406 LOYALTY IN MARSHALL, TEXAS. was always smuggled in one or more of the rebels, disguised in Union uniform, who prowled about as spies. The rebel regiments sent to guard the camp were repeatedly changed. The Union prisoners soon demoralized them; for the guards became completely fascinated with their conversation. This was understood in the camp, and, although conversation was prohibited between the guards and the prisoners, it was carried on constantly and without interruption. The former had sufficient intelligence to comprehend that their prisoners were better educated than themselves, better informed, and vastly their superiors in all matters of knowledge and skill. As they listened to their recital of the causes of the war, the overwhelming advantages of the North, and the inevitable and fast-hastening end of the conflict, the guards were won over to the side of loyalty, and fraternized with those whom they were to control. At Marshall, Tex., where the boys were sent to the hospital for a time, they found an openly avowed sentiment of loyalty. The ladies of the town came to the wards and nursed them, fed them with food from their own tables, and attended personally to their wants, as if they were kindred instead of strangers. The mayor of the city and his son called on them, openly avowing Union sentiments, and denouncing the war and the Confederate government. Had they been in a Chicago hospital, among their own friends, they could not have received kinder or more generous treatment. The boys were held as prisoners for fourteen months, and then the war ended. As soon as the news of the fall of Richmond reached the rebel RELEASED WHEN LEE SURRENDERED. 407 guards, they left their posts without ceremony and went home. The prisoners saw their camp unguarded, and, understanding what it meant, made preparations to follow the example of their guards. With their usual good sense and foresight, they had been preparing to leave for some time, and, as they earned money, had bought supplies of crackers, and sewed them up in their clothing, against a day of need. It was well they did; for, though their jailers promised rations for the long march to Shreveport, and thence, hundreds of miles, to New Orleans, it was days before any were received, and then there was but a meagre supply. Nearly naked, not very well fed, they at last found their way within the Union lines, when each man was furnished transportation to his own command, where he could receive his pay, or be mustered out of service. They found the wreck of the battery at New Orleans, where the men had been doing "fatigue duty," a part of the time at Camp Parapet. The powers that be had ordered them to take muskets and serve as infantry, and, I think, had sent the muskets for that purpose. But the boys indignantly refused them, or to perform any of the duties of infantry. They had enlisted in the artillery. Their decision brought them into bad odor with the resident military authorities. Some petty tyrannies and indignities were attempted towards them by officials, which waked up the Chicago Board of Trade, under whose auspices they were mustered into the service; and that organization took the matter in hand, and summarily redressed their wrongs. At the close of the war the battery was mustered 408 ONLY EIGHT MEN LEFT! out of the service, and our boys came back to Chicago. There were but eight of them left. All the others had died, or been killed in battle, or had dropped out of the service from invalidism; but two or three of them survive to-day. One died in Minnesota, of illness contracted in the service. Another graduated from Harvard, and practises law in Michigan. Another is connected with the silver mines of Colorado. And of the young and manly strength, and power, and beauty, which were our boast when the war commenced, there is scarcely a trace remaining. Our boys are not; and others have succeeded to their places. We have lost them; but some time we shall find them. "For as we hasten through these regions dim, The life of long ago: The sorrow-burdened Past shall fade- CHAPTER XX. THE FIRST GREAT SANITARY FAIR-RAISING MONEY FOR HOSPITAL RELIEF-A GREAT AND MEMORABLE DAY-A MOTLEY PROCESSION THREE MILES LONG. Continued Needs of the Hospitals lead to a great Sanitary Fair — A Woman's Enterprise from the Beginning-Large Preparations-Seventeen Bushels of Fair Circulars and Letters sent at one Mail-Mrs. Hoge obtains Help from Pittsburg and Philadelphia - Potter Palmer from New York- Boston and Connecticut contribute - The whole Northwest ransacked for Attractions-At last, Men catch the Fair Mania Their varied Gifts - Opening Inaugural Procession - Captured rebel Flags borne along-School Children in Carriages and Omnibuses-Convalescent Soldiers from Hospitals - Procession of Farm Wagons, with Vegetables-Procession halts on the Court House Lawn-Firing of thirty-four Guns announces the Opening of the Fair. HE continued need of money for the purchase of comforts and necessaries for the sick and wounded of our army, had suggested to the loyal women of the Northwest many and various devices for the raising of funds. Every city, town, and village had had its fair, festival, party, picnic, excursion, concert, and regular subscription fund, which had netted more or less for the cause of hospital relief, according to the population, and the amount of energy and patriotism awakened. But the need of money for this sacred purpose still continued. Our brave men were still wrestling with the Southern rebellion, which, 410 CONTINUED NEEDS OF THE HOSPITALS. though oft-times checked, was not conquered. The hospitals whose wards were vacated by death, or recovery of their patients, were speedily refilled by new faces which disease had rendered pallid, and new forms shattered by cannon-shot or sabre-stroke. It was necessary to continue to pour down sanitary supplies for the comfort and care of the suffering soldiers, whose well-being, at that time, lay so near the hearts of all loyal men and women. Since the most valuable sanitary supplies could only be obtained with money, the ingenuity of women was taxed to the utmost to raise funds. The expenses of the Northwestern Sanitary Commission had been very heavy through the summer of 1863, and every means of raising money had seemed to be exhausted. At last, Mrs. Hoge and myself proposed a great Northwestern Fair. We had been to the front of the army ourselves, and had beheld the practical working of the Sanitary Commission, with which we were associated. We knew its activity, its methods, its ubiquity, its harmony with military rules and customs, and we knew that it could be relied on with certainty when other means of relief failed. We saw that an immense amount of supplies was necessary for the comfort and healing of the army of brave invalids, and wounded men, that filled our military hospitals, and our hearts sank as we realized the depleted condition of the treasury of the Commission. We were sure that a grand fair, in which the whole Northwest would unite, would replenish the treasury of the Commission, which, from the beginning, had sent to battle-fields and hospitals thirty thousand boxes of sanitary stores, worth, in the aggregate, a |