and military secretary to General Butler. foot for marching. The old man was and held at his disposal a first lieutenancy somewhat puzzled to know what possible in the army. He lost his life in the expe- arrangement could have been made which dition that left Fort Monroe. June 9, 1861, would allow all of the family to go, but at Bethel, the rebel riflemen stating that the explanation of the boy solved the diffithey several times took deliberate aim at culty. "Father, said he, with a confihim, as he was all the time conspicuous at dential chuckle in the old man's ear, “the the head of the advancing Federal troops, fact is, I've let the farm on shares!" loudly cheering them on to the assault. Father and four sons went with the FourHe was shot in the side. teenth regiment.

Making a Family Matter of It. Something to Cogitate Upon. Before the departure of the Fourteenth The movements of the Mackerel BrigBrooklyn regiment for the seat of war, a ade have engaged to such an extent the man who carried on a blacksmith shop in pen of that eminent historiographer, Mr. connection with two of his own sons, went Kerr, that no additional fact need be to head-quarters and concluded to enlist. stated in speaking of their interest and He said that he could leave the blacksmith importance with reference to the war, in business in the hands of the boys-"he which the brigade played so distinguished could'nt stand it any longer, and go he a part. One commemorative scene is thus must." He was accepted. Next day portrayed:

66

down came the oldest of the boys. The Knowing that the Mackerel Brigade blacksmith business "wasn't very drivin', was making preparation to entrap the and he guessed John would take care of Southern Confederacy at Molasses Juncit." "Well," said the old man, go it." tion, I ascended to the upper gallery of And the oldest son went it. But the day my architectural steed, Pegasus, on Tuesfollowing, John made his appearance. He day, in order that I might not be unduly felt lonesome, and had shut up the shop. hurried on my journey. Taking Accomac The father remonstrated, but the boy on my way to the battle-field,-my boy,— would enlist, and enlist he did. Now the I called upon Colonel Wobert Wobinson, old gentleman had two more sons, who who is superintending preparations for the "worked the farm," near Flushing. The draft there, and was witness to an incident military fever seems to have run in the suitable to be recorded in profane history. family, for no sooner had the father and The draft in Accomac, my boy, is posithe two older brothers enlisted, than the tively to take place on the eleventh of younger sons came in for a like purpose. September; but it is believed that the The father was a man of few words, but enrolment can be finished before the fifhe said that he "would'nt stand that any- teenth, in which case the draft must not how." The blacksmithing business might take place on the twentieth. In fact, the go to the d-1, but the farm must be looked Judge Advocate of Accomac states posiafter. So the boys were sent home. Pres- tively that the conscription will take place ently one of them re-appeared. They had on the first of October; and volunteering concluded, on the whole, that one could is so brisk that no draft may be required. manage the farm, and had tossed up to sec At least, such is the report of those best who should go with the Fourteenth, and acquainted with the more decisive plans he had won the chance. This arrangement of the War Department, which thinks of was finally and definitely agreed to. But joining the temperance society. lo! on the day of departure the last boy The exempts were filing their papers of the family was on hand to join, and on of exemption with Colonel Wobert Wob

He had been urging the men to come forward and sign the roll, and told the women to hurry them up. At this, a woman arose in the meeting and addressed her husband substantially as follows: "Ira, you know that you said before you came

inson, my boy, and among them was one ment.
chap with a swelled eye, a deranged neck-
tie, and a hat that looked as though it
might have been an elephant's foot-pad.
The chap came in with a weary walk, and
says he:

"Being a married man, war has no terrors for me; but I am obliged to exempt myself from military affairs on account of cataract in my eyes."

Colonel Wobert Wobinson looked at him sympathizingly, and says he :

"You might possibly do for a MajorGeneral, my son; it is principally business that characterizes a majority of our present Major-Generals in the field; but fearing that your absence from home might cause a prostration in the liquor business, I will accept your cataract as valid."

The poor chap sighed until he reached the first hiccup, and then says he :

"I wish I could cure this here cataract, which causes my eye to weep even in the absence of woe."

"Do your orbs liquidate so freely?" here to-night, that you would enlist. If says the Colonel, with the air of a family you don't do it, go straight home and take physician. off those breeches, and let me have them, "Yes," said the poor chap, gloomily, and I will go myself!" This brought "they are like two continual mill streams." down the house and brought up Ira, who "Mill streams!" said Colonel Wobinson, put his name down and became a volunmeditatively; "mill streams! Why, then, teer.

you had better dam your eyes."

nah.

