The stood, ranged upon the tracks, between forty and fifty locomotives roasting amidst the flames of a thousand cords of wood, distributed, refreshed, and stirred up continually by a brigade of wild Confederates. rocks, hills, and houses which surrounded the place of execution were crowded by many hundred spectators, the old men, wives, and children of those who had depended on the road for their subsistence. Twilight was approaching, and as the lurid light of the fires prevailed the aspect of the scene grew still more unearthly. The rebel soldiers, with their bronzed faces, raggedly picturesque costumes, and fiendish activity, were not unworthy representatives of the familiars of Beelzebub. They worked in silence too, with the sullen and desperate look of men who were executing the work of Fate rather than their own will. Motionless and mute the groups of citizens looked on, terrorstricken, yet every pallid face lowering with dumb execration. The locomotives, as the flames licked their iron bodies, and the heated air rushed through the steam-whistles, despite ward the railroad. All night long the red light glared and flickered on the walls, and, assisted by semi-somnolent fancies, painted terrible and prophetic pictures in tints of fire and blood. All night long the tortured Leviathans sung in our ears their shuddering anthems of woe. of mechanism and natural philosophy, impressed | season, and our curtainless windows looked tothe spectator with the idea that they were living victims, who moaned and shrieked with an agony surpassing human comprehension. It was a fitting overture to the Great Drama of the nineteenth century, typifying coming events. A frantic war of barbaric pride, ignorance, and passion against the empire of art, industry, and civilization. At our house we found a servant who had been left in occupancy, and in due time a comfortable supper was spread for us. We were too much excited to eat, and after the pretense of a meal hurried to bed. To bed, but not to sleep. The house had been dismantled for the June 21.-The dawn of morning dispelled these distempered fancies, but brought with it no reviving cheerfulness. Between dreams and realities there was not so much difference after all. On the railroad we could see the wilted and discolored bodies of the locomotives lying amidst the smoke and ashes of their funeral pyres. Their wailings had ceased, and event. The idea of a wedding was suggested. But not on a Friday-that was too serious a joke. So we drew rein and stopped a troop of sallow-skinned, tawny-haired girls to inquire. "Why, to be sure, didn't we know?" replied one, with an expression of mingled pity and surprise at our ignorance. They had been to the hanging at Berkeley. We knew, of course, the Pennsylvanian that killed his wife and chopped her up with a corn-cutter. A short time after we passed the gallows, thanking Providence that this guardian of civilized society still exercised its functions within sight of our mountain home. At Berkeley we found our friends all well, and pleased with the accession to their social circle. Our news from the seat of war was eagerly discussed, and we heard in return in-. teresting items from the free and loyal mountains. The change was absolutely delicious. We felt like persons escaping from an ill-ventilated, howling ward in Bedlam into the fresh air and coherent society. I had resolved on my own account not to ask any favors from the rebel head-quarters, but to take the road and run risks of getting through without a passport. My friend, who expected to return to Charlestown with the earriage, fearing that he might be separated from his family by crossing the lines, insisted that he would go no further unless he had a permit to pass and return with the carriage. Consequently I started out after breakfast to find Jackson's quarters, and, following directions received from stragglers, presently found myself in a piece of wood about half a mile in the rear of our house. Here I found the brigade en bivouac, sleeping in line behind their stacked arms. Those that were awake had a jaded, frowzy look, and such as I conversed with did not seem to be in good spirits. The General Head-quarters was not here, but in a house nearly a mile distant. Arrived there, I stated my wishes to the Adjutant General, and the permit was given without difficulty. While talking with this officer, who was an acquaintance, a man came out of an adjoining room, and calling him aside conversed in an undertone. This person, notwithstanding the extreme heat, wore a heavy military over-coat and a plain slouched hat. A stern, sun-burnt face, a short black beard, crisped and grizzled slightly, a serious and resolute air, were the only external characteristics that impressed themselves on my memory during the few moments that I scanned the rebel General-he that was afterward the famous Stonewall Jack-manship to which the occasion had yet given son. Friday, June 21. We took the road for Berkeley Springs. The old road, once so familiar and busy at this season, was now lonely and desolate. Superseded as a fashionable highway by the railroad, it had for some years fallen into disuse, and we found many of the old farm-houses and stopping-places deserted. At Tibkenzy's Branch we made our mid-day halt to rest our overheated animals and refresh ourselves from the lunch-basket. We took our meal beside a cool spring bubbling from the rocks beneath the shade of some spreading sycamores. The Blue Mountains were visible in every direction, and we breathed the air with a sense of freedom which we had not experienced for many days, while the unharnessed horses, lately so hot and jaded, rolled in the sand and kicked up their heels with a jollity entirely in unison with our thoughts and feelings. The loyal Virginians of the west had risen in arms to defend their Government, their homes, and their native land. They had declared the State Government lately engulfed in Confederate treason to be vacated and of no authority, and had established a loyal State Government based upon popular rights and the Constitution of the country. This movement centred at Wheeling, and was headed by Francis H. Pierpont. We knew nothing of its details; but, amidst the chaos of twaddle, stultification, treason, and timidity, it rose, the first act of clear, vigorous, and comprehensive states birth. It was this movement which saved the nation; and so it will be written when impartial Time shall have set his seal upon the records of History. It could not be expected, however, that our cheerful social circle would be left undisturbed in times so troubled and uncertain. Morgan County unfortunately occupied the corner of what might be called a double political and military frontier. On the north she touched Maryland, which was occupied by the United States forces, and her western boundary was formed by the mountains which were now the military and political line between loyal and rebellious Virginia. Thus claimed by all parties, accessible to all, to be harassed and plundered by all, it was impossible that either party could occupy or protect her. The people were almost universally opposed to Secession; but the wretched blockheads who managed county affairs were almost to a man in the interest of After an hour or two of refreshing repose the rebellion. From Winchester, the headwe resumed our journey. As we drew near quarters of treason in the Valley, these people our destination we were a good deal surprised got their backing and authority, and used it in to meet a number of men, women, and chil- a manner which recalled the days of the Prusdren in holiday attire returning to their homes sian conscript officers and the British pressin the hills. On Sunday such an exhibition gang. Troops rode over the county, penewould have been nothing unusual, but as it trating the most secluded nooks, conscripting was Friday it indicated some extraordinary men and pressing horses and forage in the A CONFEDERATE VOLUNTER. I told her I rather apprehended there would be no occasion to use the present charges. Having finished loading I laid my weapons in convenient positions for use, and sat down near the window with a book in my hand. My wife continued her sewing, looking a little paler than usual perhaps, but otherwise emotionless. I did not read to much advantage, I am sure. At sunset, my fellows having devoured all their whisky, found it not sufficiently stimulating, and rode off yelling and firing their pieces in the air. I was seriously disappointed at this impotent conclusion of the day's excitement. Indignant at the manner in which the Union men permitted themselves to be They were careful to afford no such opportunity, even though I afterward threw myself in their way and courted a collision. I should have been ashamed to have sought a quarrel with these "heartless hinds" but for the motive assigned. name of the Confederacy. A large number | hunted, plundered, and bound, I hoped the of men of military age had already escaped conscript gang would have afforded me, perinto Maryland and Pennsylvania, where they sonally, some justification for a high-handed found employment in the United States army and decisive act that might have served as an or elsewhere. Those who were caught were example. handcuffed or roped like felons and driven to Winchester, "to fight for their freedom," as they phrased it. They volunteered cheerfully enough on arriving at the rendezvous, and deserted on the first opportunity. The morning report of the Morgan militia regiment at Winchester usually exhibited the following: Colonel, 1; Lieutenant-Colonel, 1; Major, 1; Adjutant, 1; Quarter - master and assistants, 3; Commissary and assistants, 2; Surgeon, 1; Chaplain, 1; Line officers, 15; rank and file, from 3 to 15, according to the luck of the conscript officers and the state of the weather as favorable or unfavorable for desertion. These conscripting gangs occasionally came into the village, and one day I was warned by a friendly neighbor to be on my guard. A dozen or fifteen of these fellows, he said, were at his store drinking and planning my arrest. It seems that some persons, whom they had been harassing, had twitted them with cowardice, and dared them to conscript me. They resolved to do so, and purchased a jug of whisky to steam up their courage to the point. I immediately went to my house and loaded my whole armory of guns and pistols, seven pieces, allowing sixteen shots. My wife, who observed these preparations, asked what was the matter? I replied by telling her to crawl under the bed if there was any firing. She said she would prefer to stand by and load the guns for me. At night I always slept with doors and windows barred, and with my loaded weapons within reach. On one occasion, about an hour after midnight, I was aroused by an alarming outcry of yells and oaths mingled with the screams of women and children. The idea of midnight arrests immediately flashed upon me. My cousin, Edmund Pendleton of Martinsburg, had distinguished himself in the late Convention by his firm and uncompromising opposition to Secession. He had persistently refused to recognize or acquiesce in it under any circumstances, and had become in consequence very obnoxious to the revolutionary fomenters. When below I had frequently heard him menaced with arrest, and now supposed that a party had followed him to his retreat at Berkeley. I hastily dressed, and, taking my double-barreled piece charged with sixteen buckshot in each barrel, went down into the street resolved to give the contents to the invaders if I did not find the party hopelessly numerous. Before going far I met an acquaintance aroused by the same noise, who informed me it was only a drunken row among the villagers. These incidents are recorded as illustrating the daily routine of life on the Border. Each hour had its rumors and excitements, every night its strange alarms. One day the children were holding a tournament, riding their stick horses