tically, "Well, I fought like a tiger for that man's land."

The days following were stirring enough. For, amongst other peculiarities, Steadman was never satisfied unless the enemy were stirred up every morning, and everything within eyesight sounded to know what it was.

While thus occupied, Harrison had an excellent opportunity to observe the colored troops. On one occasion Colonel T. J. Morgan, now living at Providence, Rhode Island, took his brigade composed entirely of negroes, deployed them as skirmishers, and, pushing them forward, drove the rebels out of their pits; by bugle call he brought them back with many prisoners. Their skill and courage made the affair a perfect demonstration. General Cruft used to tell a story of them.

A colored soldier one day brought in a white prisoner, and being interrogated, he told the story of the capture. He said:

"I just cum up on him, and brought down my gun arter this like, and he knowed what it meant; he say,

"Say, now, I can't surrender to a nigger. Dad would kill me when I go home; but you go back to de camp, and git a white sojer, and bring him out hyar, and I'll surrender to him.'

"No,' I says, ''scuse me; I'se in a dre'ful hurry; jess come 'long.' And thar he is" (pointing to the prisoner); "I fotched him."

While the enemy was before the city, the very morning Thomas was to have moved out to attack him, a storm of snow and sleet came on. The earth turned to a sheet of ice, and remained so for some days. The suffering of the soldiery was intense; some of them actually died on the picket lines, and a great many were so bitten with frost that they never recovered. It is of this bitter spell that Mr. Richard M. Smock, of Indianapolis, tells his story.

"We were encamped near Nashville, and as all who were there at the time remember, it was one of the coldest winters on record. I remember that during one of the cold nights I was on picket, and I saw a man approaching from the direction of the officers' quarters. I halted him, and when he gave the countersign and advanced, I saw it was General (then Colonel) Harrison. He had a large can filled with hot coffee, and when I asked him what he was doing, he said he was afraid that some of the pickets would freeze to death, and he knew some hot coffee would help the men to keep alive. He was the most welcome visitor I ever met, for I really believe I would have frozen before morning had not the coffee been brought. After leaving me, the General passed on to all the other pickets to cheer them up with the beverage. His act was one of kindness. The men on duty were nearly all from his regiment, and his personal friendship for them induced him to get up out of

his comfortable quarters at dead of night, prepare that coffee and bring it to us."

General Grant in the East did not seem to appreciate the condition. To move artillery and cavalry was simply impossible. Instantly that the weather moderated, however, General Thomas put his army in motion. Harrison was in reserve, and as the battle was a splendid success from the beginning, he was but little engaged. After the fight the reserves were sent in pursuit.

With a view to reaching the Tennessee river before Hood, and cutting his pontoons and otherwise intercepting his retreat, Colonel Harrison was ordered to march to Murfreesboro, and there take trains and push forward with the utmost speed. He entered upon the duty with alacrity. From Murfreesboro southward the Confederates had burned all the wood piles and destroyed the water tanks. The delay thus caused was serious. An idea of the difficulties encountered may be formed from the resorts to which the pursuers were driven. Details of ax-men chopped up rails to feed the engine; at the creeks buckets were used to fill the tanks with water. Huntsville was at last reached. Then to gain the Tennessee river where boats were in waiting to ferry the column over it was necessary to take to the roads, which were often bottomless with mud. The streams. had all to be crossed by wading. At the river the other side was found in possession of the rebels.

The crossing was effected in face of a hostile battery, after which the pursuit was continued to Decatur, and as far down as Courtland, Alabama. The cavalry below the former place succeeded in striking Hood's pontoon bridge and the rear of his army; but the infantry never caught sight of him. Thus furnishing another example of the futility of sending footmen to overtake horsemen.

Upon the recall of the pursuing column Colonel Harrison was ordered to report to General Sherman at Savannah. And while en route to New York he was taken down with scarlet fever. After several weeks of dangerous illness, over the objections of his physicians he took steamer for Savannah.

In the meantime Sherman had proceeded on his way and was up in the Carolinas when Harrison reached Hilton Head. At Pocotaligo the latter was put in command of a brigade with which he soon joined Sherman at Goldsboro. There he resumed command of his old brigade of the 3d Division of the 20th Army Corps. There also he heard of the assassination of President Lincoln. Intelligence of the disclaimer of Sherman's negotiations with Johnston threw the army into yet greater excitement, and before Grant arrived at Goldsboro the truce agreed upon with Johnston having expired, Sherman started to attack him. With that object he made one day's march. Fortunately Grant effected a new arrange

ment with Johnston and the contemplated battle was not fought. The army was then directed upon Washington. At Richmond it was halted for several days and preparations made for a review by General Hancock. Sherman, however, came up and declared the ceremony off. So that, as the corps went through Richmond they marched with arms at a right shoulder shift, without saluting anything but the American flag and the statue of George Washington.

At Washington Colonel Harrison and his command were put in camp near Bladensburg, whence they took part in the grand review which is the final reminiscence of the great rebellion.

Meantime Colonel Harrison received a promotion. The rank of Brigadier-General by brevet was conferred upon him. The commission is signed by Abraham Lincoln and countersigned by E. W. Stanton, Secretary of War. It is dated March 22, 1865, and states that it was given "for ability and manifest energy and gallantry in command of the brigade," and also that he was to rank as such Brevet Brigadier-General from the 23d day of January of the year mentioned. The certificate of discharge shows a muster out of the service of "Benjamin Harrison, Colonel and Brevet Brigadier-General, 70th Regiment of Indiana Infantry Volunteers; that he was enrolled on the 7th day of August, 1862, to serve three years or during the war, and discharged on the