is once commenced by an army, it is no easy matter to stop it. At such times human nature breaks down the ordinary trammels which discipline imposes, and the consequences are most demoralizing to the very best constituted army. Soldiers are nothing more than grown-up school-boys. The wild moments of enjoyment passed in the pillage of a place live long in a soldier's memory. Although, perhaps, they did not gain sixpence by it, still they talk of such for years afterwards with pleasure. Such a time forms so marked a contrast with the ordinary routine of existence passed under the tight hand of discipline, that it becomes a remarkable event in life, and is remembered accordingly. I have often watched soldiers, after the capture of a place, wandering in parties of threes or fours through old ranges of buildings, in which the most sanguine even could scarcely hope to find any thing worth having; yet every one of them bore about them that air of enjoyment which is unmistakeable. Watch them approach a closed door; it is too much trouble to try the latch or handle, so Jack kicks it open. They enter; some one turns over a table, out of which tumbles, perhaps, some curious manuscripts. To the soldier they are simply waste paper, as he lights his pipe with them. Another happens to look round and sees his face represented in a mirror, which he at once resents as an insult by shying a footstool at it; whilst Bill, fancying that the old gentleman' in the fine pictureframe upon the wall is making faces at him, rips up the canvas with his bayonet. Some fine statue of Venus is at once adorned with a mustache, and then used as an Aunt Sally.' Cockshots are taken at all remarkable objects, which, whilst occupying their intended positions, seem somehow or another to offend the veteran's eye, which dislikes the in statu quo of life, and studies the picturesque somewhat after the manner that Colonel Jebb recommends to all country gentlemen who are desirous of converting their mansions into defensible posts. The love of destruction is certainly inherent in man, and the more strictly men are prevented from indulging in it, so much the more do they appear to relish it when an opportunity occurs. Such an explanation will alone satisfactorily account for the ruin and destruction of property, which follow so quickly after the capture of any place. Tables and chairs hurled from the windows, clocks smashed upon the pavement, and every thing not breakable so injured as to be valueless henceforth."

In the third place, such a law is desirable in order to remove the present invidious distinction between the navy and the land service. All partial, and invidious legislation does harm, by creating jealousy and ill feeling. It is, therefore, always desirable to harmonize the two arms of service by equalizing, so far as possible, their rights, duties, emoluments, and rewards. Any departure from this basis is in its effects injurious.

We presume no one in the army envies the good fortune of Farragut, Dupont, Porter, and Lee, in receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars of prize money during this war; but they can see no good reason why Grant, Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan, and Meade, should not be equally rewarded; nor can they understand why soldiers who have waded the pestilential swamps of Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and South Carolina, to meet and defeat the rebel armies, are not as much entitled to receive prize money from their captures, as sailors who have served in vessels and boats on the same rivers and coasts. They regard the present distinction as unreasonable, invidious, and unjust. It cannot be said that the navy is not as well paid as the army, nor that their duties are more severe or dangerous, nor that their services are more valuable. And it certainly would be unjust to say that sailors require "a stimulus to exertion," while soldiers need no such incentive.

We will state a few examples of the unjust operations of our present law as to prize money. In the War of 1812, one of our military officers seeing a crippled English merchantman on the coast, took his garrison in some hired boats and captured the vessel, with a most valuable cargo. He not only received no prize money, but was not even reimbursed the expenses of the capture. Again, during the present war, a military officer planned an expedition to cut out a most valuable prize. The naval forces which acted under his guidance, with his assistance, got in prize money the full value of the capture; neither he nor his men could receive a cent of it. An armed transport with troops between New York and Charleston captured a blockade runner with a cargo of cotton, and took her into port, where she was condemned as prize of war; but the captors could receive no part of the prize money. Had they known this at the time, they would very probably have burned her at sea, as the rebel pirates do their captures.

