Poised in the azure depths of air, Like one, just brought in being there, And he knew not whether his home to seek In that dazzling world of light, Or glide far down to some snowy peak An eagle's slowly moving wing Lingered between the sun And a boy, whose right arm clasped a maid, And the proud bird's shadow nerved his heart, The roll of the stirring drum came clear, No longer the eagle in eyrie rests, But his straining flight doth keep, As he follows the train o'er the sounding plain, "Come, now for a shot at him. Who's afraid To bring down the eagle?" said one. But the boy on whose right had leaned the maid And would'st take the life we are fighting for, Till one morn he sat on the ridge of the tent, No more, whose right arm clasped a maid, And no more the eagle's shadow played He folded his heavy wings, and slept On the ridge of the sick boy's tent, Do you wonder that soon as the soldier stirred On his shoulder perched the fierce, grim bird, And when, once more, he proudly marched The eagle sat on his shoulder perched, And on their ranks the foemen close, Till their blood and their banners stream In mass confused and mingled flow, Its terrible whistling song of woe, And the hiss of the shells that scream, And the roar of the fierce artillery, As if the Genius of the Free And answer with shout and cheer, Thus from the banks of far Osage, And Vicksburgh's thundering roar- As State by State the foemen yield, The Eighth Wisconsin marches on, By danger undeterred, A correspondent of the Iroqua (Wis.) Times gives the following, among other particulars, relative to the eagle of the Eighth Wisconsin regiment, which the soldiers have named "Old Abe:" "When the regiment is engaged in battle, Old Abe manifests the fiercest delight. At such a time he will always be found in his appropriate place, at the head of company D. To be seen in all his glory, he should be seen when the regiment is enveloped in the smoke of battle. Then the eagle, with spread pinions, jumps up and down on his perch, uttering such wild, fearful screams as an eagle alone can utter. The fiercer, wilder, and louder the storm of battle, the fiercer, wilder, and louder the scream of the eagle. Twice Old Abe has been hit by secession bullets; one shot carried away a third part of his tail-feathers. He is a universal favorite, and has been carried with the regiment through seven States. Thousands flock to see him, and he is fast becoming famous." And one of them bears on his right a gun, And his dream by night is a vision sweet, Where he meets with his first and last retreat, THE BLUE COAT. The following ballad is from the pen of Bishop Burgess, of Maine, and was contributed by him to the book published and sold at the Sanitary Fair in Baltimore, under the sanction of the State Fair Association of the women of Maryland: THE BLUE COAT OF THE SOLDIER. You asked me, little one, why I bowed, The blue great-coat, the sky-blue coat, I knew not, I, what weapon he chose, His country's blue great-coat he wore. Perhaps he was born in a forest hut, Perhaps he had danced on a palace-floor; The blue great-coat, etc. It mattered not much if he drew his line He might have no skill to read or write, Than the blue great-coat, etc. It may be he could plunder and prowl, On the honored coat he bravely wore. He had worn it long, and borne it far; When hardy Butler reined his steed Marched he who yonder blue coat wore. Perhaps it was seen in Burnside's ranks, Or with Kearny and Pope 'mid the steelly storm, Or when right over, as Jackson dashed, Or when far ahead Antietam flashed, He flung to the ground the coat that he wore. Or stood at Gettysburgh, where the graves That garb of honor tells enough, Though I its story guess no more; The heart it covers is made of such stuff, The blue great-coat, etc. He may hang it up when the peace shall come, And so, my child, will you and I, For whose fair home their blood they pour, The blue great-coat, the sky-blue coat, REBEL PRISONERS IN OHIO.-The following account of the treatment of rebel prisoners in the Ohio Penitentiary was given in the Richmond Examiner of March seventeenth, 1864: The experiences of this war have afforded many examples of Yankee cruelty which have produced an impression more or less distinct upon the enlightened portions of the world. But the statement which we proceed to give, takes precedence of all that has ever yet been narrated of the atrocities of the enemy; and it is so remarkable, both on account of its matter and the credit that must naturally attach to its authorship, that we doubt whether the so-called civilized world of this generation has produced anywhere any well-authenticated story of equal horror. The statement we give to our readers is that we have just taken from the lips of Captain Calvin C. Morgan, a brother of the famous General Morgan, who arrived in Richmond under the recent flag of truce, which covered the return of several hundred of our prisoners. Captain Morgan was among those of his brother's expedition who, in last July, were incarcerated in the Penitentiary of Ohio. On entering this infamous abode, Captain Morgan and his companions were stripped in