my eyes, and I have to weep. But, mother, if this is so hard for me, what must it be for you? Don't take it too much to heart, for remember that you have me left, and I will do my best to help you. I shall send you all my money hereafter, for I do not really need money here." force, and subsisting on quarter rations. Yet not one word of complaint ever came from the patriot boy, not one word of regret, only an earnest desire to remain in the service till the end of the war. At last there came a letter from the surgeon. This promise he fulfilled to the letter. Al- During the siege of Knoxville, Charlie had been ways cheerful, he was a great favorite with the wounded for the first time. A chance shot, that officers and men, for whom he never did a favor passed through the window of the house in which but they would compel him to receive some small he was, struck him on the shoulder, and entered compensation in return. These small gains he the lung. He has been in a very dangerous carefully husbanded, and increased them by ped-condition," wrote the surgeon, "but he is now dling papers and periodicals, making enough for fast recovering. He is a universal pet, and is his little extra expenses, and invariably, on ev- well cared for in the officers' quarters." The next ery pay-day, he sent his money to his widowed tidings were more joyful. The regiment were on mother. None of the vices of the camp clung their way to Detroit, on a thirty days' furlough, to him, and amid the profane, and drunken, and would remain to recruit. Now the telegraph and vulgar, he moved, without assoiling the notified those interested that they were in Louiswhiteness of his young soul. His teacher and ville - then in Indianapolis- in Michigan City Captain guarded him like a father; he shared his bed and board with Charlie, and the two loved one another with an affection so unusual that it was everywhere the subject of comment. -- 66 - at last in Detroit. With a happy heart the good mother telegraphed to have her boy sent to Chicago as soon as possible; and then she watched the arriBy and by we hear of the fearless little fellow, val of the trains. "He will be here to-nightsmall beyond his years, on the battle-field with he will be here to-morrow," she said; and evthe surgeon, where the grape and canister were ery summons to the door she was sure was her falling like hail around them, pressing forward to Charlie. Everything was in readiness for the the front, during an engagement, with the hospi- darling his room his clothes the suppertal flag in his hand, to aid in the care of the table set with the luxuries he loved - and there wounded. Only a peremptory order from a su-sat mother, sister, and brother, waiting for him. perior officer was able to turn him back to the A knock at the door - all start all rush-'tis rear; and there, when the wounded were brought Charlie! No, only a telegram. God help the poor in, he worked all night and the next day, carry-broken hearts, as they read it – The regiment ing water, and bandages, and lint, and lighting up has arrived, but Charlie is dead!" And this the sorrowfulness of the hour by his boyish but was all. unfailing kindness. Never was he more serviceable than during a battle. At the terrible battle of James' Island, in an assault on the fort, his beloved Captain, always foremost in the fight, had climbed to the parapet of the fort, when a shot struck him, and he fell backward, and was seen no more. Now was Charlie indeed bereaved -- his teacher, captain, friend, father, lover, dead on the battle-field, and even the poor satisfaction denied his friends of burying his remains. His letters, after this event, are one long wail of sorrow he could not be comforted; and yet, always thoughtful for others, he writes: "O, how I pity his poor mother!" A SHELL ON BOARD SHIP. A shell from a rifled cannon must be a very nice visitor to "drop in" to a small party, if we may judge from the exploits of one which struck the United State? steamer Massachusetts, off Ship Island, and which a writer who was on board describes as follows: "During the action I think we hit her, the Florida, four times, and I know she hit us once with a sixty-eight pound rifle shell (that is the way we got the exact size of her rifled gun). The shell entered on our starboard quarter, just above the iron part of the hull; it came through the side angling aft (as we were a little abaft her beam Months passed, and the Eighth Michigan was when it struck us), and took the deck in the pasordered to Vicksburg, to reenforce Grant, who sage way between two state-rooms, and comhad beleaguered that doomed city. Battle after pletely cut off eighteen of the deck planks, and battle ensued-nineteen of them-in all of then struck a beam, which canted it up a little, so which Charlie more or less participated, often es- that it took the steam-heating pipes under our caping death as by a miracle. Something of the dining-table, cutting off five of them, and tearing fierce life led by this regiment may be inferred our dining-table all to pieces- then went through from the fact that one thousand six hundred and the state-room, bulkhead, and ceiling of the ship fifty-three men have enlisted in it since it first on the opposite side, and struck one of the cutside took the field; of these, only four hundred sur-timbers, and broke every plank abreast of it short vive to-day, all but eight of whom have just re-off, from the spar to the gun deck: it then fell enlisted. Through all battles, all marches, all down on to the cabin deck and exploded, knockreconnoissances, all campaigns, Charlie kept with ing four state-rooms into one, breaking all the the regiment, crossing the mountains with them to Knoxville, in Burnside's corps, on rations