make our way to the friendly protection of the hills on the outskirts. All along our way we found men, women, and children flying in every direc tion to seek shelter and protection somewhere. Here would be seen a mother and helpless children, hastened perhaps in their flight from their homes by a shell having fallen upon and through their roof, or in the yard adjoining. Here came first the hissing sound, and then the messenger of death plowed up the streets just before you, or went crashing into some house or grassy bank almost at your back. Ilere we saw a poor Irishman kneeling in profound reverence, with his face pressed to the very earth, and as we heard his carnest nvocation, "Ave Maria, ora pro Nobis," we were impressed with the thought that if the missile of death would strike him, it could not come at a better time.

We found the shells fell thicker and faster the further we went, as if the enemy sought to show how far their murder.

ous engines would carry, or because they were "feeling" for the camps of our soldiers, which they supposed were in range. Thus, from four until six o'clock did this hellish work continue, and by an enemy whose proud boast is, that they never make war upon unoffending citizens, and helpless women and children!" God save the mark. We gradually found our way back to our stopping place, and after a good breakfast betook ourselves to ranging the city to learn the casualties and incidents of the fight. Compared with the "sound and fury," these were comparatively trifling. Within the whole bounds of the city we could hear of but one death; but this was a most estimable lady, Mrs. Gamble, who, we were told, had been one of the most active in acts of kindness and labor for our soldiers. She was struck with a splinter, and died instantly.

At the batteries, we had but two men killed and four or five wounded. An incident at one of our guns is worthy of recording, and should immortalize the actor in it. A soldier stationed with his finger at the vent while the gun was being loaded, had the hand he was thus using dreadfully mangled with a fragment of shell-and yet he nobly held it in position until the gunner had finished loading the piece! Because, if he had for an instant released his hold, death would have been inevitable to his companions. Can people exhibiting such traits ever be conquered?

A great number of houses were struck, and many of them entirely gutted and destroyed. The Methodist and Catholic churches were both struck, the former in the cupola and basement, with two shots. The small loss of life is per haps attributable to the fact that most of the occupants were absent, and many had fled temporarily from their houses into the streets and open country.

Thus terminated for us the scenes of which I fear I have given but a faint idea, from my imperfect manner of descrip tion. Indeed, there were moments of time when the incidents occurring around me seemed forever daguerreotyped upon my mind. And yet, for all the chances of death around us, we all agreed that no earthly consideration would have induced us to have forgone the spectacle.

A TRAVELLED LADY.

WHILE Hood was at Atlanta, a detachment was sent to the rear of Sherman's army under Colonel Hill, of Louisiana. An officer of the second Missouri regiment stopped one day to get dinner at the house of a very clever old lady with three fine looking daughters. At the table she asked the young man where he was from. "From Missouri, madam," was the reply. She looked over her spectacles, as though trying to gaze through illimitable space, and said slowly, "Missouri, Missouri, Missouri, why that jines Gwinnett, don't it?" Now Gwinnett was a county just across the Chattahooche river. The officer choked down a laugh, and said, Certainly, madam." The youngest daughter, a sweet girl of sixteen, in the innocence of her heartfelt infinite pride at her mother's wisdom, said, "Why, I declare, mammy knows every thing. She has been at all them places."

IMPRESSMENT BY WOMEN.-A RICH SCENE

A CORRESPONDENT of the Petersburg Express, writing from Salisbury, North Carolina, on the 18th instant, says that about twelve o'clock of that day a rumor was afloat that the wives of several soldiers now in the war, intended to make a dash on some flour and other necessaries of life belonging to certain gentlemen who the ladies termed "speculators." They alleged that they were entirely out of provisions and unable to give the enormous prices now asked; but were willing to give government prices. The letter adds:

Accordingly about two o'clock they met, some fifty or seventy-five in number, with axes and hatchets, and proceeded to the depot of the North Carolina Central road, to impress some there, but were very politely met by the agent, Mr. with the inquiry: "What on earth was the matter ?" The excited women said they were in search of "flour," which they learned had been stored there by a certain speculator. The agent assured them such was not the case. They still insisted on examining the depot, but after a while desisted and made their way up town to the store of one of the oldest and most respected citizens. They commenced a general attack on his lumber room, in which was stored a large quantity of flour. The old gentleman, seeing their determination to have the flour, compromised the matter by saying if they would desist he would give them ten barrels, which he readily did.

They then went to the store of a large firm (one of them. a Petersburger), to impress his flour. They heard he had been speculating, but were sadly mistaken, he only having seven barrels But he like a good citizen made them present of three barrels, and remarked that any soldier's