and catching the ring on mimic lances. Every male child in Virginia is born with an innate idea in his head in the form of a colt, which grows with his growth until it becomes a horse, which hobby he rides from the cradle to the grave. Thus it is that the earliest sports of the children are chivalric. I was acting chief marshal, and the tournament was proceeding with due pomp and ceremony, Union flags adorned the arch where the ring was suspended, and "Sir Knight of the Union," a chevalier of six summers, flaunting his Union badge, had just set his lance in rest for the charge when the martial clangor of fife and drum in the street announced the advent of some new excitement. A moment after several officers in rebel gray were added to the company of spectators in the court-yard where the lists were erected. Their presence did not check the sports. The "Knight of the Union" proclaimed with a trumpet voice, rode his career, and took the ring handsomely. The Union flags kept their places, the officers laughed with the rest, and the tournament was pronounced a decided success. The party which had arrived was a sort of independent legion, consisting of about sixty infantry and thirty cavalry, under the command of one Tom Edmondson, late a Member of the United States Congress, now holding a Colonel's commission from the Richmond government. He seemed to be roving about with his command without any fixed military purpose, and actuated with a wild desire to do good generally (for the cause). The presence of this force at first chafed and irritated the Union sentiment of the place excessively. Edmondson made several arrests, and endeavored to frighten or persuade the villagers to take an oath of allegiance to the Confederacy. This was persistently refused, and he very judiciously waived the point. The day after his arrival a sergeant, with two men, came to my house, and, knocking authoritatively, demanded admittance. I thought the critical hour had arrived, and belting on my revolver went to open the door. The sergeant THE INNATE IDEA. very civilly presented a politely-worded demand for my arms. I wrote a reply politely declining to part with them, on the ground that I had purchased all the arms that were in my possession, and desired to keep them for my private usc. The sergeant presently returned with a note of explanation and apology from Edmondson, saying he had made the demand on information that I had arms belonging properly to the State. The subject was not alluded to afterward. These first difficulties over, I was relieved to find the invaders a very modest and harmless company. The commander, finding himself surrounded with adverse opinion so universal and determined, did not think it prudent to attempt the coercive, but sought to attain his ends by persuasive means. The men were more orderly and inoffensive than could be believed. They bought a few sheep with orders on the Confederate treasury, took some horses on the same terms, picketed the roads so that we could not visit to Hancock to get Union news, but were otherwise not troublesome. Yet it is very wearing to rise up and lie down, to talk, eat, drink, and live, with the consciousness that you are at the mercy of an irresponsible armed power, without adequate means of resistance or self-protection. Men do get accustomed to this state of things, I suppose; but at Berkeley it was new to us, and we felt it grinding day by day. Some rumors of Patterson's movements reached us on the 3d of July, but altogether vague and uncertain. July 4.-Colonel Edmondson delivered a much confidence; yet we had lived under it Fourth of July oration in the Methodist church in peace and honor for nearly a century, and to-day. Curious to know how he would view it was now our only hope. It would stand or the national anniversary from his present posi- fall as the people who created it should detion I went with my wife to hear him. The termine. In such a crisis I considered that oration was a political stump speech of four no citizen could claim the privilege of neutralsolid hours' duration. I listened for about an ity. I had some time since decided definitely hour, and left the church in disgust, having on the course of action which duty demanded heard nothing but the flattest egotism, varied of me; yet I hesitated and lingered; I was with violent abuse of Union men, and clenched held in bondage by social and domestic ties with the standing threats of confiscation, exile, that were hard to break. I was an only son. and the gallows. My father was old and feeble, and appeared to need my presence and support. As I was situated it seemed as if my life belonged more to others than to myself. I doubted my capacity to render the Government services sufficiently important to justify the personal sacrifices I would be obliged to make. Thus I debated with myself, lingering from day to day. My observations during the last three months had satisfied me as to the true character of the contest which was opening. To my mind it presented the simple choice between a Government and Anarchy. The idea of a Southern Confederacy, a separate nationality, or a tolerable government of any sort being based upon the intractable and irreconcilable elements of which Anger supplied the needful stimulant to acthe Southern portion of the United States was tion. Edmondson's speech was "the feather made up, struck me as absurd and impossible. that broke the camel's back." The same evenViewing the subject in the most favorable and ing I sought a private interview with my faeven flattering light, I could conceive of no ther, and informed him that I had determined other result from the success of the rebellion to join the National Army. I had fortified than bloody and hopeless anarchy involving myself with arguments to combat his objections the whole nation. In the stability and suffi- and console his grief. They were not needed. ciency of the National Government I had not | No sooner had I announced my intentions than |