Chickens" - Battle of Pea Ridge-As good as Dead the last half of the Battle

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CHAPTER XXXV.

SOLDIERS' LETTERS FROM THE FRONT DURING THE SECOND

YEAR OF THE WAR-HOW A SOLDIER FEELS IN BATTLE

-SWAMPS OF THE CHICKAHOMINY — A BABY ON THE BATTLE-FIELD-"OLD ROSY."

Letter from a Nurse on a Hospital Boat - After the Battle of Shiloh - Battle Scenes “Marching all Day, and fighting all Night" Fearful Condition of the Sick and Wounded - Intimidating Effect of the howling Shells-Burning commissary Stores -"It is all over! I am to be killed!"— Hard Lot of the Sick-Wading through the villanous Mud of Virginia - General Howard wounded "Hereafter let's buy our Gloves together!" - Letters from Home -"A Means of Grace" — Negro Friendliness-Splendid Foraging - Surprised at the good-looking Yankees - Life in a Rebel Prison - The Counterpart of Jeffreys and Haynau - Putrid Mule-Beef Soup swarming with Bugs and Maggots-" A Baby on the BattleField "The Army of the Cumberland "Old Rosy" Nationalities represented in the Army-"Schpike dem new Guns! No, Sheneral, it vould schpoil dem!"

650

CHAPTER XXXVI.

SOLDIERS' LETTERS FROM THE FRONT DURING THE THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR-HOUSEKEEPING IN CAMP-RIDING "CRITTER-BACK"-DARING DEEDS - REBEL PICKETS.

Battle of Chickamauga — Remarkable Presentiment - Housekeeping in
Camp― Ignorance of the Enemy — “The walking Regiments"
"Cannon Soldiers".
- Wept over his lifeless Body - Ignorance of
secesh Soldiers-Yet they fight bravely - Have plenty of Hay, but
no Impunity-Greater Loss by Sickness than on Fields of Battle
- Evidence that the Enemy are near- 66 Riding Critter-back
After the Battle of the Wilderness -"Any Commander but Grant
would have retreated" Recklessness of the Cavalry - Daring of
the Soldiers "Divide is the word, or you are a dead Johnny!" -
Ten thousand Men sing Rally round the Flag. Boys!"
vast, exultant Roar!"— Talking with rebel Pickets.

"One

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SOLDIERS' LETTERS FROM THE FRONT DURING THE LAST YEAR OF THE WAR-LIFE IN REBEL PRISONS - DREADFUL SCENES - HORRORS OF ANDERSONVILLE-LAST DAYS OF THE GREAT REBELLION-PEACE.

66

A Hospital Picnic-"The Stump Squad"-Strawberries for the Army Virginia a vast Blackberry Field” — “Old Hundred" in Camp - Hunting Bloodhounds - Letter from a Hospital Nurse in Annapolis-Thirty thousand Prisoners cooped up at Andersonville, in ten Acres - Their Hands and Feet rot off-Swarming with Vermin - Bones protrude through the Flesh-The Men become Idiots and Lunatics-Different Treatment of Southern Prisoners by the North -"The Yankees take good Care of us"- Last Days of Sherman's "March to the Sea"-The Army reaches the Atlantic Coast — Columbia, S. C., is burned-Destitution of the South-"At the Mercy of a General more powerful than Grant or Sherman, General Starvation"

66

682

6

THE BEGINNING OF THE WAR-THE SPIRIT OF 1861-FIRST CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS-UPRISING OF THE NORTH-EXCITING SCENES AND INCIDENTS.

In Boston with my dying Father - His early History-Surrender of Fort Sumter-Uprising of the North-President Lincoln's Call for Seventyfive Thousand Troops-Their Rendezvous in Faneuil Hall - Departure of the Masachusetts Sixth for Washington-Scenes at the Boston and Albany Station - Interview with Mr. Garrison and Wendell PhillipsThe Massachusetts Sixth attacked in Baltimore-War Scenes in Auburn, N. Y.-My Return to Chicago - Impressive Scenes in the Republican Wigwam - Cairo, Ill., a strategic Point- North and South hasten to 'seize it- Chicago Troops arrive first and take PossessionIncreased Preparations for War - Washington carefully guardedDefeat at Bull Run-The North nerved to Power and Purpose The South exultant in Self-Confidence - Lines now sharply drawn between loyal and disloyal States.

HE opening of the War of the Rebellion found me in Boston, my native city. My own home had been in Chicago for years, but my aged father was thought to be dying, and the stern speech of the telegram had summoned me to his bedside. It was a time of The daily papers

The

extreme and unconcealed anxiety. teemed with the dreary records of secession. Southern press blazed with hatred of the North, and with fierce contempt for her patience and her avowed desire for peace. Northern men and women were driven from Southern homes, leaving behind all their possessions, and thankful to escape with life.

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"MY GOD! NOW LET ME DIE!"

Every one was asking his neighbor, "What will be the end?" but there was no answer, for over the whole North the paralysis of death seemed to have settled.

The day after my arrival, came the news that Fort Sumter was attacked, which increased the feverish anxiety. The threats of its bombardment had been discredited, for the North believed the South to be as deeply rooted in attachment to the Union as it knew itself to be. All its high-sounding talk of war was obstinately regarded as empty gasconade, and its military preparations, as the idle bluster of angry disappointment. When, therefore, the telegraph, which had registered for the astounded nation the hourly progress of the bombardment, announced the lowering of the stars and stripes, and the surrender of the beleaguered garrison, the news fell on the land like a thunderbolt.

During those never-to-be-forgotten days of Sumter's bombardment, I vibrated between my father's sick-room and the bulletin-board. With his anxious eyes asking speechless questions, he challenged every one who entered his apartment. When the speedy end came, and he was told that "Sumter had fallen!" he turned his face to the wall with an exceedingly bitter cry: "My God! now let me die, for I cannot survive the ruin of my country!" His illness was occasioned by mental suffering, and not by bodily ailment. The pending calamities of the nation, and the threatened disruption of the Union, had smitten him with sore anguish of heart. And mistaking the patience of the North, which hoped to avoid a collision with the excited South, as acquiescence in its rebellion, he believed the Republic rent