But it has been said, that, however just may be the claim, to allow prize money to the army would cause too heavy an expense to the country at the present time. We answer, if so, why is it allowed to the navy? There certainly is no more reason for giving it in one case than the other. But we do not think that such a law, if it contains proper guards and limitations, would cause any additional expense to the country. On the contrary, we believe that by the prevention of the destruction of public and private property, and of straggling, pillaging, and marauding, it would save to the country and to the nation much more money than would be distributed by the way of prize. Let the amount of prize money which can be distributed to any person of either service, in any one year, be limited to a specified sum, according to rank and command-the surplus to be turned into the public treasury or given to the naval and military pension

funds; let the law provide that the value of all captured property which may be pillaged, or unnecessarily destroyed by the captors, shall be deducted from any prize money to which the destroyers or pillagers may be entitled. We are confident that a law could be formed with such provisions and safeguards as to cause an actual saving to the public treasury, while it would prevent the horrors of pillaging and marauding.

WOMEN IN THE WAR.

I.

MANY and strange are the tales told of the heroism shown by women during the great War of Emancipation. As I write, a young lady in full regimentals is lecturing on her experience of field and frays through the country; and I might say with truth that no editor can turn over a morning's "exchange papers" without encountering authentic anecdotes of some fair and fast Poily or Lucy who, led by the spirit of patriotism, love, or fun, has donned the blue breeches and follows the drum, as well as the example of Boadicea and the Amazon, until discovered by some unlucky accident.

the

"At, certamina accidente

Inter fortes pugnavit,

Bomba vestem sed pandente

Candidas mammas monstravit."

And indeed, when we reflect on what thousands upon thousands of women who have lost every means of support through ravages of the enemy, who have seen their lovers and perhaps every male relative enter the army, or who have been fired by a burning zeal to serve their country, and encouraged by the narratives of those of their own sex who have succeeded in wild and patriotic adventures, it does not seem wonderful that occasionally a vigorous and healthy damsel should have ventured to don the uniform and shoulder a musket. Those who generalize on the impropriety and unladylikeness of such conduct, are unquestionably in the right, according to the practical parlor standard of life; but they know very little of the vast variety of phases which humanity assumes, or of the strange and wonderful moulds into which it is forced by Nature and circumstances. Our Women in the War may be divided into two classes: firstly, the regular soldiers in uniform, most of whom conceal their sex and pass for men; and secondly, that very useful body, the spies and scouts who dress and act according to circumstances, appearing perhaps as a stylish dame surrounded by admirers

in the morning, and then walking over the same ground after midnight as a ragged and dissipated youth, dropping into billiard-rooms and the divers haunts of secesh, and detecting their plots against the Union cause. "The Proteus of 1864 is a woman." One of the many strange incidents of the war during 1863, is told in the following paragraph from the Memphis Argus :

"DEATH OF A CAVALRY SOLDIER WHO PROVES TO BE A WOMAN.

"A short time since a soldier, belonging to a Missouri cavalry regiment, was entered at the Overton Hospital for treatment for fever contracted in camp. Two or three days ago the soldier died, but not before it had been revealed that the supposed young man was a woman. It seems that she entered the army early in the war, and served her time faithfully as a soldier, until mustered out. During all this time she was enabled to retain the secret of her sex. A short time after leaving the service she re-entered it again as a veteran, and had been with the regiment to which she was attached a month or two when sent to the hospital in this city. Her real name, we learn, could not be ascertained, but her experience, as related by herself, was the old story over again. She had followed her lover into the army, and to be near him had willingly braved the dangers of the battle-field and borne the hardships and exposures of campaign life. Her years could not have been more than twenty; though who can estimate those in bitter experience which had been her lot? Poor girl!"

Yet be it remembered, that however it was done, that "poor girl" died serving the great cause of God and Union; and that, whatever the motive may have been which led her to the war, her deeds were purer and nobler and her life better than any of those of the millions of sympathizers with the Rebellion, who crawl around and spit their venom on all that is philanthropic and brave.

The correspondent of the Cincinnati Times, writing in 1863 from Camp Dick Robinson, thus describes a young lady who "tarried among the tents" of the East Tennesseans:

"One of the features of the First Tennessee Regiment is the person of a brave and accomplished young lady of but eighteen summers, and of prepossessing appearance, named Sarah Taylor, of East Tennessee, who is the stepdaughter of Captain Dowden. Miss Taylor is an exile from her home, having joined the fortunes of her stepfather and her wandering companions, accompanying them in their perilous and dreary flight from their homes and estates. Having determined to share with her male friends and relatives the dangers and fatigues of a military campaign, Miss Taylor has donned a neat blue chapeau, beneath which her long hair is compactly yet gracefully arranged, and bears at her side a highly finished regulation sword, with silver mounted pistols in her belt, all of which gives her a very neat appearance.

"She is quite the idol of the Tennessee boys, who look upon her as a second Joan of Arc. And Miss Taylor is indeed full of courage and skilled in many manly accomplishments. Having become an adept in the sword exercise and a sure shot with the pistol, she is determined to aid in the great cause of restoring to their homes her exiled and oppressed countrymen, or, failing in that, to offer her own life in the sacrifice."

"A gentleman," continues the editor of the Times, "who was on the ground on Saturday night the 19th, when the order was issued to the Tennesseans to march to re-enforce Colonel Gerrart, informs us that the wildest excitement prevailed in the whole camp, and that the young lady above alluded to, mounted her horse, and, cap in hand, galloped along the line, like a spirit of flame, cheering on the men. She wore a blue blouse, and was armed with pistols, sword, and rifle. Our inform

ant, who has been at the camp the whole time since the arrival of the Tennesseans, says that Miss Taylor is regarded by the whole corps as a guardian angel who is to lead them to victory. These persecuted men looked upon the darling girl who followed their fortunes through sunshine and shadow with the tenderest feeling of veneration, and each would freely offer his life in her defence.

"There was but little sleep in the camp on Saturday night, so great was the joy of the men at the prospect of mecting the foe; and at a very early hour in the morning they filed away jubilantly, with their Joan of Arc in the van."

A very brave girl was Miss Mary Wise, who served truly for the love of her country, against whose good name there was never a shadow of reproach, and whose final disappearance from the stage of war is thus recorded in the Washington Chronicle, October, 1864 :

THE "BRAVE SOLDIER-GIRL."

To the Editor of the Chronicle:

I beg leave to furnish THE CHRONICLE a further incident in the history of the soldier-girl who received her pay by the order of the President.

Miss Mary Wise found a good friend in, and a home with, Mrs. Captain E. B. Gates, at Lincoln Hospital, where she soon made the acquaintance of Sergeant Forehand, of the Veteran Reserve Corps. This friendship soon ripened into affection, and the result was a marriage scene last evening at the above-named hospital, in which the soldier-girl and the sergeant were the principal actors. In other words, Miss Mary Ellen Wise (formerly James Wise, private of Company I, Thirtyfourth Regiment Indiana Volunteers), and Segreant F. Forehand, of the Veteran Reserve Corps, were made man and wife-Uncle Sam thereby losing a brave soldier, and the sergeant finding a good wife. The ceremonies were performed by the chaplain of Lincoln Hospital, and were witnessed by quite a number of their soldierfriends.

They

Miss Mary has made many friends by her gentle and unassuming manners. start for the New Hampshire home of the bridegroom to-morrow. May the now happy pair live to tell their grandchildren of the many hard-fought battles through which both have passed, and tell over the many amusing camp incidents so familiar to the sergeant and his companion, is the heart-felt wish of their friends.

W. H. M.

The first female recruits in the service of the United States, were, I believe, Miss Mary Hancock and her three friends. Whether any of this party actually went to the war I am not informed, but should be pleased to learn. The circumstances of their enlistment were thus described in the Easton Express, June 22d, 1861:

JOAN OF ARC IN THE WEST.

"At a flag-raising at North Plato, Kane County, Illinois, after the stars and stripes had been duly hoisted, the assembly adjourned to the village church, where some speeches were made by patriotic gentlemen, and an opportunity was offered for young men to come forward and enlist, the company at Plato not being quite full. Not a man went up! This aroused the patriotism as well as anger of the village schoolmistress, who, with many other ladies, was present, and she walked boldly forward to the secretary's desk, and headed the muster-roll with a name rendered illustrious as having been affixed to the Declaration of Independence, with the prenomen Mary. She was followed by another lady, and lo and behold, the Plato company was not long in filling its ranks! The muster-roll, bearing the names of the spirited young vivandiers (sic!), has been sent to headquarters, and the company accepted by the 'powers that be.' Since that day four flag-raisings