eleven of whom were killed; the remaining one, Sergeant Griffith, from Iowa, came forth bringing twelve prisoners to avenge his comrades' death. He says a sharp-shooter on the parapet aided him in this brilliant feat, yet we can't understand how he managed to keep them all 'in hand.' In the frenzy of close battling, men will often do what at a calmer moment would seem utterly impossible; for instance, at another lunette we drove the gunners from a loaded piece before they had time to fire it, while the Lieutenant of a Chicago battery, with his men, brought a gun up the ascent by hand, and sent its double-shotted charge over the works. Peter Apple, an Indiana recruit, took part in a battery storming, during which the men made a retiring move- * ment; but Peter didn't see it,' and stalked onward till intercepted by a gun, whereupon he collared the gunner, and compelled him to bear him company on the return. Why didn't you come on boys?' said Peter afterward, 'every fellow might have grabbed one.' Thus, surrounded with smoke, flame, piles of corpses, and shelled continuously through twentyfour hours by the mortars, and shaken by the thundering of gun-boats and batteries, you can think what dismay possessed the people of the doomed city; for doomed it is though we failed to hold the works carried that day, and saw the fall of three thousand men before them. They have not bled in vain; we shall carry forward their work,

if the siege should last a life time. Prisoners say even now, that half-rations, of a poor quality, are given to the garrison; what then can it do, when the provisions are gone, but run up the white flag? Not long ago a Johnny called to one of our sharpshooters, 'Say, Columby, will you give me a swallow of coffee if I'll come over?'

'Yes,' answered our man. Johnny drank the cup full with great satisfaction, but when called back by his comrades he replied, 'The coffee's so good I reckon I'll stay;' he had always loved the old flag, he affirmed; had been forced into the ranks-and the rest of the old story told by scores of them. Awhile ago a few of our Missouri cavalry rode over to Jeff. Davis' former home, where they found the black people in a state of great alarm at the approach of General Grant. The planters you know tell frightful stories of us Yanks to the poor slaves; we will flog them to death for disobedience, drive them into the Gulf, sell them to Cuba, they affirm. 'What shall we do, sah, if the General done come up yer?' asked Pomp, with wide-open, terrified eyes, seeing doubtless a bed of live coals in prospect, on which he and his companions would be roasted alive. 'Oh,' said a Federal, 'he won't hurt you. All you people have to do, is this-gather at the gate and give him three cheers; you needn't be afraid.' A negro down South says, cheer,' for chair you know; so it happened that our boys, after strolling over the place, were much

astonished on returning to find the gate-way thoroughly swept, and three chairs placed for the expected General, under a tree. Whether he was to occupy them successively, or, being so great a man, all at one sitting, the darkies didn't explain.

"As for us of the rank and file, I don't believe our condition could be improved; for with pleasant, healthy woods as a camp-ground, plentiful rations, and pure water, the men grow strong and cheerful under their labors. We are digging our way into Pemberton's quarters now; perhaps some bright morning he may smell gunpowder from our underground passages; already we have sprung two mines, and blown down the face of a fort from which the enemy has retired to his inner defences. Counter-mines are underway also, as we learn, when burrowing and spading down in the dark, we hear the click of unseen pick-axes separated from ours by a mere partition of earth.

"I am trying not to forget the counsels of your letters, dear mother; the temptations of this kind of life are strong enough, God knows, to overcome the best purposes that are not grounded upon faith in Christ to help us. Some of the men about me never utter a sentiment without the preface of an oath, and one may pass by tents in which the click of glasses, and the falling of cards at the gamblingtable can be heard continually; the inmates are many of them brave officers, but they are known better

as intemperate, unprincipled men. In our regiment such excesses find little favor, for the influence of our Christian members, and more than all, the example of our chaplain, leavens the whole mass. 'Here, above all places,' he says, 'we must maintain our loyalty to Christ;' he makes our evening meetings so interesting that we all like to go, and for the rest of our leisure we have good books and papers from the Christian Commission agents. Many of the boys were once Sunday-school scholars like myself; of course they know how to sing; I only wish you could hear the hymns of our Sunday service, as they are rolled from bass and tenor voices. One of the favorites is the song of Gustavus Adolphus, the Swedish soldier-king, and every man of us joins in the verse:

"Thy cause is God's-go at his call,
And to his hand commit thy all;

Fear thou no ill impending;

His Gideon shall arise for thee,
God's word and people manfully,

In God's own time, defending.'

"I expect to date my next from Vicksburg, when you in peace at home, will join with us in cheers for 'Unconditional-surrender Grant,' and the army of the Tennessee. Till then adieu.

"Ever yours,

"HORACE."

CHAPTER II.

A VISIT то THE

TRENCHES.

AUNT ELLEN, busy by the couches of a Washington hospital, often sent home long letters filled with incidents that stirred the hearts of her audience with pride and affection for the unknown heroes of whom she wrote. At other times, when the wards. were full, the messages were briefer, accompanied, perhaps, with a bulletin of the Sanitary Commission, or extracts for Frank; and a week later, as it happened, a budget arrived, directed in her hand.

"I thought," she wrote, "that while every one is talking of Vicksburg, and waiting for the grand finale, you would like to hear of a visit made to our troops there by Mrs. Hoge, of 'Sanitary' fame. Herewith is part of her report." The extract read: