the neighborhood of Springfield, he hurried thither to en counter them. He knew their force was quadruple his own, but considering a retreat more hazardous than a battle, he attacked them in camp at daybreak, on Wilson's creek. It was a bloody battle. "Of the 5,000 national troops, 1,300 were killed, wounded, or taken prisoners, while of the Confederates, who were 10,000 strong, 1,200 were killed or wounded." The national forces fell back on Springfield and Rolla, where they were not pursued. General Lyon's movement, though it resulted in defeat, enabled the Union men in Missouri to organize a government, and array the power of the State on the national side. In that battle General Lyon fell. Bringing all his men to the front for a final effort, his horse was killed, and he was wounded in the head and leg, but mounting another horse, he dashed to the front to rally his wavering line, and was shot through the breast. "In the confusion of the retreat, his remains were left behind. Mrs. Phelps, wife of Colonel John S. Phelps, member of Congress for the district, a Unionist, caused the body to be incased in a coffin hermetically sealed, and then concealed it under some straw in an old cellar. Fearing it would be disturbed by the rebel soldiers, she had it taken out and buried in the night, and delivered to his friends when they arrived. These remains were brought to Connecticut to be interred in his native town, and all the way thither they were met by tearful multitudes strewing the choicest flowers on the brave man's coffin. At St. Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, New York and Hartford, the body lay in state." At Eastford, his home, it was estimated that his funeral was attended by 10,000 people. The services were held in the Congregational church, ex-Governor Cleveland presiding. Judge Carpenter delivered an historical address, and Hon. Galusha A. Grow of Pennsylvania, (both natives of Eastford,) an oration. Remarks were also made by Governor Buckingham, Governor Sprague, Senator Fos

ter, Major General Casey, Major Deming of Hartford, and others, and his remains were reverently committed to the earth, with military honors. General Lyon bequeathed $30,000, almost his entire property, to the government, to aid in the preservation of the Union, and to the State his sword. Another of the fallen heroes of Connecticut was thus honored by the Governor. It was Major General Sedgwick of the regular army, of an old and illustrious family, which had marched under the banner of Oliver Cromwell and acquired distinction there, and also in our Revolutionary war, where his father was a major and one of the officers grouped about Washington at Valley Forge. He was graduated at West Point, the second in his class, and among his classmates were General Joseph Hooker and the Confederate Generals Braxton Bragg and Jubal A. Early. He distinguished himself in the Mexican war, had an important part in the Peninsular campaign, and was in command of the Sixth Army Corps which carried Mary's Heights so magnificently in the Chancellorsville campaign, and reached the field of Gettysburg on the second day of the battle, after one of the most extraordinary forced marches on record, and contributed to the result by his steady courage and the confidence which his presence among troops always inspired. He was twice wounded in leading a charge at Antietam, and while placing his artillery in position at Spottsylvania courthouse was shot in the head by a sharpshooter, and instantly killed. "As a soldier, he was a man of few words, but of great deeds. Quiet, unobtrusive, unambitious, he excited little envy, while all were ready to do homage to his virtues and his genius. Twice he was offered the command of the Army of the Potomac, and twice he refused it." With such a nature, and a peculiar affection for his friends, and home, and ancestral acres, we are not surprised to hear him say, as he surveys the landscape: "Is there another spot on earth so beautiful

as Cornwall Hollow!" Thither he was tenderly borne, escorted by Governor Buckingham, the State delegation in Congress, and many others, there to meet thousands from . the surrounding towns. The Legislature proposed a public funeral, but this not being in accord with the character of the man or the feelings of his friends, an appropriate scrmon was preached in the village church by the pastor. His body was enshrouded in the American flag. "No military salute was fired above his grave, but as the body was lowered to its last resting place, a peal of thunder, like the roar of distant artillery, reverberated along the heavens, sounding the requiem. And the tired soldier rested."

