THE UNIVERSITY OF 
 
 NORTH CAROLINA 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 THE WILMER COLLECTION 
 
 OF CIVIL WAR NOVELS 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 RICHARD H. WILMER, JR. 
 
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 SSuMEK COLLECTION 
 
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HOUSEHOLD STORY 
 
 AMERICAN CONFLICT. 
 
 <s>«« mxMtx $aUUx& 
 
 "Tlio Union mast be preserved." 
 
 Abraham Lincout. 
 
 BY 
 
 MARY S. ROBINSON - . 
 
 'glen) 'gforii: 
 
 N.v TIBBALS, 
 
 37 Pake: How and 145 Nassau Street. 
 
 18G6. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1EC6, by 
 
 jr. TIBBALS, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States 
 for the Southern District of Is ew York. 
 
PEEFAOE. 
 
 Some account of the American war, adapted to the 
 children gathered in our churches, and largely dependent 
 on our Sunday-school libraries for mental recreation, has 
 been thought to he a desideratum by those interested in 
 their needs. Such an account, conveyed in a familiar, 
 unpretending manner, has been attempted in this volume, 
 the first of a short series. It is meant to extend through 
 the war, giving prominence, not merely to its important 
 events, but to the generous and soldierly virtues that 
 characterized the times. To this end, and not alone 
 for childish entertainment, many credible incidents have 
 been admitted that illustrate our conflict, if they do not 
 directly make a part of it. 
 
 True patriotism is so nearly allied to the religious 
 sentiment, and the conduct of our people during the war 
 was so largely shaped and sustained by American Chris- 
 tianity, that it has been thought unnecessary to give to the 
 present volume a directly religious character. Such 
 facts as these, occurring in the self-defence of a Christian 
 people, would, perhaps, teach more forcibly than exhor- 
 
 603208 
 
.4 PREFACE. 
 
 tations or abstract lessons upon Divine Providence and ' 
 the power of right. 
 
 The writer acknowledges ner indebtedness to Gree- 
 ley's " American Conflict," Putnam's comprehensive 
 " Record of the Rebellion," Holland's "Life of Lincoln," 
 Parton's "Life of Butler," Rev. P. B. Feme's "Heroes 
 of the War," to the sermons, current magazines, and 
 papers of the time, and other sources, both private and 
 public. For statistics, reference has been mainly made 
 to official reports. 
 
 The material of the volume being truthful, will, it is 
 hoped, prove not valueless to the young minds who may 
 receive it. May it help them to maintain "the good 
 fight" of their own lives, with something of the valiancy 
 and success that attended this crisis in their national 
 history ! 
 
 Xovcmber, 1566. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 COIXG FORTH FOR THE GOOD CAUSE. 
 
 The Son's Letter— Its Effect at Home— Kings and Palaces— 
 Daniel's Purpose — The Decision— The Departure — The 
 Ploughshare and the Sword 9 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 WAR' AT SUMTER BLOODSHED AT BALTIMORE. 
 
 A Word about Slavery— Proving it from the Bible— Major An- 
 derson at Sumter— Our Flag— Leaving the Fort—" Billy 
 Johnson, that Fought 'at' Lundy's Lane 1 '— A Letter from 
 Washington — A Secession Mob — A Standard-Bearer wor- 
 thy of bis Flag — Another Salute to the Stars and Stripes — 
 Washington Threatened— A Yankee Ballad 28 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE PEOPLE AND THEIR ARMY. 
 
 The Uprising of the North— The Merchant's Son— The Qua- 
 ker's Clerk — The Indiana Man— The Vermonter— Sewing in 
 Liberty Hall— An Old Lady's Contribution— New Boots for 
 the Soldier— Salem's Watch-Cry— The Blacksmith and his 
 Boys— Adieu to the Seventh— Loss of the Navy Yard— Sol- 
 diers must go through Maryland— Butler's Passage through 
 the State 44 
 
0' CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WESTERN* TRAITORS OUTWITTED. 
 
 News from Missouri— State Rights— The Arsenal at St. Louis 
 attacked— Captain Stokes' Exploits — Camp Jackson eur- 
 renders to Lyon C3 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE FIRST NATIONAL BEREAVEMENT OF THE WAR. 
 
 Colonel Ellsworth— His Character as a Boy— His Pursuits when 
 a Youth — The Young Captain and Christian — Tour of the 
 Company— Disappointment— Kaising the New York Regi- 
 ment—The Last Letter— The Meeting on the Stairs— The 
 Mourning of the People .73 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE COAST. THE RELAY HOUSE, AND FORTRESS MONROE. 
 
 The Blockade— Southern Ports— How the Money is Raised — 
 Searching Car Passengers— Work done at " Freedom Fort" 
 — " Swear Him In "—Arrival of Contrabands— Butler's Re- 
 ply to Col. Mallory— The Mistake at Big Bethel— Another 
 Young Hero is Slain— Sergeant Goodfellow— Lieutenant 
 Greble— Faithful unto Death— Story of Adjutant Stevens — 
 Ministering to the Wounded 84 
 
 CHAPTER TIL 
 
 WESTERN VIRGINIA. 
 
 A Dangerous French Lady— John Brown— Rosecrans in Vir- 
 ginia—Wheeling — The Soldier at Vienna— Lander's Ride- 
 Col. Dumont decides the Victory at Carrick's Ford— A new 
 kind of Bombshell lte 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 A GREAT DISASTER. 
 
 The News from Bull Eun— Gloom throughout the Land— The 
 Ilampton Legion and General Jackson — The Arrival of 
 Kirby Smith — Patterson's Error — Patriotic Disobedience — 
 The " Child " of the Sixth 113 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 GLIMPSES OF THE BATTLE-FIELD. 
 
 General Pierce— Specimens from the Scrap-Book— Three Sol- 
 diers — New Hampshire, Ohio, and Michigan Boys 130 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 wilson's creek. 
 
 The Guerrillas— How Cairo was Saved— Gen. Lyon at Wilson's 
 Creek — Another Volunteer — The Eebels of Memphis — A Spy 
 on his Errand— The Effect of the Letter 137 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 TRIVATEERS AND THEIR CRIMES. 
 
 The Voice of the Nation— The Flag below the Cross— Organiz- 
 ing the Army— The Sumter— Captain McGilvery's Wife— 
 The Affair at Hatteras— More about Western Virginia— The 
 Misfortune at Ball's Bluff— Col. Baker— The Twenty-first of 
 October— East and West— Roger's Song 150 
 
3 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAFFER XII. 
 
 REFUGEES AND THEIR BORE 
 
 The North forced to Fight— The fighting Chaplain's Prayer— 
 The Spirit of Slavery— A Sorrowful Story— Southern Ruf- 
 fians— A Trial of Guessing 167 
 
 CHAPTER xni. 
 
 A DEFENCE AND AX ASSAULT. 
 
 Mail Days in Camp — Affairs in Fremont's Department — The 
 Danger at Lexington — The Struggle for the Hospital— The 
 Surrender— Advancing to Springfield— A Famous Charge — 
 The valiant Dueler — Fremont recalled 178 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HOLIDAYS. 
 
 Going to Church— The First Sleigh-Ride of the Season— The 
 Rough Regiment at Santa Rosa— Daniel's Furlough — His 
 Experiences— Port Royal— A Procession of Ships— The 
 Spoils Taken — Deaafort— The Boatman's Song — The Second 
 Adieu 1S3 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 GOING FORTH FOR THE GOOD CAUSE. 
 
 "Hebe's a letter from Daniel, wife!" 
 said Mr. Warren, coming in from the post- 
 office. 
 
 "From Daniel!" said Mrs. Warren, 
 " Why, he writes early this week. What's 
 the matter ? " 
 
 "Oh, nothing, I take it. Let's hear 
 what he has to say.' 7 
 
 So Mrs. Warren read aloud : 
 
 Athurst, April — , 1861. 
 My Beloved Parents : 
 
 Ever since I sent you last week's letter, I have been able 
 to think of little else than our country's peril ; for every 
 one here is talking about it, and I find it almost impossi- 
 ble to apply myself to my books. You have doubtless 
 9 
 
 • - 
 
10 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 seen the notice in the newspapers that the President is 
 about to issue to the nation a call for troops. It 
 is thought that the militia of our State will be needed 
 in a few days, and there are men in this town who are 
 getting ready to leave, soon as the word comes. Xow, 
 what I want to know, dear parents, is whether you 
 will consent to let me go with the company here. I 
 was on the point of asking you in my last, but con- 
 cluded I had better first think the matter over fully to 
 myself. I regret, as you must, the delay this step 
 will make in my college course, for I shall have to give 
 up all hope of entering as senior next autumn. But I 
 am willing to defer my plans, and even to give tlicm 
 up, if necessary. So far as I am concerned, my mind 
 is clear on this point. I ought to serve my coun- 
 try in her need. Think, dear parents, what a 
 crisis the present emergency may be in our history. 
 Perhaps it will not last long ; perhaps in a few months 
 I can come back to books and home. I earnestly hope 
 you will send me your consent ; if I could get it by re- 
 turn of mail, I should be free to leave at a moment's 
 warning. But if there is time, you will see me home 
 first, if only for a flying visit. I believe, if you think 
 this matter over thoroughly, you will be of my opinion, 
 and say " Go." And be sure, please, to send word back 
 soon; if the right word, right away. My love to 
 Maedy and the boys, with heaps left for Aunt Ellen 
 and yourselves. 
 
 As ever, your affectionate son, 
 
 Daniel Warren. 
 
 RSf 
 
 • 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 11 
 
 The mother's voice had trembled more 
 and more in reading this letter, and now 
 her face looked deeply troubled. Both she 
 and Aunt Ellen kept silence, but Mr. War- 
 ren left his seat and walked the floor. After 
 a moment he said, " He wants to turn sol- 
 dier ! Well ! Well ! It's come sudden as 
 a thunder-clap. We can't spare him, 
 though — can't think of it for a moment, 
 lie mustn't go." 
 
 '* And } T et, if Daniel's mind is once made 
 up, he's not easily moved," said Aunt 
 Ellen. "I've wondered sometimes if all 
 the excitement we've had lately wouldn't 
 have its influence on him, and lead him to 
 this very step." 
 
 " But we can't let him take it," repeated 
 the father, decidedly. " I'll dissuade him. 
 I'll write this very night, — the letter will 
 go in the morning's mail. It's not best to 
 wait, is it wife?" 
 
 " I can't say ; let us think about it 
 awhile. To give him up so suddenly would 
 be terrible, yet — ." The mother paused, 
 hardly knowing what else to say. 
 
