ing past campaigns and future prospects. The attempt was a failure, as it was near pay-day, and a stream of applications for furloughs poured in upon the unlucky Colonel. It reminded me of my school-days, when the boys wanted holiday to go to a fair or a camp-meeting. The table groaned with the choicest products | hoping to enjoy a quiet conversation concernof the famous Chesapeake shell-fish, flesh, and fowl-wine and confectioneries flashed between, like jewels on the "cheek of night." But why a possum supper? Where's the chef de cuisine that gives its name to the feast? The Doctor uncovers a dish in the centre of the table, and there, in all its farcical grimness, lies the "possum," reminding one of a roasted rat sodden in castor-oil. The Doctor is a jolly wag, as well as a charming companion and accomplished gentleman. One fellow's grandmother was at the point of death. Another's wife was very ill. A third had a child that was very bad. A beardless recruit pokes his finger in his eye, and desires five days "to see the end of his old man,"" who has been suddenly taken down with a "parallax." Evidence of the truth of these statements, in the form of letters, tele grams, and personal witnesses, is volunteered a foreign enemy) whose efforts were not hamwith a readiness that would suggest a doubt in the mind of a wicked lawyer; but our amiable and truthful Colonel is credulous of these tales of sorrow. It is remarkable, indeed, that such a Pandora's box of diseases and misfortunes should open upon unhappy New Jersey always about pay-day. Yet the regulation is inexorable-but ten furloughs at a time are allowed to a regiment. The ten lucky ones are gone already, and there is no chance for a week to come. So the hackneyed lies are filed away to await their turn, and the weepers, readily resigning themselves to the inevitable, dry their tears, and laughingly plan some other scheme for dissipating their pay. pered and thwarted by domestic faction? Look at our own history during the Revolutionary struggle of 1776-half of our people were adverse to the war, a third of the military force of the Colonies supported the British crown. Then what else than blunders, weakness, and waste of means can be expected of a people that has grown up in entire ignorance of the art of war; whose habits and instincts have combined to unfit them for military service; who believed in Peace Congresses and approaching millenniums, and the universal empire of love and dimes, among whom the military profession was hardly held reputable? It can scarcely be expected that such a peoJanuary 11.-On going the rounds to-day ple will, in the commencement of a war, exthe Colonel found a huckster selling beer with-hibit the promptitude, energy, and efficiency in the precincts of the camp-a high offense that characterizes the action of those governand breach of regulation. He forthwith ordered the vendor to the guard-house, and pulled the spigot out of the barrel. As the foaming liquor spouted out upon the ground the huckster poured out in unison a stream of prayers and supplications. He was a poor man, striving to support a starving family; this small keg of smaller beer was his little all, his only hope for bread for his innocent babes. The Colonel relented, and with his own hand replaced the spigot, contenting himself with ordering the sinner to get out of his camp with his nuisance. A Jew who was caught peddling copper watches through the tents was treated with less consideration. He was incontinently packed off to the guard-house for forty-eight hours. As a considerable portion of the brigade got there for one reason or another during the peddler's term of confinement he opened shop for the benefit of his fellowprisoners, and sold off his whole stock to great advantage. January 15.-I see in the Philadelphia Enquirer a confused report of a fight at Berkeley Springs. I suppose this refers to the affair that took place there ten days ago; but as I have had no letter since Jackson's operations in that vicinity I feel some uneasiness in regard to my friends. and Surgeon ments which possess large and well-trained standing armies. Yet even among these, when called to the field after a long interval of peace, what failures and mismanagement! Read Napier's History of the War in the Peninsula, look at the more recent exhibit of the English in the Crimea; recall the earlier efforts of the French on the opening of their great Revolution. Our most unwarlike nation has, within the space of six months, marshaled for war, equipped, provisioned, and organized an army of six hundred thousand men. What this army will accomplish we will see. Those who have general command have general information, and have doubtless general plans which time wil develop. It can not be otherwise. Let us. therefore, bide our time patiently and hopefully. I, for one, have an abiding faith in the power and destiny of the American people. I am at times troubled with a momentary faintness. I fret and vituperate, but if I hear another speak discouragingly forthwith my faith becomes belligerent. This nation will not perish thus ignominiously. January 17.