a reception-room and their naked bodies examined there. They were again stripped in the interior of the prison, and washed in tubs by negro convicts; their hair cut close to the scalp, the brutal warden, who was standing by, exhorting the negro barber to "cut off every d- -d lock of their rebel hair." After these ceremonies, the officers were locked up in cells, the dimensions of which were thirty-eight inches in width, six and a half feet in length, and about the same in height. In these narrow abodes our brave soldiers were left to pine, branded as felons, goaded by "convict-drivers," and insulted by speeches which constantly reminded them of the weak and cruel neglect of that government, on whose behalf, after imperilling their lives, they were now suffering a fate worse than death. But even these sufferings were nothing to what was reserved for them in another invention of cruelty without a parallel, unless in the secrets of the infernal. said they had already been taxed to the point of death. The wretch replied: "They did not talk right yet." He wished them to humble themselves to him. He went into the cell of one of them, Major Webber, to taunt him. "Sir," said the officer, "I defy you. You can kill me, but you can add nothing to the sufferings you have already inflicted. Proceed to kill me; it makes not the slightest difference." It appears that after General Morgan's escape, suspicion alighted on the warden, a certain Captain Merion, who, it was thought, might have been corrupted. To alleviate the suspicion, (for which there were really no grounds whatever.) the brute commenced a system of devilish persecution of the unfortunate confederate prisoners who remained in his hands. One part of the system was solitary confinement in dungeons. These dungeons were close cells, a false door being drawn over the grating so as to exclude light and air. The food allowed the occupants of these dark and noisomea ravenous desire for food. places was three ounces of bread and half a pint of water per day. The four walls were bare of every thing but a water-bucket, for the necessities of nature, which was left for days to poison the air the prisoner breathed. He was denied a blanket; deprived of his overcoat, if he had one, and left standing or stretched with four dark, cold walls around him, with not room enough to walk in to keep up the circulation of his blood, stagnated with the cold, and the silent and unutterable horrors of his abode. At the expiration of sixteen days the men were released from the dungeons. Merion said "he would take them out this time alive, but the next time they offended they would be taken out feet foremost." Their appearance was frightful; they could no longer be recognized by their companions. With their bodies swollen and discolored, with their minds bordering on childishness, tottering, some of them talking foolishly, these wretched men seemed to agree but in one thing Confinement in these dungeons was the warden's sentence for the most trivial offences. On one occasion, one of our prisoners was thus immured because he refused to tell Merion which one of his companions had whistled, contrary to the prison rules. But the most terrible visitation of this demon's displeasure occurred not more than six weeks ago. Some knives had been discovered in the prisoner's cells, and Merion accused the occupants of meditating their escape. Seven of them, all officers, and among them Captain Morgan, were taken to the west end of the building and put in the dark cells there. They were not allowed a blanket or overcoat, and the thermometer was below zero. There was no room to pace. Each prisoner had to struggle for life, as the cold benumbed him, by stamping his feet, beating the walls, now catching a few minutes of horrible sleep on the cold floor, and then starting up to continue, in the dark, his wrestle for life. "I had been suffering from heart-disease," says Captain Morgan. "It was terribly aggravated by the cold and horror of the dungeon in which I was placed. I had a wet towel, one end of which I pressed to my side; the other would freeze, and I had to put its frozen folds on my naked skin. I stood this way all night, pressing the frozen towel to my side, and keeping my feet going up and down. I felt I was struggling for my life." Captain Morgan endured this confinement for eighteen hours, and was taken out barely alive. The other prisoners endured it for sixteen days and nights. In this time they were visited at different periods by the physician of the penitentiary-Dr. Loring-who felt their pulses and examined their conditions, to ascertain how long life might hold out under the exacting torture. It was awful, this ceremony of torture, this medical examination of the victims. The tramp of the prisoners' feet up and down, (there was no room to walk,) as they thus worked for life, was incessantly going on. This black tread-mill of the dungeon could be heard all through the cold and dreary hours of the night. Dr. Loring, who was comparatively a humane person, besought Merion to release the unhappy men; "I had known Captain Coles," says Captain Morgan, " as well as