12 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 So the parents considered the matter in 
 their own hearts, and consulted together 
 till late into the night. The result was, 
 Mr. Warren wrote back to Daniel that, 
 if u still of the opinion he ought to go, his 
 parents could not say No f but they urged 
 him to come home, that they might look 
 upon his face once more, and proposed that 
 he should leave with the Fairbrook com- 
 pany, instead of going back to Athurst. 
 This sacrifice of their son was not the less 
 deeply felt because so readily made. All 
 the next day, as Mrs. Warren moved about 
 her household duties, her heart was with 
 her boy. When she made ready his little 
 room she could think only of the bright 
 face that had so often turned to hers 
 as Daniel bent over his books. Would he 
 really go ? she wondered. Would he not 
 think differently when he came to be at 
 home with them all"? When she spread 
 the coverlid of his bed, she thought how 
 soou his form might be lying stark and stiff, 
 ready for a soldier's grave. Many tears 
 fell from the mother's eyes as these pic- 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 13 
 
 tures of the past and of the possible future 
 passed before her ; but she kept a serene 
 face, for Daniel must not see her falter. 
 Nor did he when, after two days, he was 
 welcomed back to the home fireside. The 
 children, Franklin, Roger and Maedy, were 
 at first greatly troubled at the thought of 
 losing their brother. Nobody, in their 
 eyes, was so wise as Daniel, — at least none 
 but their father and mother. They clung 
 around him fondly, now caressing and now 
 complaining, child-fashion. 
 
 " What do you want to go and leave us 
 for, Daniel?" said little Maedy. When 
 a little girl she had given herself that name, 
 instead of her true one Mary ; so" Maedy " 
 she had been called ever since. 
 
 "Ah," said Daniel, "I can't tell you all 
 the ' whys,' little one. You wouldn't under- 
 stand them all now, but you will by and 
 by. Wouldn't you like me to write you 
 a letter sometime, Maedy, when I go to 
 Washington, and see the President? " 
 
 " Oh, wouldn't I like to see Washing- 
 ton!" exclaimed Franklin. 
 
14 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 " What for ? " asked Maedy. 
 
 " Why, because it's the capital of the 
 country," said Franklin. " The President 
 lives there, and it's full of great houses, and 
 senators, and soldiers — isn't it, Daniel? 
 You'll write us a letter when you get there, 
 won't you ?" 
 
 "Brother Daniel, when you write home 
 I wish you'd leave out all the big words," 
 exclaimed Roger, who was a couple of 
 years younger than Franklin. " Write 
 easy, so that we children can understand, 
 will you ? There's Frank, he can make 
 out the longest kind of a lingo ; but I'm 
 one of the numskull kind. I shall want 
 to hear about your battles and all that. 
 Write for us all,\vill you? " 
 
 " Yes," said Daniel, " I'll try to, though 
 it isn't as easy a thing as you may think, 
 for big people to talk like little ones." 
 
 "Brother," said Franklin, "I thought 
 countries like ours didn't have wars. Our 
 history tells about ever so many kings that 
 used to fight with each other all the time. 
 But we haven't kings, and yet now every 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 15 
 
 one says we're going to have a war. I 
 don't see that we're any better off than 
 other people." 
 
 "Don't you?" said Daniel. "How 
 would you like it if, when you grew to be 
 a young man, you had to leave your studies 
 or your business — whatever you were 
 doing — to be a soldier; if the king's 
 officers wouldn't let you off, except you 
 could pay them hundreds of dollars, and 
 sometimes not then ; if the king's police- 
 men could enter your house whenever 
 he chose and search it through from gar- 
 ret to cellar, even to reading your letters ; 
 if, when you happened to write or say 
 anything not pleasing to the king, or to 
 go with people that he disliked, you were 
 thrown into a dungeon, or, may be, 
 sent away from home forever, thankful then 
 that your head wasn't cut off; if you 
 couldn't make a visit to New York unless 
 you paid for a passport and carried it 
 along, describing you as a man the New 
 York king need have no fear of; if you 
 had to pay a certain sum to the govern- 
 
16 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 ment for every window in your house, 
 every horse and carriage in your barn, 
 and if you had to submit to all this, 
 not only when the king was at war, but 
 all the time ; and if this strict way of deal- 
 ing with you was not so much that the 
 people might be safe and happy — for that 
 they are not — but that the king should be 
 free from alarm, and might have all the gold 
 and jewels he wanted, beside more serv- 
 ants, and horses, and parks, and palaces 
 than I could number in a day ? " 
 
 " Palaces ! " said Roger, looking up from 
 the arrow he had begun to whittle during 
 Daniel's talk. "Why, I always thought 
 it would be fun to live where they had 
 parks and palaces. They shoot deer in 
 them, don't they 1 " 
 
 " Shoot deer in palaces," laughed 
 Maedy. 
 
 " Well, in the parks, then," answered 
 Roger, joining in the laugh. 
 
 " Yes, they do ; but they wouldn't let 
 you," answered Daniel, " nor any one but 
 the king and his court. I rather think, 
 
THE BROTHElt SOLDIERS. 17 
 
 boys, by the time you're men you'll find 
 yourselves better oft 1 in America than in any 
 king-land. You children hear a great deal 
 said about our "free country," the "lib- 
 erty " we enjoy, and so on. But you don't 
 know what these words mean, nor what 
 our freedom is, j ust because you haven't yet 
 learned how other nations live. Why, one 
 of our college fellows, who has been abroad, 
 was telling me about a man that he and 
 his father saw in Austria. They stopped at 
 a little out-of-the-way place among the 
 mountains, where there was a prison. 
 This man was one of the prisoners, but 
 just then he was at his daily work, sweep- 
 ing the streets, with a ball and chain round 
 his foot, and an armed soldier dogging 
 his heels. He was a nobleman of the land, 
 too, but had tried to gain a little more lib- 
 erty for his countrymen, — was what they 
 call a 'political offender,' — and the Em- 
 peror sent him up there for life." 
 
 " Are emperors bad as kings ? " asked 
 Maedy. 
 
 " Yes," said Daniel. " Generally they are 
 
18 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 worse, for they have more power ; it isn't 
 good for a man to have much power over 
 others, unless he has a great spirit that will 
 use it rightly. There are not many good 
 kings nor emperors ; there never were." 
 
 " Why not?" said Roger. "I should 
 think the people would choose only good 
 men for kings. 
 
 " Why, Roger ! " said Frank, " Don't you 
 know they don't ever choose him? He's 
 born to the kingdom. When the king dies, 
 they take the oldest son and crown him. 
 They never choose one, do they, Daniel ? " 
 " No, not now," said his brother ; 
 " that is the way a king is made, no 
 matter whether he is kind or cruel, wise 
 or foolish ; he may be the most wicked 
 man in the nation, yet if he is the oldest 
 son of the royal family, he's crowned king 
 over the people." 
 
 " Whew ! " exclaimed Roger, " that's 
 tough. We never shall have any of those 
 fellows here, shall we? " 
 
 c"No, sir," said Daniel, with an amused 
 look. "I don't think we shall. Our 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 19 
 
 Union is rather different from the Old 
 World monarchies, as you will find out, the 
 older you grow; and one reason why I 
 want to go to the war, little Maedy, is be- 
 cause the miserable rebels are trying to 
 ruin our Government. They are like rob- 
 bers who should come and carry away our 
 furniture, and tear us away from each 
 other. No, the rebels are worse ; for their 
 crime would harm not one, but many fami- 
 lies for scores, perhaps hundreds, of years 
 to come." 
 
 "Will they hurt us?" said Maedy, in 
 some alarm. " Do you think they will 
 come here, brother ? " 
 
 "No, little one," said Daniel, more 
 gently, " I don't believe God will let them. 
 But you know if we want God to prevent 
 anything we must prevent it ourselves all 
 we can. So I'm going now to do what I 
 can ; but I guess we won't have a long war, 
 Maedy," he added, kissing the sober little 
 face before him. " I may be back again be- 
 fore your next birthday; come, show me 
 the new skipping-rope I saw you trying ;" 
 
20 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 and in a few minutes Maedy had forgotten 
 the dangerous rebels in her attempts to 
 show Daniel how she could already jump 
 " up to twenty without missing." 
 
 Daniel was so earnest in his purpose 
 that the children caught something of 
 his spirit, and ceased to grieve over his 
 determination. But the father and mother 
 could not give him up so easily. They 
 hardly dared say he must stay, for they 
 were not sure that it would be right ; 
 yet if by any means they could have 
 kept him at home, how glad they would 
 have been ! They wanted to give him up 
 willingly ; they certainly did not wish their 
 son to excel them in devotion to their coun- 
 try ; but they were reluctant, out of love 
 to him. 
 
 " I believe it would break our hearts, 
 Daniel, if anything should happen to you," 
 said his father, in a husky voice, as they 
 talked together that evening after the little 
 ones had gone to rest. The young man 
 said nothing ; he felt his mother's eyes 
 were upon him, with such sorrow in them 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 21 
 
 that he dared not trust himself to speak. 
 "I think, father," he said, after a moment, 
 " that the same One who gives me strength 
 now to go and defend a good cause, and 
 gives you and mother strength for the 
 separation, will be 'sufficient' for us both 
 in any evil that may overtake us — any evil 
 whatever. Besides," he added, looking up 
 cheerfully, "I shall feel safer fighting, if 
 that's what we're to do, than I should here 
 at home. If I were to stay, and then 
 should get sick or hurt, I believe I should 
 die of regret." 
 
 "But, Daniel," said his mother, " you've 
 always been used to good food and clothes ; 
 you're very particular, you know, about 
 some things. What will you do when you 
 have no spotless wristbands, nor collars ; 
 when you must eat salt pork and hard 
 bread, or go without ; and you're not used 
 to hard work, my son ; you'll find this new 
 life all the harder because you've been so 
 long in the habit of sitting still over your 
 books." 
 
 " Now, mother," said Daniel, in an in- 
 
22 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 jured tone, though with a gleam of misv 
 chief in his eye, " I didn't think you'd talk 
 against me, whatever others might say. 
 A poor, feeble, dandified fellow like me, 
 then, had better get out of the way ; little 
 use he'd be at home. So you don't think 
 I'm capable of doing without my ordinary 
 comforts, though thousands of other men 
 can give up theirs ? That's what you 
 mean, is it, mother ? " 
 
 "Oh, Daniel," said his mother, with a 
 loving smile, " you know I don't mean any 
 such thing." 
 
 " Why, just look at me," said the young 
 man rising, his face asrlow with an earnest 
 purpose. "I'm young and strong, just 
 the one that ought to go ; one who could 
 give the least excuse for not going. 
 Whenever the fellows in college went off 
 on an excursion — we made many a one 
 last summer, looking up specimens in 
 Geology and Natural History, I could walk 
 as far as any one, and climb as high. I've 
 heard larger fellows than myself complain 
 of weariness before I'd thought of it. No, 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 23 
 
 no, I have no reason for staying quietly at 
 home, while multitudes of other young 
 men give themselves to the work of putting 
 down the rebellion. 
 