-The weather was so mild today that I sketched in the open air a view of the winter camp of the Fourth New Jersey. The men were engaged in erecting a new flagstaff in the centre of the parade-ground. In Major visited me, the afternoon I received a visit from my uncle, and we passed the evening playing euchre, dis- the chaplain of the Third Pennsylvania cavalcussing public affairs at intervals. The Doc- ry regiment, commanded by Colonel Averill. tor's views were very discouraging. The cor- This regiment was encamped five or six miles ruption of contractors, the virulence of faction, above us, and we had exchanged several visits the blunders, indecisions, futilities, and cow- since I came over the river. Indeed, Colonel ardice patent in our military operations-all Averill had proposed to me to apply for a vaseemed to indicate that there must be a break- cant Majority in the regiment, and my uncle down. I could not but feel the force of his had called over to urge me accept the proposiviews, and acknowledge the truth of his state- tion. I must get my commission from the ments. Yet I could not acquiesce in his con- Governor of Pennsylvania, and he naturally is clusions, as I had been ten days out of Wash-unwilling to commission natives and residents ington, and I felt the vigor of the military surroundings. What government or what people has escaped similar or worse difficulties? In all countries and all history the word "army contractor" is a synonym for fraud. What nation has ever attempted to make war (even with of other States. I still had a lingering hope of being recalled to the Army of the Shenandoah when the great movement begun. My personal services would be more important in that field, and my feelings induced me to prefer it. To accept a commission in a cavalry regiment here would cut me off entirely from friends and home. Yet all our former ideas of personal merit, social distinction, and character were fast becoming emerged in the military hieroglyphic wrought upon the shoulderknots. I had, like many others, entered the service with the praiseworthy but rather romantic notion that it was even more honorable to serve one's country without rank or pay. However elevating such sentiments may appear at first, the man who attempts by their means to sustain long flights will find himself in the condition of a flying fish; his wings will dry up, VOL. XXXIII.-No. 197-P P and he must, per force, fall to the practical level whence he started. I determined to seek a commission in the Line or Staff service in time for the spring campaign. Having talked over these matters, I proposed to my uncle to visit As we walked toColonel Simpson's tent. gether he began making minute inquiries about my father's health and appearance, as he had I described him not seen him for some years. as I had last seen him at Hancock, erect, animated, filled with fire and faith as he talked of national affairs, yet when the excitement was past he would relapse into age and feebleness depth. As we jogged homeward over the rugged roads he whined and grunted like a sick child, and I feared the unwonted exposure had injured him. He went gayly to his stall, however, and evidenced by his appetite that he had received no serious damage. I found the regimental mess at supper, where I was warmly welcomed and felicitated on my prospective promotion. We spent the evening in Dr. Oakley's room, where we met the members of the surgical staff and a number of other officers-Doctors Dougherty and Osborne; Colonel Torbert, of the Second New Jersey; Captains Sturgis, Jackson, Ryerson; and Lieutenant Hamick. Our discourse turned upon the climate and monstrous vegetable growth of California, when one of the party produced a set of prints showing the great trees of that region, four hundred feet in height, and thirty feet in diameter at the base. One of the pictures represented an officer on horseback riding into the hollow of a fallen and decayed trunk. Another gives a view of a waterfall which, in three consecutive leaps, falls two thousand three hundred feet. What a magnificent country! Returning to my quarters I parted with Colonel Simpson, who took the path toward his tent. A moment after entering my room I heard the report of a musket, followed by cries of agony and voices shouting for the corporal of the guard. I was