my brother. When he came out of his dungeon, I swear to you I did not know him. His face had swollen to two or three times its ordinary size, and he tottered so that I had to catch him from falling. Captain Barton was in an awful state. His face was swollen, and the blood was bursting from the skin. All of them had to be watched, so as to check them in eating, as they had been starved so long." Captain Morgan was so fortunate as to obtain a transfer to Johnson's Island, whence, after being carried to Point Lookout, he was exchanged. He says that when "he got into Beast Butler's hands, he felt as if he had been translated to Paradise"-showing what comparative things misery and happiness are in this world. But he left in those black walls of captivity he had been released from, sixty-five brave men, who are wearing their lives away without even a small whisper of relief from that government for which they are martyrs. Is there any authority in Richmond that will crook a thumb to save these men, who are not only flesh of our flesh, but the defenders of those in this capital, who, not exactly disowning them, undertake the base and cowardly pretence of ignoring their fate? What is the confederate definition of "retaliation"? Captain Morgan says that on his way down the bay, to Fortress Monroe, he met Colonel Streight; that this famous "hostage was fat and rubicund; that he spoke freely of his prison experience in Richmond, and complained only that he had to eat corn-bread. This appeared to be the extent of his sufferings, and the confederate limit of retaliation. Is it necessary to present the contrast further than we have already done, by a relation of facts at once more truthful and more terrible than any argument or declamation could possibly be? COLONEL MOSBY OUTWITTED. Colonel Mosby, the guerrilla chief, has become fa mous, and his dashing exploits are often recorded to our disadvantage; but even he meets with his match occasionally. On Friday, March twenty-fifth, 1865, Captain E. B. Gere, of the Griswold Light Cavalry, was sent out with one hundred and twenty-five men to the neighborhoods of Berryville and Winchester on a scout, and encamped at Millwood, some six or eight miles from the former place. After the men had got their fires built, Sergeant Weatherby, of company B, Corporal Simpson, of company H, and a private, went some two miles from camp to get supper at a farm-house, and, waiting for the long delayed tea, were surprised to find several revolvers suddenly advance into the room, behind each pair of which was either Colonel Mosby, a rebel captain or a lieutenant, all rather determined men, with "shoot in their eyes," who demanded the immediate surrender of the aforesaid Yankees. The aim being wicked, the three Twenty-firsters saw they were "under a cloud," and so quietly gave up the contest. Colonel Mosby was much elated by his good fortune, and required his prisoners to follow him supperless on his rounds to his headquarters at Paris; the private, however, while pretending to get his horse, hid himself in the bay and escaped, Mosby not daring to wait and hunt him up. On the way to Paris, the Colonel amused himself by constantly taunting his prisoners with questions: "Were they with Major Cole when he thrashed him at Upperville ?" "Were they with Major Sullivan, of the First veterans, when his men ran away and left him?" "How did they fancy his gray nag ?-he took that from a Yankee lieutenant." "Didn't the Yanks dread him and his men more than they did the regular rebel cavalry ?" "How did they (the prisoners) like bis style of fighting?" and a hundred such remarks, that indicated the man as being more of a braggart than a hero. He was, in the mean time, engaged in gathering his men with the avowed intention of attacking Captain Gere's force at daylight, and, if possible, of cutting it to pieces. His followers live in the farm-houses of Loudon, Clarke, and Jefferson counties, and are either rebel soldiers or Union citizens, as the case may require. He would ride up to a house, call Joe or Jake, and tell them that he wanted them at such an hour at the usual place; to go and tell Jim or Mose. Almost every farm turned out somebody in answer to his call, proving that these men, with the certified oath of allegiance in their pockets, and with passes allowing them to come in and go out of our lines at will, are not only in sympathy with the enemy, but are themselves perjured rebels. When they arrived at Paris, Colonel Mosby dismounted and stepped into the house where he had his headquarters, leaving his pistols in the holsters. The Lieutenant, with drawn revolver, watched the prisoners while the Captain endeavored to find an orderly to take the horses. Corporal Simpson, who had been marking the road for future use, and had been long looking for it, saw his chance and pretended to tie his horse, but really putting his foot into the stirrup of Mosby's saddle and laying hold of one of the overlooked pistols. The Lieutenant detected the move and fired at him, when Simpson shot him through the heart with the weapon he had secured. The Captain turned round and fired, and Colonel