 "If one of us were sick, father," he 
 added, "you wouldn't spare money nor 
 strength for us ; you'd give your last dollar 
 to save us. Now, in view of this danger 
 threatening us all, relatives, friends and 
 country, won't you give me up just for a 
 time ? Isn't it merely doing the little we 
 can for ourselves, as well as for the coun- 
 try that you've taught us to honor, and 
 the Union that we believe is the best gov- 
 ernment on the earth ? I confess I feel as 
 the President did, when he said, ' I shall 
 consider myself one of the happiest men 
 in the world, if I can help save it.' Why, 
 our great-grandfather fought for it, as you 
 used to tell us, at Lexington and Bunker 
 Hill. I was looking to-day at the battered 
 old musket up stairs. We mustn't let the 
 family degenerate, father. I want to be 
 worthy of him." 
 
 Mrs. tVarren turned a face beaming with 
 
24 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 pride and love toward her son, though 
 something more than pride glistened in her 
 eyes. " We will not keep you, Daniel," 
 she said, " If you go, my blessing shall fol- 
 low you. I cannot bid you stay against 
 your will." 
 
 " Your mother is right," said Mr. War- 
 ren, after a moment's silence. 
 
 So it was settled that Daniel should go. 
 
 The next morning the President's call 
 for seventy-five thousand men, and the 
 Governor's requisition for the State were 
 read to the crowd gathered in front of 
 the church on the village green. And 
 then Daniel came home with his father 
 to bid good-by. A few hours were spent 
 in hasty preparations ; a little Bible, 
 marked with a line from his mother's 
 hand and moistened with her tears, was 
 slipped into his breast-pocket ; a hurried, 
 choking meal, at which everybody tried to 
 be cheerful.; a solemn moment afterward, 
 when the father commended his son to the 
 keeping of that other Father whose love is 
 all-powerful, — and Daniel was gone ! They 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 25 
 
 could still discern him in the Fairbrook 
 company, as it marched across the green ; 
 now it was turning the corner — now he 
 was gone indeed ! 
 
 Little Maedy cried bitterly, and even 
 Frank and Roger could not keep back 
 their tears. But after a little, Aunt Ellen 
 wiped her eyes and said, " Come, chil- 
 dren, we must be brave like our Daniel; 
 he'd be sorry to see us grieving overmuch. 
 Here, Maedy, I've found a sheet for your 
 doll-bedstead, don't you want to hen^t ? 
 And Roger, suppose you put the finding 
 polish on your bow and arrow." 
 
 " Where's my scrap-book ? Aunt Ellen, 
 will you make me some mucilage ? " said 
 Franklin, " I have some more clippings 
 for it." 
 
 " Yes indeed ; and I have some, too, saved -^ 
 away for you — extracts and pictures." 
 
 " Here's a good one," he exclaimed, as 
 he looked over the collection. " I believe 
 I'll have a ' War Department ' in my book, 
 and put this in. Here's ' Warren;' it can't 
 be about Daniel." 
 
26 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 " Oh, no," said Aunt Ellen, smiling, 
 " That must be General Warren, a brave 
 old Massachusetts soldier, whose battle-cry 
 used to be, 'Tis sweet for our country to 
 die.' He did die for it at last. Perhaps 
 we're related to him, though I never heard 
 that we were." 
 
 u What's this ? " said Franklin, looking 
 over the papers. " ' The Two Furrows.' 
 It looks like a story. You read it, please, 
 Aunt Ellen." 
 
 alo 
 
 JfcSVell, if you wish," she said, and read 
 Dud : 
 
 The spring-time came, but not with mirth, 
 
 The banner of our trust, 
 And "with it, the best hopes of earth 
 
 Were trailing in the dust. 
 
 The farmer saw the shame from far, 
 
 An,d pausing in the field ; 
 Not the blade of peace, but the brand of war, 
 
 This arm of mine must yield. 
 
 With ready strength the farmer tore 
 
 The iron from the wood, 
 And to the village smith he bore 
 
 The ploughshare stout and good. 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 27 
 
 The blacksmith's arms were bare and brown 
 
 And loud the bellows roared ; 
 The farmer flung his ploughshare down, 
 
 "Now, forge me out a sword !" 
 
 And then a merry , merry chime 
 
 The sounding anvil rung ; 
 Good sooth ! it was a nobler rhyme 
 
 Than ever poet sung. 
 
 Tho blacksmith wrought with skill that day; 
 
 The blade was keen and bright, 
 And now where thickest is the fray, 
 
 The farmer leads the fight. 
 
 Not as of old the blade he sways, 
 
 To break the meadow's sleep, 
 But through the rebel ranks he lays 
 
 A furrow broad and deep. 
 
 The farmer's face is burned and brown, 
 
 But light is on his brow ; 
 Eight well he knows what blessings crown 
 
 The furrow of the plow. 
 
 But better is to-day's success," 
 
 Thus ran the farmer's word ; 
 For nations yet unborn shall bless 
 
 This furrow of the sword !" ' 
 
Chapter II. 
 
 WAR AT SUMTER, BLOODSHED AT BALTIMORE. 
 
 Ix the evening Maedy sat on her father's 
 knee, talking of her absent brother. <l Oh, 
 dear! " she sighed, "If Daniel could only 
 have staid with us ! Why can't they get 
 along without a war, papa?" 
 
 " We can, my darling, but the rebels 
 will not; they are determined to fight. 
 They struck the first blow at Sumter, you 
 know." 
 
 " But what did they for ?" persisted 
 Maedy. " I've heard something about Fort 
 Sumter, but I don't see why they wanted 
 to fight. Won't you tell me all about it, 
 papa V" 
 
 " That would be considerable for a small 
 head to hold ;" said the father, stroking 
 her hair, and thinking a moment. "Well, 
 these Southern men, that you hear so much 
 said of now-a-days, are slaveholders, you 
 28 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 29 
 
 know ; they think it is right to own col- 
 ored people, to make them work, to sell 
 their wives and little children away to 
 strangers, and to do many other things 
 that are very wicked and very cruel." 
 
 " How do the poor slaves get food or 
 clothes, if they have to work so for their 
 masters all the time ? " asked Maedy. 
 
 " Oh, the slave-owners take care of 
 them, but sometimes poorly enough. I 
 was reading lately of a rjlace in the South 
 where negroes were thought to be well 
 treated, and what do you think was each 
 one's regular food for a week ? A peck of 
 corn and about a quarter of a pound of meat 
 — not so much meat for a working man as 
 you have every day, Maedy. Well, it hap- 
 pened after awhile, that many people saw 
 how wrong slavery was, and the South- 
 erners began to fear that they could not 
 keep their negroes." 
 
 " What made those men like slavery?" 
 interrupted Maedy. 
 
 " Oh, many years ago, when our coun- 
 try was ruled by an English king, and men 
 
30 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 didn't know right from wrong so well as 
 they do now, our people held slaves. 
 Other countries had them too. The 
 masters soon found how useful the poor 
 black creatures were to work, espe- 
 cially in the great cotton fields of the 
 South. So when we Northern people set 
 our slaves free, the men down there said, 
 ' They won't work if we give them liberty, 
 and we can't do without them.' ' Yes, but 
 it is wrong for one man to own another,' 
 said we. Then they tried to persuade 
 themselves it wasn't. At last they really 
 declared it was right ; their ministers 
 preached on the righteousness of slavery, 
 and tried to prove it from the Bible. 
 Now, you know, Maedy, when you 
 run down hill, you go faster and faster ; 
 and so it is with people who do wrong ; 
 unless they stop suddenly, they do it more 
 and more — always faster. In the South 
 they ill-treated men who opposed slavery. 
 Some were put in prison, others were 
 tormented and killed. The masters 
 became more cruel to their slaves, and 
 
THE BROTTIER SOLDIERS. 31 
 
 more quarrelsome with us, till at last a 
 number of them came together and said, 
 1 Let us live by ourselves ; we'll make a 
 nation of our own ; then we can keep our 
 slaves without trouble, and do what we 
 like with them. To be sure, we must 
 break oar oath to defend the United States 
 Government. We must rob it of land, 
 money, forts, guns, everything we can for 
 our new nation ; but never mind, we'll try 
 it' So they began. They had muskets 
 sent South, and United States soldiers sent 
 North. Those of the slavery men who 
 were Senators at Washington deserted 
 their places ; some of them, such as Jeffer- 
 son Davis, President of the so-called Con- 
 federacy, now hold office in their pretended 
 Government. These men worked with all 
 their might to force the Southern States 
 out of the Union. But you may be sure 
 the patriotic people in the North were not 
 asleep all this time. They watched and 
 made ready, though hoping always that 
 there would be no fighting. ' We will not 
 go to war with men of our own nation. 
 
32 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 unless they drive us to it,' said they. 
 Nqw, in South Carolina, where the rebels 
 are most noisy, there were a few Government 
 soldiers, taking care of the forts that guard 
 Charleston harbor ; but when they learned 
 what the rebels were doing, their com- 
 mander, Major Anderson, brought them into 
 one place, that in case of danger they 
 misfit make the stronger defense. He 
 chose for this purpose Fort Sumter, named 
 from a hero who fought in the Revolution, 
 which you'll study about some day, 
 Maedy. After the little band of soldiers 
 were safely lodged in old Sumter, they 
 gathered with uncovered heads around 
 their commander to see the flag raised. 
 But before it was hoisted, the chaplain 
 pra)*ed God to defend it, and to help them 
 in their extremity. You can think what 
 an earnest prayer that was. ' Amen,' re- 
 sponded every man at the close, and then 
 the Major, holding the cords, let loose the 
 white stars. That flag was never given up 
 to the rebels. 
 
 " But it made a tremendous fluttering 
 
TIIE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 33 
 
 among them. They called upon Major 
 Anderson to ' evacuate 7 the fort ; that is, 
 go off and leave it. Being a steadfast man, 
 he wouldn't go, though what would be- 
 come of his eighty men he did not know, 
 for the rebels had driven away a steamer 
 laden with provisions for the garri- 
 son. Right before their eyes it had to 
 turn homewards with its cargo. * If the 
 Major refuses to go, he must be driven 
 out,' said the Secessionists ; they could not 
 bear any longer to see that ' dirty rag,' as 
 they called the American banner, floating 
 over Charleston waters. Accordingly they 
 mustered a host of men — -twelve thousand 
 all told — more than could be crowded into 
 our meeting-house, if you filled it twelve 
 times over ; they planted their cannon and 
 mortars at the fort, and fired till our men 
 had to cover their mouths with wet 
 blankets to keep out fire and smoke. 
 So they battled for two days and a 
 uight ; when the flag was shot away, 
 another was instantly nailed to the staff. 
 But at last, being so few, the powder 
 
34 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 nearly spent, and the Fort on fire, they 
 could avail nothing by remaining, so they 
 1 saluted the flag,' that is, fired guns in its 
 honor, and marched out of the battered 
 walls' with beating drums and flying col- 
 ors. A Federal steamer was in the har- 
 bor, and they took passage to New-York. 
 Now, my little girl, you see why Daniel 
 has gone to the war. The rebels began it 
 at Sumter; he and thousands of others want 
 to help in bringing it to an end. I read 
 the other day about an old man — did I tell 
 you about him, the old hero that wanted to 
 enlist V" 
 
 " No, papa, what did he do?" 
 " I'll find the story for you," said the 
 father, looking over the magazines that 
 lay at hand on the table. " Here it is: 
 
 SCOTT AND THE VETERAN. 
 