thrilled with the horrible suspicion that the Colonel had been shot by a stupid sentinel. Voices in wild alarm calling for a doctor seemed to confirm my appalling surmise. I called to Osborne, who was writing letters at the other end of the room, and then rushed out to face the tragic scene. I met a group of men and officers hurrying toward the Seminary, the medical head-quarters of the brigade. The Quarter-Master led the way with a lantern. To my great relief the next person I recognized was the Colonel, active and sympathetic, giving orders to those who were supporting a soldier apparently suffering from a mortal wound. Surgeons, hospital stewards, and servants swelled the crowd. The sentinel's musket had gone off accidentally and blown his hand off. Back at the post I saw the corporal, with one or two comrades, with a light, searching in the snow for the missing member. The wounded man was carried into the surgical room, surrounded by a sympathizing and agitated group. Lint and bandages were spread upon the table, and cases of instruments unrolled, exhibiting rows of hooks, pinchers, and gleaming blades, suggestive of all manner of insufferable tortures. The barber had brought his basin and towels, ready to catch the blood, while two young surgeons, who had been heating water to make some punch, magnanimously devoted it to the dressing of the gory wound. The man's hand had not been blown off, after all; for, on raising his arm to the light, it appeared encased in a dirty glove still dangling to the wrist. At every touch and Two movement the soldier groaned and shrieked most piteously, so affecting some of the spectators (not accustomed to such bloody work) that they were obliged to retire to reinforce their stomachs with some narcotic stimulant. surgeons with hook and scissors undertook to remove the glove. The patient's outcries were so violent during the operation that it was proposed to administer chloroform. Before it was brought in, however, the glove came off, and developed a manipulator red and dirty enough, but with four fingers and a thumb complete. The hand was turned over and over to the light, and wrist and arm were carefully examined. "Damn it!" quoth the Doctor, "I can't see the wound!" Neither could any one else. Not a scratch, nor a bruise, nor a powder-burn! The sentinel was the most astonished individual of the company. His hands and feet were half frozen, and he had been dancing to warm them, holding his musket near the muzzle, meanwhile. The piece went off accidentally, jarring his benumbed fingers painfully; imagination did the rest. The meeting dissolved in shouts of derisive laughter. Several whose sympathies had been most painfully excited vented themselves by giving the ex-patient a kick or two as he retired. The Colonel, who had been most deeply grieved of any, condemned the man to stand on a barrel for three hours in the cold next morning. February 4.-Bright and mild. I wrote to General David Birney, accepting the position he has offered me. Below I saw the regiments of a neighboring division engaged in a snowballing drill-attacking, retreating, and manœu vring in handsome style-by the bugle-calls and under the direction of their officers. It struck me as a very cheerful and appropriate exercise to break the monotony of camp life in snowy seasons. At night I attended a supper at the mess-room of the Second New Jersey-a rich and elegant affair. Champagne, speeches, songs, and stories were the order of the evening. Several of the officers expressed their fears lest the war would be over before they had an opportunity of fleshing their burnished arms or griming their gilded trappings in battle. I have often recalled that night when, in after-times, I have seen and heard of Phil Kearney's brigade, foremost in the blaze and ant sunshine. Rode over to Camp Marcy to see my kinsman, but found him absent at church. Dined with Colonel A- and LieutenantColonel Gregg of the Eighth Regular Cavalry. After dinner we had the following graphic sketches of Arlington House before and after the battle of Bull's Run · "Whose breeches were red and whose jackets were blue," and portentous reporters, their patrons and admirers, already writing out the deeds of valor and renown that were to be accomplished by these heroic imitations. So the gay and martial pageant left the stage, and with it went the narrator. He January 30.