I think, my boy, I say I think, that this Hard Work for a Drafting-Colonel in Savankind advice of Colonel Wobert Wobinson must have been misunderstood in some

The scene which ensued on the occasion

way, for an instant departure of severally of the Confederate draft for four hundred piously inclined recruits took place precipitately, and the poor chap chuckled like a fiend.

It is a grate misfortune of your mother tongue, my boy, that words of widely different meaning have precisely the same sound, and in using one you seem to be abusing another.

men in Savannah, Georgia, to complete a requisition for troops, the requisite number not having volunteered, is thus amusingly described by an eye witness:

Fifteen hundred of the business men and mechanics of the city were drawn up in a hollow square, on the parade ground, all in a high state of excitement. The Colonel now took his place in the centre, Ira's Wife and his Breeches. and from the back of a magnificent horse, While Mr. Ely was addressing a patri- in a few well-timed remarks, called for otic meeting in Gosport, N. Y., a little volunteers. He said it was a shame that scene occurred which created much merri- a Georgian should submit to be drafted,

and dishonorable to a citizen of Savannah | imaginable misshape, ribs punched, corns to be forced into the service of his coun- smashed, clothes torn, and canes lcst. try. He appealed to their patriotism, their Every hand held its magical bit of paper, pluck, and their-pelf. He told them of from the begrimed digits of the individual good clothes, good living, and fifty dollars just from a stable or a foundry, to the bounty; and on the strength of these-as filbert-tapering and dainty-gloved extremhe thought-conclusive considerations, in- ity of the dry goods clerk, just from his vited everybody to walk three paces in counter. Young and old, rich and poor, front. Nobody did it. An ugly pause neat and nasty, Americans, Englishmen, ensued, worse than a dead silence between the ticking of a conversation.

Irishmen, Germans, Frenchmen, Italians, Israelites, and Gentiles, all went to make The Colonel thought he might not have up the motley mass. What a pretty lot been heard or understood, and he repeat- of sick and disabled individuals there were, ed his catalogue of persuasions. At this to be sure. Swelled arms, limping legs, point one of the sides of the square opened, spine diseases, corns and bunions, bad eyes, and in marched a company of about forty toothaches, constitutional debility in the stalwart Irishmen, whom their Captain, in bread-basket, eruptive diseases, deafness, a loud and exultant tone, announced as the rheumatism, not well generally-these, and "Mitchell Guards; we volunteer, Colonel, a thousand other complaints, were reprein a body." The Colonel was delighted. sented as variously and heterogeneously as He proposed "three cheers for the Mitchell by any procession of pilgrims that ever Guards," and the crowd indulged not inor- visited the Holy Land. dinately in the pulmonary exercise. The And so the day progressed, nearly ten requisite number did not seem to be forth- hours being consumed in the endeavor to coming, however, and the Colonel made secure a draft. In the afternoon, the abanother little speech, winding up with an sentees were gathered together, and the invitation to the black drummer and fifer efforts renewed, when, strange to say, every to perambulate the quadrangle and play man who found the liability imminent of his Dixie, which they did, but they came as being forced to enlist, protested that he they went-solitary and alone; not the was just on the point of doing so, and ghost of a volunteer being anywhere visi-"willingly" put his name to the roll. The ble in the Ethiopian wake. The Colonel state of things in Savannah, in respect to looked as blank as if he was getting des- volunteering in defence of "outraged Southperate, and a draft seemed inevitable. ern rights," was about on a par with the feeling in other cities of the South.

As a dernier resort the Colonel directed all who had excuses to advance to the centre, and submit them for examination. Those who have ever seen a crowd run away from a falling building at a fire, or toward a dog-fight, or a street show, can 1 form some idea of the tempestuous nature of the wave that swept toward the little table in the centre of the square around which were gathered the four grave gentlemen who were to examine the docu

ments.

It was a scene which, as an uninterested outsider, one could only hold his sides and laugh at. Hats were crushed into every

Settling an Irish Volunteer Case. A buxom Irish woman came one day to the room of the Supervisors' Volunteering Committee, New York, with three Emerald lads in tow, about six, eight and ten years of age respectively. She pushed rather brusquely up to the table where sat Mr. Chairman Blunt, with all the qualities of lawyer, judge and jury blended harmoniously into one, and said :—

"Is Misther Bloont within? Come along up here, ye childers," turning to her trio.