 BY BAYARD TAYLOR. 
 
 An old and crippled veteran to the War Department came: 
 
 He sought the chief who led him on many a field of 
 fame, — 
 
 The chief -who shouted, u Foward ! " where'er his ban- 
 ner rose, 
 
 And bore its stars in triumph behind the flying foes. 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 35 
 
 "Have you forgotten, general," thebatter'd soldier cried, 
 " The days of eighteen hundred twelve, when I was at 
 
 your side? 
 Have you forgotten Johnson, that fought at Lundy's 
 
 Lane? 
 'Tis true I'm old and pension'd; but I want to fight 
 
 again." 
 
 "Have I forgotten," said the chief, my brave old sol- 
 dier ? No ! 
 
 And here's the hand I gave you then, and let it tell you 
 so; 
 
 But you have done your share, my friend ; you're 
 crippled, old, and gray, 
 
 And we have need of younger arms and fresher blood 
 to-day." 
 
 "But, general," cried the veteran, a flush upon his 
 
 brow, 
 " The very men who fought with us, they say, are 
 
 traitors now. 
 They've torn the flag of Lundy's Lane, our old Red, 
 
 "White, and Blue ; 
 And, while a drop of blood is left, I'll show that drop 
 
 is true. 
 
 " I'm not so weak but I can strike, and I've a good old 
 gun, 
 
 To get the range of traitors' hearts and pick them one 
 by one. 
 
 Your minie rifles and such arms it a'n't worth while to 
 try; 
 
 I couldn't get the hang of them ; but I'll keep my pow- 
 der dry! " 
 
36 THE BROTHER SOLDIER*. 
 
 •'God bless you, comrade!" said the chief; "God 
 
 bless your loyal heart ! 
 But younger men are in the field, and claim to have 
 
 their part : 
 They'll plant our sacred banner in each rebellious town, 
 And woe henceforth to any hand that dares to pull it 
 
 down! " 
 
 " But, general," still persisting, the weeping veteran 
 
 cried, 
 " I'm young enough to follow, so long as you're my 
 
 guide ; 
 And some, you know, must bite the dust, and that at 
 
 least can I : 
 So give the young ones a place to fight, but me a place 
 
 to die ! 
 
 " If they should fire on Pickens, let the colonel in com- 
 mand, 
 
 Put me upon the rampart, with the flag-staff in my 
 hand : 
 
 No odds how hot the cannon smoke, or how the shells 
 may fly, 
 
 I'll hold the Stars and Stripes aloft, and hold them till 
 I die ! 
 
 " I'm ready, general, so you let a post to me be given, 
 
 Where Washington can see me, as he looks from high- 
 est heaven, 
 
 And says to Putnam at his side, or may be General 
 Wayne, 
 
 ' There stands old Billy Johnson, that fought at Lundy's 
 Lane! 
 
THE BROTHEB SOLDIERS. 37 
 
 "And when the fight is hottest, before the traitors fry, 
 When shell and ball are screeching' and bursting in the 
 
 sky. 
 If any shot should hit me, and lay me on my face, 
 My soul would go to Washington's and not to 
 
 Arnold's place." 
 
 A day or two after Daniel left home, a 
 note came from him in Boston, saying that 
 the troops were expecting to leave for 
 Washington. You can think, then, how 
 troubled the Warrens were when, soon 
 after, they read that a regiment of soldiers 
 had been mobbed as they passed through 
 Baltimore, on their way to the capital ; and 
 what was worse, that several of them were 
 wounded. 
 
 Many a Massachusetts family did not 
 close their eyes that night, for the whole 
 North was in commotion over the news. 
 Frank and Roger waited impatiently at the 
 post-office for the mails to open, but failed 
 for some days to get the looked-for letter. 
 At last, however, it came, and the boys 
 bounded home with their prize. "Here, 
 mother, here it is," shouted Roger, "he 
 isn't dead yet, is he, mother?" and looking 
 
38 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 at the address, "Isn't it straight! I 
 couldn't write like that if I lived to be as 
 old as Adam." There was a grand jubilee 
 for a moment, but silence as the mother 
 began to read Daniel's letter : 
 
 Washington, April — , 1S61. 
 
 My Deak Ones at Home : 
 
 I know you Lave been thinking of me during these 
 eventful days ; — let me say then, right here, that I am 
 well and happy, — never in my life more so ; for every 
 day I am more assured, dear parents, that in turning 
 soldier I have done right Since bidding you good-by, 
 I have led rather a rough life but am less inclined to 
 turn back now than ever. 
 
 When we reached Boston we found awaiting us a com- 
 pany from Marblehead, who claim the honor of being the 
 first to start for the war. A few hours were spent in 
 regulating and arranging the troops, and then we 
 gathered in front of the State House, to hear the 
 farewell of our Governor. The next day we started 
 for "Washington. Our men were in good spirits, and 
 time passed away pleasantly enough on our journey. 
 "We have some religious, as well as merely good men in 
 the regiment. As we passed through Trenton, Xew 
 Jersey, some one asked a member of our company if 
 he had any whisky to stimulate him. " That is my 
 stimulant," said the soldier, drawing a Bible from his 
 pocket. I thought of an army I had read of in his- 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 39 
 
 tory, who carried Bibles and sang hymns, and of whom 
 it is recorded that " no enemy ever saw their backs." 
 At Philadelphia some more companies joined us, and 
 we left early on the morning of the 19th for Bal- 
 timore, which we reached at noon. The cars are 
 there drawn by horses from one depot to another. 
 Some of the forward cars had gone on thus, but w r e 
 soon found that rebels were ready to dispute our pas- 
 sage north of Washington, as well as south of it. No 
 horses were brought to our car ; and as wc did not 
 like the looks of the crowd around us, our captain — a 
 first-rate fellow, by the way — concluded to leave the 
 cars and " form " in the street, which we did under 
 difficulties, for the mob began to throw stones at us 
 from the house-tops. We had something of a fight 
 with them there, though we did not fire until one of our 
 men was killed. At last we determined to march to 
 the Washington depot, hoping for protection from the 
 mayor and police, who had come to our help. But 
 the mob was too furious to be controlled ; they had 
 barricaded the streets, and tried desperately to over- 
 whelm us with a shower of stones from the windows 
 and roofs. I thought our color-bearer would surely 
 fall, but he kept the good flag aloft through it all. 
 lie's a brave one — that Timothy Crowley ! You read, 
 perhaps, of the Governor giving us a flag, and charging 
 us to keep it from the hands of the foe. Of course, 
 we cheered, and vowed to die in its defense — little 
 thinking it was so soon to be imperilled. Crowley 
 marched at our head that day as if no earthly power 
 
40 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 could stay him : I could think only of the irrepressible 
 advance of a locomotive, as I watched the flag moving 
 straight onward ; it never looked as bright to me as 
 in the tramp of that dismal afternoon, — for we had 
 nothing but that to cheer us — not even music. 
 One great paving-stone hit Crowley between the 
 shoulders, and rested on his knapsack till one of the 
 sergeants stepped up and knocked it off; but lie never 
 faltered in his march. One of my comrades was 
 killed before my eyes. You can imagine, perhaps, how 
 I felt ; but no, I don't think you can. Before, when 
 we were talking in the cars about the future, I won- 
 dered whether I might not be afraid to fight when the 
 time came — whether I could really trust myself to face 
 loaded muskets, or to put a bullet into a fellow-being. 
 And I confess, when I first saw the crowd of ruffians 
 in Baltimore, I did feel a little shaky for a moment. 
 I'd never seen a mob before, you know ; that may 
 serve as some excuse for me. But when we began to 
 defend ourselves, I forgot myself: amid the rush and 
 din, I was half conscious that my last moment might 
 be near, but I was so angry at the mob of traitors 
 that I could think of nothing clearly except the busi- 
 ness in hand. Well, we finished it at last : but those 
 were much the hardest two miles I ever walked. "When 
 we reached the cars, bearing our dead and wounded 
 with us, I examined my left arm, which had a queer, 
 numb feeling in it. I must have been hit by a stone, 
 though when I couldn't tell ; I remember being knocked 
 about somewhat in the march., and am pretty sure I 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 41 
 
 dealt out as many blows as I got. For once it was 
 better to give than to receive. Don't be troubled about 
 my arm ; no bones are broken. The wound is simply a 
 braise and a slight cut, of which I am prouder than I 
 should be of a college prize. They sent me here to 
 the hospital, but I am to leave in a few days. Did 
 you hear about one of our men who bled to death 
 in Baltimore? lie died saluting the flag: they had 
 taken him into a house, and just before he ceased to 
 breathe he stood up, his right hand raised, his eyes 
 uplifted, and exclaimed : '"All hail to the Stars and 
 Stripes!*' — a good word for dying patriot lips. 
 
 The whole city was in tumult when we arrived here, 
 and still remains so, for, though troops are coming in 
 every day, we are hardly safe yet. You've read, perhaps, 
 of the rebel plan to seize Harper's Ferry and march 
 upon "Washington. That news was communicated to the 
 loyal men here, who had a secret meeting in a church 
 that very night (the 15th of April), and organized a 
 battalion for the city's defense. You may judge they 
 were brave fellows, for the whole battalion mustered 
 only 200 men. But their colonel, Cassius Clay, whose 
 name they bear, is equal to a regiment of soldiers. I 
 believe his mere name would make the rebels tremble. 
 They say he is the only anti-slavery man these South- 
 erners are afraid to attack ; he goes armed, and 
 they've always found him ready for them ; otherwise 
 they would have killed him by stealth long ago. 
 The Clay Battalion patrol the city, while General 
 Scott's regulars defend the Capitol, and another body 
 
42 THE BROTHER SOLDIER?. 
 
 of troops guard the "White House. Headquarters are 
 in the Senate Chamber, and the New York 7th lias 
 the Hall of Representatives : but we hope to be well 
 defended before another week closes. Don't be anxious 
 about me, my dear ones. I may not be able to 
 write often or regularly, but shall take advantage of 
 my opportunities. I enclose a song one of our men, 
 Ephraim Peabody, sung the night after our march 
 through Baltimore ; 'tis said to be his own composition. 
 
 A few directions concerning letters, and 
 some friendly messages, closed Daniel's 
 letter. This was the song : — 
 
 THE YANKEE VOLUNTEERS. 
 
