last expedition his soul was fired with the purpose of rescuing the Union prisoners in Richmond by a sudden invasion of the city. The Confederates took terrible measures to thwart his scheme. They placed barrels of gunpowder beneath the Libby Prison, and would doubtless have exploded the building, with its thousands of inmates, had the young colonel entered the place. Kilpatrick went so far as to pass the outer line of redoubts about the city, but was driven back. Dahlgren, who had traversed a different road, in seeking to regain his leader, was surprised, with a hundred of his followers, by an ambush, on the night of March third, and at the first volley the brave youth fell, pierced with five balls. His body was treated ignominiously by his foes, but his name, circled with a halo of honor, is cherished in the hearts of the rank and file, and already our horsemen gather at the rallying word, 'Dahlgren !'

"The past year has been memorable for

its great battles," added the father, in closing the evening story. "We have had before no series of conflicts equal in magnitude and importance to Vicksburg, Port Hudson, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the quelling of the Indian revolt, the scenes at Lookout and Missionary Ridge, and in the region about Charleston. The rebellion, mighty as it has been, totters beneath these decisive blows. The fields of the South are untilled, its towns depopulated of citizens by a sweeping conscription, its supplies of food and forage straitened by the demands of the army officials. The Mississippi flows undisturbed by warring fleets from St. Paul to the Gulf. Its great valley and the State of Louisiana are reclaimed from Confederate rule, and I hold in my hand the statement of General Sherman's and McPherson's work on their march eastward from Vicksburg. It is an interesting catalogue of exploits, in which I suppose Horace had some share."

He read :

"At Meridian all the depots, stores, arsenals, offices, hospitals, hotels and cantonments were burned. Within the next five days Hurlburt's corps, with axes, sledges, crowbars, clambers and fire, detroyed sixty miles of railroad iron, one locomotive, eight bridges; McPherson's corps, fifty-five miles of railroad, fifty-three bridges, twenty-eight steam cars, three saw mills. Thus was completed the destruction of a hundred and twenty miles of railway so effectually that no spot nor building in the region can be used against the National arms in the ensuing campaign. Refugees, prisoners, negroes, horses, wagons, by the thousand have been gathered to our military centres, and the total loss of the expedition numbers but a hundred and seventy men. The troops subsisted on the country, marched four hundred miles, and at the end of six weeks returned in finer condition than that in which they set forth."

"Sherman goes by electricity, like the telegraph, I believe!" exclaimed Roger. "Now he's at Vicksburg, now at Chattanooga, now back in Mississippi. It's impossible to keep track of him.”

"His march, and that of Grierson, through Alabama, have opened a pathway for freedom in those States. In Georgia

we occupy Fort Pulaski, near Savannah, together with important posts in the northwestern corner. You have already heard of our operations before Charleston, and of the desolate condition of that city. Union garrisons hold Newbern and other towns in North Carolina, while several expeditions have been successfully conducted in that State during the year. Kentucky has remained undisturbed since Morgan's capture. And after many a glorious conflict her sister, Tennessee, unfurls the National banner from all her vales and mountain tops.

"In Virginia the issues of war are as yet not clearly discerned. There the strife is longer, but it will be at last the more decisive. The State, ruined by the tramp of armies, is the most barren and ravaged part of the Confederacy. And though we are not yet in possession of Richmond, we have Gettysburg, henceforth historic, as the boundary to an invasion that was turned back to advance again no more. At Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Gettysburg, we

have compassed the rebellion with a chain, which we may now rest assured will never lengthen."

"I am thinking that Grant and Sherman and the others will draw it tighter and tighter, till at last the shell falls inward, broken to pieces," said Frank.

"Grant's work should be mentioned with Sherman's," continued the father. "Up to this time it is affirmed that he has taken four hundred and seventy-two cannon and ninety thousand prisoners. Assuredly he deserved the thanks tendered him by Congress and the President in behalf of the nation. But while we thank him, as every one of us would with grateful words, we, must not forget to thank God, who has ever been our help in sorest need. Who would have believed in the beginning of the war, that three hundred thousand-a million men, could be mustered into the ranks within a few months' time? Yet this last number, enormous as it is, does not include all who have responded to their country's