"Yes, I am the man," says the jury, will! And do ye think I will have them judge and counsellor. in the Orfen Asylum, and their father isn't

66

yees.'

Wal, I've fetched the three boys for dead yit, and I am a living soul, their own

him in the nasty army, where I suppose The Supervisor directed one of his clerks he is shot by this time? Yes; he's left to refer to the books for that name. It me and left me childers. As ye took him, was soon found, with the fact also that Mr. so may ye take me boys, and support them, Blunt had, at Patrick's request, deposited too He's the father of me childers, and the money in the savings bank to the credit he has left them and their mither, and of his wife Margaret. Here, then, was a without a cint to feed them with, and ye-discovery. Says Mr. B. to Margaret: ye-ye did it!" Patrick, you say, left you no money?" "No, sur, and the more shame to him for he was a good man, Patrick."

"Oh! be calm, my good woman," says Mr. Blunt; "let us look into this matter. Your husband enlisted, did he?"

"Yees, sur."

"Well, I do not enlist any one; I only pay the bounty. Did he get his bounty money?"

"Yees, sur; he did—three hundred dollars; but niver a divil of a cint did he give to me. Ye had no business to give him the money. Now ye've got him, take the childers wid ye."

"Well, if you insist upon it, I'll take your children and put them in excellent quarters."

66

"What would you do with the three hundred dollars, if you had it?"

;

"Well, my good woman, the money is all safe in the bank and belongs to you. "And what will ye did with them?" I placed it there for you at Patrick's re"Why, put them in the Orphan Asy-quest. It shows he is a good man, and you lum." see to it that you make him a good wife "The Orfen Asylum! The divil ye while he is away."

The woman was overwhelmed with pected her sex. The Sergeant did not beastonishment as well as gratitude at this tray the confidence reposed in him by the piece of unexpected good luck, and poured girl, until she had time to get out of the out her thanks upon him whom she was a way. One of the lieutenants of the Third, few minutes before anathematizing, and in who conversed with this recruit, expressed such a demonstrative manner as the native his doubts as to the young man being old Irish alone can evince. The tables were enough or tall enough for such service. A fairly turned, and no father was wanted measurement, however, showed that he for the "childers."

Girl-Recruit for the Cavalry.

was over five feet high, and though he claimed to be eighteen years of age, the lieutenant protested that he could not be over sixteen.

Fate of a Coward.

In

A dashing young woman in male attire visited the city of Rochester, New York, and sought admission to the army as a volunteer. She was dressed in dark clothes The following is one among the many and wore a soft hat with a gilt cord around curious cases resulting from the draft. it, and had the general air of a soldier. the month of July, 1863, a man in AmesShe went to the head-quarters of the Third bury, Massachusetts, was drafted, and on Cavalry, in the Arcade, and there made the 27th of that month he presented a her application to Sergeant White, of Com- claim for exemption as the only son of an pany H, to be enlisted as a soldier. She aged and dependent mother. On this, an stated to the officer that she had served investigation took place, which proved eighteen months in the infantry, and had that the woman he called his mother was been wounded in one of her limbs, was only one who had adopted him, and the put into hospital, and then discharged. claim was not allowed. He then suggestSergeant White thought she was rather light for the service, but said she might perhaps go in as bugler. She replied that it was just what she would like, and to show her capacity she whistled one or two calls.

The Sergeant, not at all suspecting that he was dealing with a female, familiarly put his hands upon her chest and arms, and remarked that she was rather queerly made. Finally he started with her for the office of the surgeon, to be examined, she having signed her name as Johnson,

on the roll. Just before reaching the office of the surgeon, the recruit said to the Sergeant that she could not be examined, and if she went in it must be without that. The Sergeant replied that the law was im- ed that perhaps his teeth might exempt perative. She then disclosed her sex as a him; but an examination caused that al-o reason why she craved exemption from the to he dismissed. The next day or the customary examination. This ended the day after he went to Newburyport and matter so far as Sergeant White was con- had eight teeth extracted, and in four or cerned. He introduced the recruit to a five days afterward he called at the office number of officers, and none of them sus- for exemption, and was duly exempted for