 Come, all ye true Americans, that love the Stripes and 
 Stars, 
 
 For which your gallant countrymen go marching to 
 the Avars, 
 
 For grand old Massachusetts raise up three rousing 
 cheers, — 
 
 Three times three and a tiger for the Yankee Volun- 
 teers ! 
 
 The nineteenth day of April they marched unto the 
 war, 
 
 And on that day, upon the way, they stopped at Balti- 
 more, 
 
 And trustingly expected the customary cheers, 
 
 "Which every loyal city gives the Yankee Volunteers. 
 
43 
 
 But suddenly in fury there came a mighty crowd, 
 Led on by negro-drivers with curses long and loud ; 
 With frenzied imprecations, with savage threats and 
 
 sneers, 
 They welcomed to the city tho Yankee Volunteers. 
 
 The murderous storm of missiles laid many a soldier 
 low, 
 
 Yet still these gallant hearts forbore to give the an- 
 swering blow, 
 
 Till all the miscreants shouted, "They're nearly dead 
 with fears, 
 
 We'll hurry up and finish these Yankee Volunteers." 
 
 But lo ! the guns are leveled, and loud the volleys 
 
 roar, 
 And inch by inch they fight their way through tho 
 
 streets of Baltimore. ; 
 Before them shrunk the traitors, above them rise the 
 
 cheers, 
 As through the throng they march along — the Yankee 
 
 Volunteers. 
 
 Hurrah, then, for the old Bay State, that stood so well 
 at bay ! 
 
 Hurrah for those who shed their blood and gave their 
 lives away ! 
 
 For good old Massachusetts, boys, now give three 
 rousing cheers, — 
 
 Three times three and a tiger for the Yankee Volun- 
 teers ! 
 
Chapter III. 
 
 THE PEOPLE AND THEIR ARMY. 
 
 Of course, the talk and thought of the 
 house after this was of Daniel's wound. 
 Some honest pride was mingled with their 
 sadness, as the Warrens spoke of their 
 boy, already a young hero, and among the 
 first to suffer in the common cause. "If I 
 could only fly to the hospital and see just 
 how he really is," said Mrs. Warren and 
 Aunt Ellen at least twenty times a day. 
 "I dreamt last night that I saw brother 
 Daniel," said Maedy one morning. " He 
 looked so bright and brave, and kissed me 
 over and over again. I wanted to see his 
 arm, then he laughed and said, ' Oh, it 
 isn't very bad, my darling.' But I made 
 him roll up his sleeve, and there was a 
 gash, and the blood running out ; that 
 frightened me so that I cried, and then I 
 woke up. Oh dear ! I hope he's well by this 
 44 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 45 
 
 time. Dreams go by contraries, you know, 
 mamma. Then afterward I dreamt of going 
 to St. Louis to see brother Horace. Don't 
 you believe he gets home-sick sometimes, 
 way off there?" 
 
 " No, dear, I don't think he does, though 
 he certainly would like to see us all ; but 
 he has a great deal to do in Uncle George's 
 store ; he's been gone a year, you know, 
 and by that time people generally get over 
 home-sickness." 
 
 "But would you like to live as Uncle 
 George does, in a city, and such a smoky 
 one ? I shouldn't think, if he had the best 
 house in the city, Horace would like to 
 stay there. No cows, no chickens, no 
 birds — nothing prettv out-doors, is there, 
 mamma?" 
 
 "Oh, yes, there are many pleasant things 
 i;i a city," said Mrs. Warren, smiling. 
 "Horace likes St. Louis very much." 
 
 "Is there any war off there, mamma?" 
 
 "Not much yet, dear; but they're 
 making ready for it. Why do you ask, 
 Maedy ?" 
 
46 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS 
 
 "Oh, nothing ; I was thinking, suppose 
 brother Horace should go to the war, as 
 Daniel did here. But he won't, will he, 
 mamma?" 
 
 " No, Maedy, he'd hardly want to go, I 
 think. He's older than Daniel, and settled 
 in business, so he couldn't leave very well ; 
 and if he could, we couldn't spare both 
 sons. Come, little one, it's school-time, 
 run and get your hat," she added hurriedly, 
 as if she wished to talk no more on the 
 subject. 
 
 Most of you, little readers, can remem- 
 ber, and most of you will carry some 
 memory of those days through your lives. 
 So you need not be told how morning, 
 noon, and night, the Warren family talked 
 of "the country " and its afflictions. But 
 as the children could not understand all 
 that was said, and as the father knew they 
 were living in a time that however dark 
 then, would hereafter be memorable in their 
 nation's history, he often gathered them 
 about him at evening, and talked of the 
 news, "story fashion," as Franklin said; 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS 47 
 
 that is, in a simple, easy way that the chil- 
 dren could understand. 
 
 14 Father, there's a terrible row over the 
 rebels, isn't there ? " exclaimed Roger, one 
 evening, as Mr. Warren was talking thus 
 to the children around the tea-table. 
 
 "Not exactly a row, Roger," said Mr. 
 Warren. " We'll leave that to prize- 
 fighters and their like. The people and 
 their Government have set themselves to 
 their work : they dislike to fight, and 
 have waited patiently many years, hoping 
 to get over their troubles without shedding 
 blood ; but now their forts are seized, 
 their capital is threatened, and they must 
 defend themselves. That they mean to do, 
 children : no ' rebel ' will ever come here 
 and take our home from us, and no slaves 
 will ever be sold from Bunker Hill, though 
 a Southern leader lately said they would. 
 The loyal States are forbidding that now 
 with every tick of the clock. New York 
 is already sending some of the thirty thou- 
 sand men she has promised for the defense 
 of the Union ; Massachusetts is sending 
 
43 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS, 
 
 hers, Vermont is mustering her Green 
 Mountain boys, and Rhode Island sends 
 her Governor to lead her troops. New 
 Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and others 
 have answered the President's call. True, 
 the Governors of Kentucky, Tennessee, Mis- 
 souri and North Carolina refuse to obey it. 
 But these border States are half loyal ; the 
 authorities can't keep some of the people 
 from coming over to our side in course of 
 time ; and at the rate soldiers are gathering 
 now, we need not be afraid. This great 
 mustering of troops you must remember, 
 children. When you grow to be gray- 
 headed old men, and you, Maedy, a 
 wrinkled grand-mamma in caps, the peo- 
 ple of that day will want you to tell 
 them about the ' uprising of the North.' 
 It will be a wonderful tale — a bright page 
 in our history if we're successful, and 
 every day now makes us more likely to 
 be so. It's wonderful how the heart of 
 the people is true to the country as the 
 heart of one man. I read of a New York 
 merchant who told his son he'd rather 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 49 
 
 give a thousand dollars than have him 
 go soldiering to Washington, and the 
 young man replied, "Father, if you could 
 make it a hundred thousand, 'twould be of 
 no use, for where the Seventh Regiment 
 goes, I go." Another story is told of 
 a quaker who asked one of his clerks if lie 
 was willing to enlist. The clerk said he'd 
 thought of it, but had hesitated, fearing 
 he might lose his place. " Well," said the 
 Quaker, " if thee will enlist, thee shall 
 have thy place, and thy salary shall go on 
 while thee is away. But if thee will not 
 serve thy country, thee cannot stay in this 
 store." 
 
 " Yes," said Aunt Ellen, " I've seen 
 some thrilling incidents about the i great 
 uprising.' "I saved some of them for 
 Frank ; I'll get them for you.' 7 The extracts 
 were found after supper and read : 
 
 " One old man in a town in Indiana bogged permis- 
 sion to join the volunteers, but his white hair and 
 sixty-five years prevented his acceptance. lie went to 
 a barber's, had his beard cropped, his hair dyed, and 
 again applied for admission. This time he was not de- 
 
50 TIIE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 tected, and when asked his age, after being received, 
 he replied. ' rising tbirty-fi . 
 
 •• A tall, splendid-looking man, dressed in the uni- 
 form of the Allen Grays, Vermont, stood talking with a 
 friend on Broadway. He was unconscious that his su- 
 perior height was attracting notice, until a barouche 
 stopped at the sidewalk, and a young man sprang from 
 it and grasped his hand, saying. '• You are the finest 
 fellow I ever saw. I am a Southerner, but my heart is 
 with the Union. If it were not, such noble-looking 
 fellows as yourself would enlist me in the cause.' The 
 soldier was surprised but self-possessed, and an- 
 swered the young Southerner's greeting with cordiality. 
 He was considerably over six feet, and his noble, open 
 face beamed with the manly patriotism of the Green 
 Mountain Boys, of whom he was so fine a specimen. 
 He had walked fifteen miles from the village of Chitten- 
 den to enlist. Long may he live to honor our Stars 
 and Stripes ! " 
 
 " The ladies of Boston, Mass., were informed that 
 five thousand soldiers' shirts were needed within 
 twenty-four hoars. They obtained sewing-machines, 
 and with the aid of some Roxbury ladies, went to 
 work in ' Liberty Hall,' and had the whole number 
 completed within the allotted time." > 
 
 "And now only see what one woman 
 can do," said Aunt Ellen, and read: 
 
 - Mrs. Eliza Gray Fisher, a lady of Boston, 
 Mass., past the age of sixty, knowing from experi- 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 51 
 
 ence the necessities of the volunteer soldiers, hav- 
 ing lost a grandfather in the Eevolution, and a father 
 in the war of 1812, determined, when volunteers 
 were called for, to provide an outfit of underclothing 
 for an entire company. This she has accomplished 
 with the aid of a few lady friends, though pressed 
 meanwhile with domestic duties. The articles are of 
 the best material and most thorough workmanship; 
 they are as follows : 130 shirts, 130 pair of drawers, 
 130 towels, 130 pocket-handkerchiefs, 130 pair of 
 socks, 12 hospital gowns, 55 bags with needles, pins, 
 thread, etc., G5 Havelock caps, 500 yards bandages. 
 Here is a woman of true Revolutionary stock. All 
 honor to her ! " 
 
 " While a Massachusetts regiment was passing 
 through New York to Washington, a gentleman 
 stopped to converse with one of its members on the 
 street. ' Is there anything I can do* for you, sir ? " asked 
 the Xew Yorker, his heart warming to the man 
 who had so promptly obeyed his country's call. The 
 soldier hesitated, and finally raising one of his feet, 
 showed a boot with a hole in the toe, and generally 
 the worse for wear. ' How came you here with such 
 boots as those, my friend ? ' asked the citizen. ' When 
 the order came for me to join my company, sir,' re- 
 plied the soldier, ' I was ploughing in the same field at 
 Concord in which my grandfather was ploughing when 
 the British fired upon our men at Lexington. He 
 did not delay a moment, and I did not, sir.' The ex- 
 planation must have been satisfactory, for the soldier 
 