of three ears of corn per day, and then for weeks shut up in that city, besieged by Longstreet's glass and crockery ware, shattering the cabin very badly, breaking up the furniture, and setting fire to the ship; but we had three streams of water upon the fire at very short: otice, and put it out before it did any damage - keeping up our chase as though nothing had happened."" A letter from the Surgeon of the Massachusetts, Dr. John H. Mackie, gives information that he was the only person wounded by this destructive visitor. He was struck by a splinter on the shin. A COLORED HERO. During the thickest of the fight at Belmont, the body servant of General McClernand, a mulatto named William Stains, exhibited conspicuous courage. He was close by the General during the whole engagement, cheering the soldiers, and swearing that he would shoot the first man that showed the white feather. Many of the soldiers laughed heartily at the fighting negro, while the bullets flew about like hail. In the course of the fight a captain of one of the companies was struck by a spent ball, which disabled him from walking. The mulatto boy, who was mounted, rode up to him, and shouted out, "Captain, if you can fight any longer for the old Stars and Stripes, take my horse and lead your men." He then dismounted and helped the wounded officer into his saddle, and as he was walking away, a rebel dragoon rushed forward at the officer to take him prisoner. The negro drew his revolver, and put a ball through the rebel's head, scattering his brains over the horse's neck. PASSING THE BATTERIES. - The world knows how Vicksburg was taken. After four months of ineffectual but constant labor to flank it on the north, and to cut a canal across the bend so as to divert the river from its course, Grant suddenly projected a new and brilliant line of strategy, which was crowned with success. That was to march his army down past the stronghold, on the Louisiana shore, run six or eight boats by the batteries and take them down twenty-five miles to Bruinsburg, just below Jeff Davis' Plantation, and act as ferry-boats in taking the army across. Then his problem was to march north, cut the roads between Vicksburg and Jackson, and establish a base of supplies on the Yazoo River, and forcing the army of Pemberton back into the "Gibraltar of the South," surround it, and either storm or starve it into surrender. This was the plan that succeeded. But the most hazardous part of this enterprise was to run the batteries. Volunteers, however, for this dangerous service, were numerous, and among others three army correspondents of leading New York papers were on board - Mr. Richardson of the Tribune, Mr. Browne of the Herald, and Mr. Colburn of the World. These knights-errant of the quill have each given to the world their story. But the narrative of Mr. Colburn, especially what relates to the passing of the batteries, is not surpassed by either of the others in thrilling interest. "It was ten o'clock on a beautiful moonlight night," says Mr. C., even for those latitudes, when we cast loose at Milliken's Bend, and our little tug snorted down the river accompanied by the transport A. 1). Hine. "Our adieus said, we quietly chatted, and finished a solitary boʻtle of dry Catawba which some good friends had sent on board for our comfort. We had on board, as a guard, fifteen sharpshooters from the Forty-seventh Ohio, under Captain Ward, Surgeon Davidson, the tug's crew of eight, for persons on their way to join their regiments, and our party of three, all volunteers. "I should here mention, as illustrating the temper of that army, that when fourteen volunteers were called for, the whole regiment stepped forward. Company A was selected, and still there was a squabble to go. Fourteen were then marked off; a fifteenth begged permission of the Colonel, and one actually paid a premium of five dollars to his comrade for the privilege of going on this hazardous service. The barges were covered with tiers of hay in order to protect the tug, but the hay was deemed almost unnecessary, and so put on quite loosely, and the ends of the boat were quite exposed. 64 At midnight we came in sight of Vicksburg At half past twelve, as we were steaming across the upper side of the point, the rebel pickets on the Louisiana shore began to fire upon us; their shots, however, did no damage. "At quarter before one a rocket shot up from the upper batteries. There was no need of such a warning, for the boats might be seen almost as clearly as by sunlight, and the loud puff of our exhaust pipe gave ample warning when we were three miles distant. "At five minutes past one the first shot was fired, and struck so near as to leave us in doubt whether the barges were hit. A lull of a few minutes, then another, closely followed by a round. It kept up in this way as we were rounding the bend, the shots all seeming to come very near to us, but few striking, as we could perceive by the momentary throb of the hull when struck. "With the exception of Captain Ward, the pilots, engineers, and firemen, the rest of us were posted along the barges, on the alert for an attempt at boarding. By reference to a map of the locality, it will be seen that the river forms a kind of loop in front of Vicksburg; so that we had to run a portion of the distance by, and then turn under fire, and run the whole line back again. In this way we were exposed to a fire from the starboard side, then from the bow, and, when fairly in front of the batteries, from all three directions to a concentrated fire. "At first there were efforts to peer from behind the rampart of hay bales and duck on perceiving the flash of the rebel guns; but soon the shots were so rapid, and from points so widely apart, that that