Mosby came to the door to see "what all that row was about," just in time to hear a bullet whiz unpleasantly close to his head, that he fired at him "just for luck" as he and his comrade left, yelling back: "Colonel Mosby, how do you like our style of fighting? We belong to the Twenty-first New York." And away they went, leaving Colonel Mosby dismounted, and outwitted of his best horse, saddle, overcoat, pistols, two Yankee prisoners, and at least one vacancy among his commissioned officers. Corporal Simpson rode twelve miles to the camp, closely followed by the Sergeant, and gave Captain Gere such notice of the enemy's intentions that they thought best not to pitch in at the appointed time. The captured horse is a very fine one, and with the arms, equipments, etc., is still in the possession of Simpson. We believe it is the intention of the regiment to buy them from the Government, and to present them to the "Yankee Corporal who beat Mosby out of his pet nag." Captain Gere returned to camp at Halltown Saturday afternoon, having captured Lieutenant Wysong, of the Seventh Virginia, the successor of Captain Blackford, a noted guerrilla, who was killed by a sergeant of the First New-York. CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN GENERAL BUTLER AND A FEMININE SECESSIONIST. LOCUSTVILLE, ACCOMAC CO., VA., March 10, 1864. General B. F. Butler: SIR: My school has been closed since Christmas, because, as I understood the oath required of us, Í could not conscientiously take it. Having heard since then that one of your officers explains the oath as meaning simply that we consent to the acts of the United States Government, and pledge passive obedience to the same, I take the liberty of addressing this to you to ascertain if you so construe the oath. I cannot understand how a woman can support, protect, and defend the Union," except by speaking or writing in favor of the present war, which I could never do, because my sympathies are with the South. If by those words you understand merely passive submission, I am ready to take the oath, and abide by it sacredly. Very respectfully, MARY S. GRAVES. } HEADQUARTERS EIGHTEENTH ARMY CORPS, DEPARTMENT OF VIRGINIA AND NORTH-CAROLINA, FORTRESS MONROE, March 14, 1864. MY DEAR MADAM: I am truly sorry that any Union officer of mine has attempted to fritter away the effect of the oath of allegiance to the Government of the United States, and to inform you that it means nothing more than passive obedience to the same. That officer is equally mistaken. The oath of allegiance means fealty, pledge of faith to, love, affection, and reverence for the Government, all comprised in the word patriotism, in its highest and truest sense, which every true American feels for his or her Government. You say: "I cannot understand how a woman can support, protect, and defend the Union, except by speaking or writing in favor of the present war, which I could never do, because my sympathies are with the South." That last phrase, madam, shows why you cannot understand "how a woman can support, protect, and defend the Union." Were you loyal at heart, you would at once understand. The Southern women who are rebels understand well "how to support, protect, and defend" the Confederacy, "without either speaking or writing." Some of them act as spies, some smuggle quinine in their underclothes, some smuggle information through the lines in their dresses, some tend sick soldiers for the Confederacy, some get up subscriptions for rebel gunboats. Perhaps it may all be comprised in the phrase: "Where there is a will there is a way." Now, then, you could "support, protect, and defend the Union " by teaching the scholars of your school to love and reverence the Government, to be proud of their country, to glory in its flag, and to be true to its Constitution. But, as you don't understand that yourself, you can't teach it to them, and, therefore, I am glad to learn from your letter that your school has 'Spec, pretty soon, you'll see Uncle Abram's Good-by, hard work, and never any pay- Comin', comin'! Hail, mighty day! I've got a wife, and she's got a baby, SUSPIRIA ENSIS. Mourn no more for our dead, Laid in their rest sereneWith the tears a land hath shed, Their graves shall ever be green. Ever their fair, true glory Fondly shall fame rehearse— Light of legend and story, Flower of marble and verse! (Wilt thou forget, O mother! How thy darlings, day by day, For the giver they gave their breath, But a long lament for others, That a people, haughty and brave, And never a dirge be sung! We may look with woe on the dead, We may smooth their lids, 'tis true, For the veins of a common red, And the mother's milk we drew. But alas! how vainly bleeds The breast that is bared for crime! Who shall dare hymn the deeds That else had been all sublime? Were it alien steel that clashed, They had guarded each inch of sod But the angry valor dashed On the awful shield of God! (Ah! if for some great good On some giant evil hurled The thirty millions had stood 'Gainst the might of a banded world !) But now, to the long, long night A stranger and sadder sight Than ever the sun hath seen. |