52 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 was afterwards seen marching on with an excellent 
 pair of boots." 
 
 u Rev. Dr. "Worcester, of Salem, Mass., in addressing 
 the City Guards, who were to leave for the war, closed 
 his remarks amid profound stillness as follows : ' Sol- 
 diers, on a memorable night of ancient battle, when 
 a few men routed many thousands, their watch-cry 
 was, ' The sword of the Lord and of Gideon ! ' I give 
 to you, soldiers, for your watch-cry, ' The sword of the 
 Lord and of Washington ! "' 
 
 " An owner of a blacksmith-shop near Flushing came 
 down to enlist. He couldn't stand it any longer, and 
 go he must. The boys would take care of the shop. 
 Xext day the oldest son appeared. ' Business wasn't 
 very drivin' ; he guessed John could manage it alone/' 
 and he enlisted. But John found the shop too lonely ; 
 he shut it up, and came down to enlist, too. The father 
 remonstrated, but the boy prevailed. There were two 
 more sons, who ' worked the farm ' belonging to the 
 old man. When they appeared to enlist, the father 
 said he wouldn't stand it, any how. The blacksmith- 
 shop might go, but the farm must be cared for. So 
 the boys were sent home ; but presently one of them 
 reappeared. They had concluded one could manage 
 the farm, and had drawn lots for the chance of going. 
 The winner had come to join his father. This arrange- 
 ment was finally agreed on ; but when the day of 
 departure came, behold, the last boy of the family was 
 ready to accompany them ! The father was at a loss 
 how to understand ' the situation,' but the boy v.his- 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 63 
 
 pered with a confidential chuckle in the old man's ear, 
 1 Father, I've let the farm on shares ! ' The -whole 
 family, father and four sons, went in the 14th N. Y. 
 Regiment.'' 
 
 '• When the New York 7th left the other day for 
 the war, the whole city bade it farewell with tears, 
 shouts and blessings. For two miles they marched 
 through the eager throng, who pressed gifts upon them 
 BS they passed of combs, pocket-knives, and all sorts 
 of small articles that a soldier could be supposed to 
 use. One man received a purse with ten bright quar- 
 ter eagles in it ; and all through New Jersey, as the 
 train bore them from one station to another, proces- 
 sions thronged at the stations. It was more like an 
 ovation to troops returning from victory, than an 
 adieu to men going to try the fortunes of war." 
 
 "Father," said Franklin, "the rebels 
 have taken Harper's Ferry. Isn't that a 
 strong place?" 
 
 " Yes ; but I think we shall have it back 
 again before long. Harper's Ferry is on 
 the Potomac, you know, boys, and unless 
 we drive the rebels out of Virginia soon — 
 which is hardly probable — all that region 
 will change hands many times." 
 
 " Why will it?" asked Franklin. 
 
 " Because we shall fieht our battles 
 
54 THE BROTIIEll SOLDIERS. 
 
 there, and whoever wins will keep the 
 ground till driven away by the enemy." 
 
 "The folks there will be sorry they 
 joined the rebels, I guess," said Roger. 
 
 " Yes, indeed ; they'll be sorry, though 
 they may not repent. Virginia — the 
 State that supplied the Southern slave 
 market with its victims — is to meet with 
 the most terrible punishment a country 
 can suffer, war on her own soil. That is 
 the prophecy of to-day. Take notice, 
 children, whether it proves a true one or 
 not." 
 
 Some days afterward, as Mrs. Warren and 
 Aunt Ellen sat sewing after the day's work 
 was " done up," Mr. "Warren, who had been 
 busy on the farm, came in, and read aloud 
 the news while resting, discussing it as he 
 went along. " That Navy Yard affair is a 
 bad one — bad enough," he said, after read- 
 ing a description of the " Old Pennsyl- 
 vania." I hope the rebels won't be able 
 to give us another blow as severe as that." 
 
 " Navy Yard ! " exclaimed Franklin, 
 looking up from the "Rule of Three 7 ' he 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 55 
 
 was studying. " The rebels haven't come 
 up to Charlestown, I hope ? M 
 
 k *Xo, indeed!" said his father, smiling. 
 " Uncle Sam has several yards for his ships 
 and sailors besides the one you and I saw 
 when we went to Boston last year." 
 
 " Yes, I went to the one in Brooklyn 
 sometime ago," said Aunt Ellen. "I re- 
 member the great houses there built? just 
 to protect the boats. All you could see 
 inside was a monstrous boat, or vessel 
 rather, that reached to the roof and filled 
 up the whole house." 
 
 "But which Navy Yard is it that the 
 rebels have taken?" asked Franklin. 
 
 " The one at Gosport," answered his fa- 
 ther. u We generally call it the Norfolk 
 Navy Yard. The dispatches tried to put a 
 good face on the matter, but it proves to 
 be a bad one for us. It seems this Captain 
 McCauley, who was the officer in charge, 
 destroyed whatever he could — buildings, 
 guns, small arms, powder, everything. He 
 sunk the ships, too — let me see," said Mr. 
 W., looking at the paper, " the Cumber- 
 
56 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 land, the huge old three-decker Pennsyl- 
 vania, the steam frigate Merrimac — they 
 say that was one of the finest ships afloat 
 — and several others are given here. Ten 
 million dollars the whole cost us, and 
 now, when we must have a Navy, its 
 worth is beyond all money." 
 
 " But if that Captain had plenty of pow- 
 der and guns, couldn't he have staid there 
 and kept the place?*' asked Franklin. 
 "Didn't he have any soldiers? 7 ' 
 
 " Yes ; and if he'd held out only a 
 little while, plenty of men would have 
 come to his help.' 1 
 
 " There must have been some cowardice 
 at the bottom of that affair," said Mr. 
 AVarren, earnestly. " Such treasure should 
 not be lost without a blow. Pity there 
 hadn't been a Lawrence at the head of 
 those men, to die if need were, defending 
 his trust, and shouting in death, * Don't 
 give up the ship, boys ! ' " 
 
 "Yes," rejoined Franklin, "if Paul Jones, 
 now, had been there, — I was reading about 
 him in a book yesterday. The English 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 57 
 
 sailors had battered him till they were tired 
 out, and they set his ship on fire, too. 
 After a while they called out and asked 
 him if he had given up. But I guess they 
 felt more like giving up than he did, for 
 he called back, 'No! he'd just begun to 
 fight.' That astonished them so that they 
 let him beat them outright. Well," he 
 added, " this McCauley, is it? — if he tore 
 things to pieces so, the rebels couldn't get 
 anything more than the yard, I suppose?" 
 "Probably not, at present/' said Mr. 
 Warren. "But great ships and cannon are 
 not so easily made useless. The rebels 
 will manage to get at least some of them 
 in working order again. The main trouble 
 with us now is, that our regular army and 
 navy are tainted with Southern treason. 
 They're not to be depended on. Just see 
 how many United States officers have given 
 themselves, body and soul, to the rebellion. 
 There's Beauregard, Johnston, Lee, Bragg, 
 Twiggs, among their generals, and I don't 
 know how many more of their other offi- 
 cers — deserters from our ranks. But who- 
 
55 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 ever else fails, we can trust the nation. 
 The people are speaking now, and these 
 Army and Navy gentlemen will understand 
 that if they refuse to defend the Union, 
 they must sutler with the rebels." 
 
 But the rule of three wanted further 
 studying, and Eoger also had an "awful" 
 lesson to learn — so he said. The conversa- 
 tion, therefore, was stopped for the evening. 
 
 " Father," said Franklin, the next time 
 the war was mentioned, " do the soldiers 
 go through Baltimore yet?" 
 
 " Xot yet, but they will very soon. The 
 bridges near the city are torn up, so there's 
 no passage across the streams. But the 
 other day, when some men wanted the 
 President to say that no more soldiers 
 should pass that way, he told them they 
 •must. ' They can't go under Maryland,' 
 he said, i nor fly over it, and they shall 
 come through it.' Afterward another com- 
 mittee came, and declared that seventy-live 
 thousand Marylanders would dispute the 
 passage of any more soldiers through the 
 State. He replied very calmly that he 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 59 
 
 ' presumed there was room enough in Mary- 
 land to bury seventy-five thousand men.' " 
 
 " That's the right kind of talk for such 
 fellows! Why, he's a regular old brick!" 
 exclaimed Roger. " I always thought he 
 was one of the mealy-mouthed sort. A 
 little while after they made him president, 
 you see, old Walker/' — 
 
 "Who, Roger?" interrupted his father. 
 
 "Well, that's what the boys call him, 
 father. Mr. Walker then read some of 
 Lincoln's — what d'you call it, the speech 
 he makes when he first gets up ?" 
 
 "Inaugural, 77 suggested Franklin. 
 
 "Yes, that's it 3 and it told all about 
 'chords of memory/ and so on/ 7 continued 
 Roger, unmindful of the laugh he had pro- 
 voked. 
 
 " Lincoln has been abused for many rea- 
 sons ; but I don't think any one but you 
 ever thought he was ' mealy-mouthed,' 
 Roger, 77 said his father. 
 
 "Well, father," continued Franklin; 
 " aren't the soldiers going through Balti- 
 more, if the President said they should ? 7 ' 
 
60 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 " Yes, as soon as they can. Our General 
 Butler went on a few days ago, with some 
 more Massachusetts soldiers and the New 
 York Seventh — the finest regiment of the 
 State. When lie found the bridges burned, 
 he turned aside to Havre de Grace. Get 
 your geography, Frank, we'll find it on the 
 map." The map was soon found. "Ah, 
 here it is ! Then he seized a steamer, and 
 brought his men down here to Annapolis. 
 The State authorities refused to let him 
 land ; but land he did, with all his men, in 
 spite of the rascals. Now, how do you sup- 
 pose they got on from Annapolis to Wash- 
 ington?" 
 
 " By railroad," guessed Frank. 
 
 "Yes; but howl The track was torn 
 up, and the locomotives gone. "What do 
 you think they did?" 
 
 "I'm sure I don't know," said Frank. 
 
 "Well, they found a rusty little locomo- 
 tive. One of the men eyed it a moment, 
 and said that came from the shop he 
 worked in. Then, at a word from the 
 General, he and some others began to put 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. Gl 
 
 it in order. Whoever could lay a railroad 
 track was next called out and put to work. 
 In a little while the train started, stopping 
 every hour or two to lay rails and build 
 bridges. Once they came to a pool of 
 water, where a rail was missing ; down 
 went a little fellow into the water, and 
 came up with the rail. So they worked 
 their way along thus for three days, and 
 came to their journey's end.' 7 
 
 " I don't believe our soldiers are any- 
 thing like those that fight for the kings 
 Daniel told us about," said Franklin. 
 
 " No, indeed," replied the father ; " our 
 men are not mere soldiers, that spend their 
 time in idleness when there is no war. 
 All trades and professions are represented 
 in our ranks. If bread is wanted, out step 
 a dozen bakers ready to make it, and 
 behind them as many masons to build the 
 ovens, and at their sides stand tailors, 
 blacksmiths, gunsmiths, lawyers, artists, 
 poets — the fruit and flower of the land. 
 They're not ashamed to work, nor afraid to 
 die. One of our colonels addressed his 
 
G2 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 regiment the other day, as they were leav- 
 ing Annapolis for "Washington ; he said, 
 i If any of you falter, you will be instantly 
 shot down ; and if I falter, I hope you will 
 put a thousand bullets through my heart.' 
 He spoke earnestly, and his men responded 
 'aye,' with equal warmth." 
 
 The faces of the boys shone with pride ; 
 for who of us will ever cease to love and 
 admire our Union army ? 
 
 " Oh, father," exclaimed Franklin ; <; we 
 must beat the rebels with such an army." 
 
 " Yes, we shall ; not merely because of 
 the army, but because God, the mighty 
 Helper of our fathers, is with us still. All 
 over the land men are raisins their hands 
 
 o 
 
 beseechingly to him, as the hands of Moses 
 were uplifted when his people prevailed in 
 battle." 
 
 
Chapter IV. 
 
 WESTERN TRAITORS OUTWITTED. 
 
 For some weeks the quiet home-life of 
 the Warrens was unbroken by any note- 
 worthy event. They looked daily for a 
 letter from Daniel, but none came. " I 
 wish Horace would write ; I can't imagine 
 why he doesn't/' said Mrs. Warren, one 
 evening, as the family was talking of its 
 absent members. He has never failed be- 
 fore to send us some word, once a month 
 at least. And we haven't heard from him 
 — let me think — 'twas in February his last 
 letter came. It's very strange." 
 
 " Oh, but he's always so busy in the 
 Spring, you know," suggested Aunt Ellen. 
 "And then they're having some excitement 
 in Missouri, just now, as I read. He has 
 some good reason for' his silence, I'm 
 
 G3 
 
04 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 " But its just because the country out 
 there is iu such a disordered state that I 
 am anxious about him. There are hun- 
 dreds of those 'Border Ruffians' in Mis- 
 souri that fought the Free Soil men of 
 Kansas, and they must be jubilant, now 
 that the Governor is trying to force the 
 State into the Rebellion." 
 
 " But in a large city like St. Louis," re- 
 joined Aunt Ellen, soothingly, " a great 
 disturbance wouldn't be permitted." 
 
 " But you know, Ellen, there was a mob 
 there lately. The papers were full of it. 
 I cannot quiet my fears about Horace till 
 we hear from him." 
 
 " That was a rebel mob," replied Aunt 
 Ellen. " Horace was certainly not there ; 
 and then it was quelled right away. I 
 wouldn't borrow- trouble, sister ; wait till 
 you have to take it;" and Aunt Ellen said 
 all she could think of to relieve the mo- 
 ther's anxiety. 
 
 But they had not long to wait. When 
 the children came from school next day, 
 Aunt Ellen told them a letter had come, 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 65 
 
 and asked them to guess who it was 
 from. 
 
 " Daniel," they all cried at once. 
 
 "No." 
 
 k - Horace, then," said Franklin. 
 
 " Yes, a nice long letter. 77 
 
 " What does he say — anything about the 
 war oft* there?" 
 
 * ; Yes, ever so much. He's very well, and 
 sends you children a great deal of love.' 7 
 
 "Ever so much about the war," re- 
 peated Franklin. Read it to us, won't 
 you, Aunt Ellen ? Do please. 77 
 
 " Yes, Aunt Ellen, do please, 77 echoed 
 Maedy and Roger. So the letter was 
 brought, and the children gathered around 
 her while she read what Horace wrote : 
 
 " St. Louis, May — , 1861. 
 " My Dear Parents : 
 
 " I have been so busy of late, and so absorbed in the 
 excitement of the times, that I did not know how the 
 time had slipped by since my last letter to you, until I 
 sat down this evening' and reckoned up the weeks and 
 months. Your letter, dear falter, containing the news 
 of Daniel's departure for the war, reached me a couple 
 of days ago. I sympathize with you in this new sepa- 
 
66 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 ration ; it must be very hard ; and yet both you and 
 he have the satisfaction of knowing that he has gone 
 for a noble cause. I can hardly imagine our thoughtful 
 Daniel as a soldier. He was so fond of his books, and 
 so full of his college plan?, that I shouldn't have be- 
 lieved he'd care for anything else. But these times are 
 enough to rouse the most indifferent. Except my 
 necessary business affairs. I can't think of anything but 
 the events of the day. I hope you have not been un- 
 easy at my unwilling silence — for such it has been for the 
 most part. My business has kept me very closely con- 
 fined ; and when I have not been attending to that, my 
 mind has hardly been in a state to write, so disturbed 
 have we been all through Missouri by this wicked 
 rebellion. TTe have both sides here — Union men and 
 rebels ; though I judge, from what has lately taken 
 place, that the ' rebs ' will ere long be looking out for 
 other quarters. You have read, perhaps, of our Gov- 
 ernor's bad behavior all through this crisis; he is a 
 State rights man ; we have many of them out this way ; 
 they believe, it seems, in their own State government, 
 but not in the Government of the United States. 
 That's what they say. But some of them, like the 
 rebel General Price here, forget now and then to follow 
 their doctrine. He's broken with Missouri — that stays 
 in the Union — and gone off with the ' rebs,' — a pretty 
 way to treat the glorious ' State sovereignty' they boast 
 of! Our Gov. Jackson m something like him, only not 
 near so much of a man. I needn't say that he's no 
 relation whatever to the old General and President of 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 67 
 
 tbat name. I can't begin to tell the harm this traitor- 
 ous Governor and his servants have done the Union 
 cans •. For months past they have been getting toge- 
 ther militia companies, — keeping them, of course, under 
 their own control ;" — 
 
 14 "What kind of companies are those?" 
 asked Franklin. 
 
 11 Citizens that do military duty when 
 it's needed, — not regular soldiers in the 
 army," explained Aunt Ellen ; and went 
 on : — 
 
 — "they've formed secret organizations, stored away 
 arms and ammunition," — 
 
 ""What's that?" interrupted .Roger. 
 " Powder, bullets, any such thing that 
 is used in loading guns," replied his Aunt. 
 
 — " and they even seized an arsenal in the western part 
 of the State. They formed what they called a ' State 
 Guard,' which made its quarters at Camp Jackson, just 
 outside the city. The name of the camp, and its 
 Davis and Beauregard avenues, told very plainly 
 what kind of men were in it. About three w r eeks ago 
 they made preparations to seize the arsenal here, but 
 were wofully disappointed. Perhaps you saw some 
 account of that affair of Captain Stokes ; but you can 
 hardly imagine the effect it had upon our loyal people. 
 He came down here, you may remember, from Illinois, 
 
68 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 with a Government order to get muskets from oui 
 arsenal. But the * rebs' were so thick in this neigh- 
 borhood that he couldn't very well do his errand. 
 In the night he managed to gain entrance to the build- 
 ing, and boxed up five hundred old muskets, brought 
 there to be altered ; these he sent off secretly to a 
 steamer, as if he were in a great hurry to get away, 
 and so attracted the rebel spies, who were on the watch. 
 They seized the old muskets, and bore them off in 
 triumph. But meantime Stokes was busy, too. lie and 
 his men made prisoners of the other spies at the arsenal. 
 Then they went to work loading up a steamer that 
 was in waiting at the arsenal-dock, with nearly all the 
 weapons contained in the building. About two o'clock 
 at night, when the brave fellows thought themselves 
 ready to put off, they found the steamer fast on a rock ; 
 so they had to fall to work again, and ship the load 
 before they could get under way. The captain of the 
 steamer asked Stokes what should be done if they were 
 attacked ? ' Fight,' he replied. ' "What, if we are over- 
 powered?' asked the Captain. 'Bun her to the deep- 
 est part of the river and sink her,' said Stokes. ' 1*11 
 do it,' he said, and off they went. But the bold 
 captains were not destined to be drowned. At five 
 o'clock they reached Alton ; and Stokes, still exposed 
 to the dangerous rebels, went into the town and 
 rang the fire-bell with all his might and main. Out 
 came men, women, and children, to see what was the 
 matter ; and he told them he wanted their help in carry- 
 in? his load from the steamboat to the cars. Everv 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. G9 
 
 one started. A man from Alton was in our store soon 
 afterward, and told me he never saw such a sight in 
 his life as that crowd carrying muskets to the cars. 
 There were little girls, young ladies, old women, black 
 folks — nearly all the loyal people of the town — toiling 
 up to the bank with muskets, revolvers, and carbines 
 for two hours. By seven o'clock all was ready, and 
 the ears started for Springfield." 
 
 "Wasn't that well done?" said Aunt 
 Ellen, looking up from her letter to the 
 eager faces of the children. 
 
 " Hurrah for Stokes," exclaimed Roger ; 
 " he's a knowing one." 
 
 " I wish I could carry a musket for the 
 Union soldiers!" said Maedy, with glowing 
 cheeks. 
 
 "You shall do something for them, dar- 
 ling," said Aunt Ellen. "We're going to 
 send a box to the Fairbrook company, and 
 you shall make something for it." 
 
 " Is that all the letter?" said Franklin. 
 
 " No, indeed, there's more here. Let 
 me see, — where was I?" 
 
 — " and the cars started for Springfield. Captain, 
 (now General) Lyon, the commander at our arsenal, gave 
 the rebels another stunning blow, just as they found 
 
70 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 out how befooled they had been by Stokes. Lyon had 
 been, at work quietly, but very hard. One day last 
 week (May 10th) I saw the streets were full of sol- 
 diers, and wondered what the matter was, but no one 
 could explain. "Without an hour's delay they marched 
 oil— six thousand Union men, with Lyon at their head, 
 — to the music of our national airs, straight toward 
 'Camp Jackson, and demanded its surrender within half 
 an hour. You can think what was the astonishment 
 of the Camp and its commander. They were expect- 
 ing just the opposite event — the surrender of Lyon to 
 them ; for, as I said, they had made preparations to 
 seize the arsenal and its defenders. But Lyon was 
 ahead of them. On his way back, as he was bringing 
 his eight hundred prisoners to the arsenal, the rebels in 
 our city showed their desperation by trying to raise a 
 riot against his soldiers. They were forced at la-t to 
 defend themselves, and fired into the crowd, killing 
 twenty-two. Of course, this affray made the greatest 
 excitement ; but I can't see what else the soldiers could 
 do in the circumstances. Lyon is a real hero, — brave, 
 cool, far-sighted. No one in the West has such sway 
 over loyal men as he. His praise is in their mouths 
 to-day. He's a New-England man by birth, they say, 
 and a graduate of West Point; he served gallantly in 
 the regular army during the Mexican war, and after- 
 ward did duty on the frontier, but offended Buchanan 
 and his pro-slavery friends because he refused to per- 
 secute the Free Soil men of Kansas.'' 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 71 
 
 " Buchanan ; he was the President before 
 Mr. Lincoln, wasn't he?" asked Maedy. 
 