exciting amusement was dropped. The screaming of the shells as they went over us, the splashing and spray, were for a time subjects of jesting and imitation, when a shell burst three feet over our heads with a stunning report. "Twe ity minutes (long minutes these) under fire, and nobody hurt! "The barges still floating, and the little propeller "We leaped into the muddy flood and buf making eight miles an hour. We had already feted the waves for some minutes with a sense passed the upper batteries, and were congratu- of relief from the insupportable heat. Junius lating ourselves on our good luck, the guns pour- followed, and together we commenced swimming ing broadsides at us with amazing noise, as we for the Louisiana shore, supposing that our pickwere but four hundred yards from the guns, and ets occupied it. it seemed in the clear air as if we were right in front of the muzzles. Several shots struck the barges very heavily; still there was no stoppage. It must have been about a quarter before two, when all the roar of the guns was drowned in one terrific report, as if a magazine had burst under us. "My first thought was that the powder had been stowed on the barges, and had ignited; but, on clambering up among smoke and flames, I could sce indeed nothing like a tug. She had exploded, and the white hot cinders were thrown up in a | spouting shower, while steam and smoke enveloped the barges like a pall. "Almost at the same minute the batteries commenced a vengeful, and, as it seemed to me, a savage fire upon us, faster and faster. The shells burst all round and above us for a few moments with a stunning and blinding effect. The coals had set fire to the hay bales in several places; the bursting shells had aided in the work. In vain did we trample upon them, and throw them overboard, burning our hands, feet, and clothing in the effort. No buckets were to be found. They had been blown away. On looking down between the barges, there hung the fragments of the tug by the tow ropes. The little craft, being nearly all boiler, had been shattered to atoms, as we learned afterwards, by a ten-inch shell. "The rebels then set up a hideous yell from the bluffs, as if in mockery at our crippled condition. The batteries kept on firing, the blazing hay lighting up the river. We were then slowly drifting with the current past the front of the city. Our disaster happened right abreast of the courthouse, when we had passed more than half the batteries, and under the fire of them all. "We had been in the water for Laif an hour perhaps, when the sound of the stroke of oars reached us, and presently a yawl pulled round the barges. Our first emotions were pleasant enough, bit they were all destroyed when we saw the gray clothing of the batmen. They scooped us in by the time we had drifted two miles below the city, and witn some roughness impressed upon us the fact that we were prisoners. Dripping and shiveri 1g, we were marched up to the city and taken before the Provost Marshal and registered.” Johnsbury, a drummer boy in company D, Third WILLIE JOHNSON, thirteen years old, of St. Vermont regiment, received a medal for his he roic conduct in the seven days' fight before Rich. mond. On the retreat, when strong men threw way their guns, knapsacks, and blankets, that fellow kept his drum, and brought it safely to they might have less weight to carry, this little Harrison's Landing, where he had the honor of drummer who brought his drum from the field. drumming for division parade, being the only When these facts were reported to the War Department by the division commander, Willie was presented with the star medal of honor by Secre tary Stanton in person. 66 STORY OF THE DRAFT. - The enrolling officer of - district, was very active and thorough in the performance of his duties. One day he went to the house of a countryman, and finding none of the nale members at home, he made inquiry of an old woman about the name and age of the "males" of the family. After naming several, the old lady stopped. "Is there any more?" asked the officer. No," replied the woman, none except Billy Bray." Billy Bray? Where is he?" "ile was at the barn a moment ago," said the old lady. Out went the officer, but he could not find the man. Coming back, the worthy officer questioned the old lady as to the age of Billy, and went away, after enrolling his "After a few moments of hasty and rather in-name among those to be drafted. The time of formal consultation, it was deemed best to quit the barges, as the flames were crowding us very closely. Bales of hay were then tumbled off into the river, and the wounded placed upon them. "As soon as we could clearly see through the blinding smoke, we found Mr. Browne standing bareheaded on the topmost bale, as if he were a defiant target for the rebel gunners. Captain Ward had been blown forward thirty feet from the tug into the river, and two of his men were engaged in fishing him up. The wounded and scalded men were crying for help, answered only by an occasional shell or malicious cheer. "The heat now became intense. Mr. Browne and myself remained till all were off, and then, with but one bale for the two, stripped for the plunge. Just as we were ready, a solid shot whistled between us, and ploughed into the water under Mr. Richardson's feet, overturning him from his bale, and producing a fountain of spray where he had sunk. Our eyes were gladdened at his return to the surface unhurt. drafting came, and among those on whom the draft fell was Billy Bray. No one knew him. Where did he live? The officer who enrolled him was called upon to produce the conscript: and lo and behold, Billy Bray was a jackass! and stands now on the list of drafted men as forming one of the quota of Maryland. |