Governor Buckingham's appreciation of whatever was noble and faithful to duty in any soldier of any rank, and his personal sympathy with him and his friends in both his successes and in his defeats, is noticeable in the reception he gave to his returning regiment. Aware of the danger to which he was sending them, and knowing that it must be a deadly strife, with the anxiety of a parent for his own sons, he gave them his best counsel, resolved to sustain them by all that his official position could do for them, sent them special relief when they needed it, secured their promotion as they deserved it, pitied their premature fall, and comforted their friends in having given them up to so necessary and noble a duty. Of this, his reception of two of his regiments at Hartford, after their term of enlistment had expired and they had re-enlisted for the war, will furnish an illustration. He had commissioned their officers and given them his counsel, and put their flags into their hands, and sent them off with his benediction and the prayers of neighbors and kindred. And as they come

home with diminished ranks, and the laurel is put upon so many heads, and they meet so many wearing mourning for those who went out with them and have not returned, the Governor voices the feelings of the crowd in both their joy

and grief. The Hartford Press thus speaks of one of these receptions: "The veterans were greeted all along the line of march by crowds of people with cheers, hurrahs, and waving handkerchiefs. When the line arrived in front of the State House it halted, and the veterans were received by the Governor, State officers and both Houses of the Legislature. Governor Buckingham made a brief, but most eloquent and cordial address of welcome. He said in substance :

"General Harland, officers and men of the Eighth and Eleventh Regiment:

"In behalf of the Legislature and the people of Connecticut, I greet you with a hearty welcome. Not as prodigals returning home, but as having performed a most honorable and hazardous duty.

"When the rebel States insulted our nation's flag, turned their guns upon the nation's forts, and attacked the government, you stepped out bravely to protect them. I have watched you with friendly interest through all your honorable career. I remember when you went out with the gallant Burnside, encountered perils at Hatteras, and won a victory at Roanoke. I remember you at Newbern, at Fort Macon and at South Mountain.

“And God grant that we shall never forget that fatal struggle at Antietam, where your first colonel, the noble Kingsbury, fell; where the intrepid Griswold led his company across that bloody stream, and gave up his life gladly; where Lieutenant Wait would not go back when wounded, but cheered on his men till a fatal bullet laid him low in death. There sixty-nine of your number learned how sweet it is to die for one's country.'

"We owe you a debt of gratitude we can never repay. We would have your names inscribed on the granite and marble. They will be written in the history of your country. Your banners came back tattered and torn, but covered with honor and inscribed with such glorious names as Roanoke and Antietam, where you fought in defense of the principles of liberty.

"Your re-enlistment is a pledge that you first enlisted from motives of patriotism, and that you, too, stand ready to give your lives, if need be, in defense of your country. So long as our hearts continue to beat, they shall beat in gratitude to the members of the Eighth and Eleventh Regiments.”

In this spirit, and with such uncalculating devotion to the safety of the Republic, did Connecticut and her Governor gird themselves anew for the most critical and sanguinary part of the war.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE FIRST NATIONAL THANKSGIVING.

It was Brightened by News from Chattanooga-Relative Condition of the Northern and Southern Armies at this Time-President Lincoln at the Gettysburg Cemetery-Popular Feeling—The Battle Hymn of the Reformation.

After the fall of Vicksburg and the battle of Gettysburg, which took place in July of 1863, no very important military movements were made by the Army of the Potomac, or by General Lee's army, until the spring of 1864. Both these armies by their brave fighting on the Peninsula, at Antietam and at Gettysburg, had been sadly depleted and must be recruited and reorganized. The Army of the Potomac had not yet found its commander, nor the several Union armies their commander-in-chief. The term of enlistment of the nine-months' men and of those who had re-enlisted for two years had expired, and with the reduction of the army by such severe campaigns, and such a sacrifice of all the material of war, nothing could be done 80 important for the next nine months as to stimulate enlistments, enforce drafts where necessary, organize and drill troops, manufacture arms and clothing, and collect all the varied supplies for the armies in the field. Hence the President's large and repeated calls for volunteers, and the encouragement of the Northern governors to make them large and frequent enough to finish the war. Then became apparent the comparative resources of the two sections of the country. The South had been preparing and husbanding her resources for this very conflict, and at the first was