-Raining. I visited Major Birney to-day, and had some conversation with him respecting my chances for a commission in the Pennsylvania cavalry. He proposed another position for me. His brother, David B. Birney, who commanded a regiment in the Patterson campaign, is now Colonel of the TwentyOn the day the troops marched out the sun third Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. shone bright, the banners flaunted, the bands is about to receive a commission as Brigadierfilled the air with inspiriting strains of mar- General, and will want an Adjutant. He offers tial music. Columns of trigly dressed, neatly me the position, and I will take it into considequipped infantry moved with cadenced tread eration. The rank and pay are less than the and burnished arms glittering in the sun. Gay other, but for many reasons a staff appointment cavaliers pranced on bedizened chargers, ex- will suit me better than a commission in the changing courtly salutes with carriage-loads of line. These gentlemen are sons of the Mr. smiling ladies and immensely respectable civil | Birney who was formerly supported by the officials, who crowded the grounds to witness Anti-Slavery party for the Presidency. The the victorious march of the grand army. Colonel at the breaking out of the war was a There were regiments of invincible Fire lawyer in Philadelphia. The Major, with whom Zouaves, I have been conversing, has led a life of varied experiences. He was born in Alabama, was educated partly in Kentucky, and afterward at the North He became early imbued with antislavery principles, and has led a characteristic American life: having figured as a farmer, manufacturer, editor, lecturer, writer, teacher, soldier, and lawyer. He was in France during SCENE 2, Monday morning, July 22.-Arling- the Revolution of 1848, and commanded at one ton revisited. The sky is overcast, and a con- of the barricades. He was afterward a protinuous soaking rain has dampened and bedrag-fessor in a school there, but becoming an object gled all nature. A death-like silence reigns of suspicion to the police under the present over the old house and the gloomy groves that Emperor he returned to America, and has latesurround it. The camps are desolate, the tents ly been practicing law in New York. He is, dripping and lazily flapping in the fitful gusts, of course, a zealous partisan of the war, and as if impatient at their loneliness. Here and our philosophy on the subject runs very genthere a pavilion lay overthrown, exposing beds erally in the same direction. and furniture to unheeded soaking. A crippled and discarded horse straying among the trees raises his head for a moment to salute the passer with a dreary stare, and then quietly re-jutant-General on his staff. I asked a week to turns to his grazing. The occasional twitter of a lonely sparrow or subdued scolding of an irritated wren were thrown in to point the effect of utter silence, as the idea of utter desolation was pointed by the appearance of a single human figure on the wide and lofty portico. Seated in a high-backed chair, leaning against the door-jamb, his military costume wet and mud-stained, his hair disheveled, skin blistered to a lurid red, hat slouched over his eyes, breathing thick and heavily, asleep. This was M'Dowell, the Federal commander. In the afternoon I started on my return to Camp Seminary. My way led through Blenker's Division, located about Hunter's Chapel. The Dutch were hived around the lager beer tents like bees around a sugar hogshead in a dry summer. Numerous drunk were straying between this and the other encampments, all outrageously polite to any passer supposed to be an officer, heightening the grade of the salute in proportion to the quantity of beer they had belted. January 28.-The papers are still cackling over the defeat of Zollicoffer. I am anxious to hear of some further results. February 1.-I went over to the city to-day, and met General Birney at Willard's. He formally tendered me the position of Assistant Ad consider the proposition, which was politely accorded. The General's manners and appearance are extremely prepossessing, and I remember having met him in the Patterson campaign. The rank of Captain of infantry, at one hundred and twenty dollars per month and forage for two horses, will do to commence with. February 3.-I have been only two days in the city and feel my faith in men and governments beginning to sicken again. I must hasten back to seek invigoration in the atmosphere of the camp. I left Washington in a furious snow-storm, and rode to Camp Marcy, where I dined with my friends, and disclosed my intention of accepting Birney's offer. It was combated with a zeal most friendly and flattering; but I believed I had reason on my side. The aspect of the country as I rode to Camp Seminary was most gloomy and Russian-like, yet the soldiers seemed as lively as snow-birds in the storm. Owing to the stupidity of the orderly at Camp Marcy my pony had been left standing out during my visit, and on coming out I found the snow heaped upon his back a hand-breadth in |