A PRAYER MEETING CALLED.

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their arms glittering in the sun. On entering Lancaster we were met by the people with flags, cheers and rejoicings. Still on we went, until tired and hungry we went into camp near Crab Orchard about sundown. As it was evidently no use attempting to follow up the enemy any further, the army rested here until the following Monday. The time was busily employed in washing up, writing letters, &c., which are the first employments of a soldier in camp. Crab Orchard itself proved to be a dilapidated village, which had evidently been a Southern watering place, but if it ever had any attractions they had certainly disappeared. In every soldier's memory the place is remembered. as the southern extremity of our Kentucky march after Bragg.

Here I was able to make a beginning with my chaplain's work. The first night I called a prayer meeting, when fourteen were present, and another the following night, with twenty-six present. I was much assisted in becoming acquainted with the regiment religiously by the kindness of Sergt. Mann. of Company A, whose blameless character throughout his army life gave him great influence among the men. On Sunday, October 20th, we held our first public service at two o'clock. Contrary to the custom which was observed at the beginning of the war, I insisted that the attendance of both men and officers should be entirely voluntary. As the result, when the call sounded, there assembled on the side of a knoll which had been selected, a very large proportion of the whole regiment as well as men from other commands. We had a good supply of hymn books and a choir to lead the singing, and the sight of so many men who had been destitute of all religious services for months, i. e. since they left Rolla, Missouri, standing up to join in the old, familiar hymns, was one not to be easily forgotten. Before sermon I told them of the interest in them expressed to me by their friends at home,

of the provision I had made for a supply of reading, and of my willingness to spend and be spent for their welfare, inviting any of them who might need my assistance to come without hesitation. I then preached a short sermon on "The blessedness of sins forgiven," and we closed with singing, "My faith looks up to Thee, Thou Lamb of Calvary." When, after night all through the companies could be heard the sound of singing, as they used the new hymn books, I was sure that the Sabbath and religious services were needed by all.

To me it was not only interesting but instructive to learn of the different comments made upon the service by the men. Some who had threatened to resist if compelled to attend, had all their prejudice removed by being simply invited. Some were particularly gratified that they were not addressed in military language, as soldiers, regiment or batallion, but as a congregation. It reminded them of home, and they liked even for a few moments to feel relieved from the restraints of a military life. The sergeant so notorious for his profanity, mentioned before, declared he would come just once, and if I said anything about swearing he would never come again, and as there proved to be no mention of that sin that day, he thought I would do pretty well. Many a service did we hold together in the next two years, but that one at Crab Orchard will always stand alone.

Next morning, Oct. 21, we marched early, and as soon as the column began to head north and it was evident we were about to return over the old ground, the indignation of the men, which had been gathering for several days, broke out in the most violent language. Indeed, one of the most startling facts that I encountered on joining the army was the spirit of rebellion, amounting almost to mutiny, which prevailed so largely. Apart from the hardships of the march, the excessive heat, the dust,

A JOKE ON THE 73D REGIMENT.

297 which was blinding and suffocating, the lack of rations and other physical trials, there was a deep dissatisfaction with the conduct of the campaign, and especially that, after we had suffered so much and lost so many men, the enemy were to be allowed to escape. Both the commanding generals and the Government came in for their shares of the blame.

Gens. Buell and Gilbert were the last commanders of this army who clung to the theory of conducting the war on peace principles-avoiding everything that would irritate the South. This policy had already cost us vast treasures of blood and money. The country was becoming sick of it, and the army was demanding a change. Within a week of this time a change was effected, so that I saw our soldiers just when their indignation was the worst and their opposition to conservative generalship most rebellious. Gen. Gilbert had no just conception of the peculiar treatment necessary to control the American volunteer, and when he began to treat him in ways that implied equality with the dregs of society so often swept into a regular army, he woke a spirit of opposition that vented itself in acts which he found himself unable to check. Men, who in the rough campaigning of Missouri and Arkansas, had been compelled to learn the art of foraging, were stimulated to show how skillfully they could set at defiance the orders which Gen. Gilbert issued. Stories illustrating this spirit were constantly told-not to defend the acts themselves, but just as men talk over the successful tricks they played on their teachers when they were boys.

When on the march near Crab Orchard, some of the 36th boys killed twenty or thirty fat sheep, belonging to a native Kentuckian, and after dark threw the pelts into the camp of the 73rd Illinois Regiment. Now the 73rd was gotten up by the Methodists of Illinois and included many preachers and members of the Meth

odist church, who revolted at the very idea of molesting the henroosts and sheep-folds of Kentucky. Complaint was made to Gen. Gilbert of the theft and search instituted among the camps. The finding of the hides was sufficient evidence of guilt, and that good, pious soul, Col. Jaques, was given the alternative of producing the culprits or being himself punished, and in default of the former, he was obliged to walk behind the regiment, by order of Gen. Gilbert. One hot day, while on the march through Kentucky, the 24th Wisconsin Regiment, seeing two empty ambulances, stowed them full of their knapsacks. Shortly after, Gen. Gilbert discovered the knapsacks and ordered them thrown out. The 24th, being in advance, knew nothing of this, but marched on. The 36th being next in rear, some of the men gobbled the knapsacks and contents, threw away their own ragged garments and donned the brand-new wearing apparel of the 24th. They not only appropriated the clothes, but the knapsacks as well, which were marked 24th Wisconsin. The 36th boys wandered wherever they wished over the country, appropriating the contents of smoke-houses, hen-roosts, &c., and at once the plundered owners hurried to Gen. Gilbert and entered complaint against the 24th Wisconsin. The General was madordered the 24th to halt and the roll called, when all were present and accounted for. Three times was the regiment thus halted in one day and none were found absent from the ranks. Gen. Gilbert was puzzled indeed. The secret did not get out for some time, and then under other leaders it was recounted as a fine trick. At an officers' dinner given by Gen. Rosecrans at Nashville, the above story was told, when Col. Larabee, of the 24th, stated that at last it was perfectly clear to his mind what had become of a new pair of gauntlets of his, which were missing immediately after a visit from Col. Greusel, a few days previous, in the place

GEN. SHERIDAN'S POLICY.

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of which was an old, worn-out pair, scarcely fit to be touched, except with a pair of tongs. He now entirely changed his opinion of the 36th, and believed the whole regiment, officers included, to be a set of thieves.

Gen. Sheridan's policy was entirely different. While opposing in toto all straggling and personal foraging, he believed in taking from the country whatever was needed by the army, instructing his quarter-master to give receipts therefor, to be adjusted afterward on proof of loyalty. His care and thoughtfulness for the men won their affection. The first day out from Crab Orchard was especially tedious. The dust seemed intolerable; the road was lined with stragglers, chiefly the new troops, who were unable to keep up, and even seasoned men were utterly exhausted with the fifteen miles march. When we went into camp after night and a guard was detailed from the 36th for Gen. Sheridan's headquarters, the General came out and said, "Boys, I know you are very tired; "you may go to your quarters; we will take care of ourselves "to-night." One such act would make a soldier light hearted for many a day.

Next morning, the 21st, rising at half-past four, we marched at sunrise, when the brightness and coolness of the morning and the beauty of the country united to make a perfect contrast with the weariness and misery of the previous night. Ascertaining from Division Head-quarters that we were to camp at night at Mitchell, being on the way to Lebanon, Dr. Pierce and I started forward through Danville to Perryville to visit our wounded men who had been left there. Found two more had died, but nearly all the rest were doing well. After caring for them as best we could, we went forward to join the regiment. The next day we marched eighteen miles, through several small settlements, and camped on Salt river, within four miles of Lebanon Station. On this day's