 "Yes, — and a dreadfully bad one, too, ' 
 said Franklin. "But who were the Free 
 Soil men of Kansas?" 
 
 " Men that went, mostly from this part 
 of the country, out to Kansas, beyond 
 Missouri; they went to stay, and didn't 
 want their new home to become a slave 
 State. The Southern people determined it 
 should, and at that time our President and 
 Government were controlled by pro-slavery 
 men. The Free Soilers out there had a 
 hard struggle ; but finally Kansas was ad- 
 mitted into the Union as a free State, just 
 as this rebellion began." 
 
 "What. else does Horace say about that 
 general?" asked Maedy. 
 
 "But President Lincoln has appointed Lyon over 
 the Department of St. Louis," read Aunt Ellen, 
 " and I hope he'll stay here till the rebels are put 
 down. We shall be likely to see something of the war 
 in this State. Outside of St. Louis it is filled with 
 rebels, most of whom are Border Ruffians, as your East- 
 ern papers call them. There are a great many Germans 
 in our city, and they are all for the Union ; General 
 
72 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 Lyon's regiments are largely made up of intelligent, 
 trustworthy Germans. Since the second call of our 
 President for troops, I've sometimes thought if I wasn't 
 so deep in business, that I might go myself. But it's 
 impossible at present, and I suppose you'd hardly like 
 to have both Daniel and me off in the army. You 
 may wonder that I fill my letter with these public 
 affairs ; but, as I said, we've been so absorbed with 
 them lately that we can't think of anything else. I 
 suppose much that I have written you've already read 
 in the papers ; but such accounts seem poor and cold 
 to one who has lived among the very scenes they 
 describe, and I thought the children might be interested 
 in my narration of them. I hope we shall be more 
 settled out here when I next write. Uncle and aunt 
 send affectionate regards. Please give a cartload of 
 love to Aunt Ellen and the children, and believe that I 
 remain, as ever, 
 
 " Tour affectionate son, 
 
 " Horace." 
 
Chapter V. 
 
 TIIE FIRST NATIONAL BEREAVEMENT OF THE 
 WAR. 
 
 Tins letter was talked about by the 
 children for "clays afterward. To them an 
 account of the troubles in Missouri was 
 real and interesting as a story, not dull, like 
 history, of which they had no pleasanter 
 idea ,thau. what they gathered from the 
 "awfully long lessons' 7 in the school- 
 book. Roger whistled " Three cheers for 
 the Red, White and Blue," from morning 
 till night. They would talk of Stokes and 
 the musket-bearing crowd, after they had 
 gone to bed, till the mother's voice 
 called, " Shut your eyes, children, and go 
 to*sleep." Horace's narrative had so pos- 
 sessed their childish minds that they sup- 
 posed everything now was favorable to 
 the Union cause, and bad for the rebels. 
 It was, therefore, with a surprised and so- 
 73 
 
74 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 ber face that little Maedy asked her father, 
 a few days later, if he knew that " the 
 rebels had killed a Union man?" 
 
 " Yes, dear," said her father, smiling 
 at the question, " they've killed hundreds, 
 counting all they murdered for slavery's 
 sake before the war began.' 7 
 
 " Yes, but this is a new one, 7 ' said 
 Franklin. " Colonel Ellsworth is the name. 
 We saw it in a paper that had his picture, 
 with black all round it, too. 77 
 
 " Ah, yes, 77 said the father, himself look- 
 ing very grave. " Remember that name, 
 children. He was a true man ; the young- 
 est and greatest hero of the war, thus far. 77 
 
 "How old was he? 77 asked Roger. 
 
 "Tell us about him, will you, papa? 77 
 asked Maedy, seating herself on her father's 
 knee. 
 
 " I was reading an account of his life 
 this morning. He was a splendid young 
 man, only twenty-three years old. I re- 
 member hearing about him and his Chicago 
 " Zouaves 77 some years ago, when they 
 made a tour through the North, and as- 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 75 
 
 tonished the public by their wonderful 
 drill, and their quick movements; And 
 this last company, raised in New York, 
 are said to be real fighting men. At their 
 quarters, instead of coming down stairs, 
 many of them let themselves down by a 
 rope from the window. They're firemen, 
 you know. Roger, hand me that paper. I 
 think you can mostly understand what it 
 says of him. You ought to know some- 
 thing about the foremost young man of the 
 war. I can remember no truer specimen 
 of a Christian American youth than Elmer 
 Ellsworth. "When you get tired, children, 
 say so, and I'll stop. It seems he was a 
 poor boy, born in New York State, of vir- 
 tuous parentage. This narrative says : 
 
 " Little is known of bis earlier years, more than that 
 he went to the district school, and showed himself dili- 
 gent in study, though not more forward than his com- 
 panions. All the ' schooling ' he ever had was during 
 hi- early boyhood. At home he was an obedient, duti- 
 ful son, subject to his parents, proving the truth of the 
 maxim, 'he who would command, must first learn to 
 This docile spirit was the more remarkable in a 
 boy naturally bold and resolute. He showed an eager 
 
76 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 love for reading, and spent his leisure hours with what- 
 ever books he could command, preferring histories to 
 ail others, and gratifying his boyish taste with accounts 
 of wars, insurrections and battles. As the lad grew 
 into the youth, his physical powers developed remark- 
 ably. He excelled his associates in muscular feats, and 
 seemed never so happy as when testing his sure eye 
 and supple limbs. These vigorous capacities were 
 governed by as generous a spirit as ever lived in a 
 young man's breast ; nor were they always exercised 
 for mere amusement. The timid, persecuted ones, 
 such as are to be found in every little school commu- 
 nity, had a defender in young Ellsworth, and the bul- 
 lies of the neighborhood found him to be a terror to 
 evil-doers. "With this disposition he naturally became 
 the leader of his companions.'' 
 
 " Bully for him ! " exclaimed Roger, al- 
 ways earnest, if not elegant, in his praise. 
 
 " As his parents were far from rich, young Ellsworth 
 determined, while still a boy, to take care of himself. 
 We first hear of him at work as clerk in a dry-goods 
 store. But he wanted to be a printer, and soon after 
 found a situation at the press in Boston, Mass.. where 
 his studiousness and kindly disposition won the respect of 
 his associates. He next went to Chicago, still plying 
 his trade, but ever desiring a higher sphere of life. 
 More than anything else, he wanted to be a soldier, 
 and actually made application at this time to the War 
 Department for employment, but failed for lack of in- 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 77 
 
 flucnce and money. But he could not be subdued by 
 disappointment. If he was bom a soldier, he believed 
 he would surely find an opening for himself in the 
 ranks of the army. Meantime an opportunity oc- 
 curred for him to study law, and he gave himself to 
 {hat monotonous work with all the fervor of his ardent 
 BOoL ' His life,' says one writer, ' was a miracle of en- 
 durance and fortitude. He read law with great assi- 
 duity, and supported himself by copying in the hours 
 that should have been devoted to recreation. He had 
 limes, and very few friends. Not a soul beside 
 himself and the baker who gave him his daily loaf, 
 knew how he was living. During all that time he 
 never slept in a bed — never ate with his friends at 
 a social board.' 
 
 " But his soldierly genius still asserted itself. He 
 joined a military company, and we find him at this 
 time deep in the study of tactics — impelled, perhaps, 
 by a presentiment of the brilliant career before him. 
 He scon had the reputation of being the wisest, best- 
 drilled soldier in the city, and from that to the mili- 
 tary leadership of his associates, the step was easy, 
 ne assumed this position in May, 1859, when but 
 twenty-one years old, and immediately began to raise 
 a company on the model of the Algerine Zouaves. 
 With no aids but a text book and his own firm 
 will, he mastered these peculiar tactics, adapted the 
 manual to the usage of American soldiery, and mar- 
 shalled his company, to which he gave himself with 
 untiring patience, and which uroved later to be formed 
 
78 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 of men whom ' the nation delighted to honor.' One of 
 his friends says of his capacity as commander : ' His 
 discipline was very severe and rigid, not in training 
 merely, but as related to the moral habits of the men. 
 They were degraded or expelled immediately when any 
 inclination to vice was noticeable. He struck from the 
 rolls at one time twelve of his best men for breaking 
 the rule of total abstinence. His moral power over 
 them was absolute. I believe any one of them would 
 have died for him.' 
 
 " Much of this power resulted, doubtless, from the 
 religious character of young Ellsworth. He had been 
 a Sunday-school boy ; he was now a resolute, though 
 a humble, unassuming Christian. The knightly spirit, 
 the noble life, the genial manner, could not fail to win 
 the regard of his comrades ; yet, underlying these, they 
 were conscious of a stronger force controlling both 
 him and them — the strength of a soul that walks with 
 God. 
 
 ' ; Later, when the company made the tour of exhibi- 
 tion, it was everywhere received with admiration. Its 
 quick, singular movements, its precise obedience, its 
 thorough drill, excited the wonder of beholders ; and 
 Colonel Ellsworth received the applause justly his due 
 as founder of the American Zouave system. Thus an 
 obscure youth, who had never seen a military 
 academy, with no advantages but those of a common 
 school, hewed his own path to honor. 
 
 £i The martial interest awakened by this tour was 
 not without its use to the nation, so soon to be dis- 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 79 
 
 turbed in its peaceful pursuits by the trumpet of 
 war. 
 
 •• At the close of this memorable journey the young 
 Captain resumed his law studies in the office of Abra- 
 ham Lincoln, at Springfield, 111. Here the future 
 President and the future hero of our country labored 
 in their humble sphere, from whence they were to 
 go forth and win a nation's regard. While under 
 Mr. Lincoln's affectionate care, Ellsworth planned, 
 and put somewhat in shape, a project he had con- 
 ceived of a Bureau of Militia of the United States. 
 The thing was commended by high authorities, but 
 remained unfinished — a noble, though fragmentary evi- 
 dence of his power. At the time of Mr. Lincoln's 
 election, Ellsworth again applied to the War Depart- 
 ment, but was again denied admittance by the Secre- 
 tary. He was a member of the Presidential party in 
 its memorable journey to Washington, and no one who 
 then enjoyed his genial companionship will soon forget 
 ' the life of the company,' nor the innate courtesy that 
 thought first of others, and last of self. After the 
 inauguration he was offered the position of Second 
 Lieutenant in the Regular Army. At last the desire 
 of his life was gratified ; but the golden apple broke in 
 ashes when it was grasped. No portion of Ellsworth's 
 life was so painful as this ; for the regulars, envious 
 and fearful of his superiority, treated the young militia- 
 man with a discourtesy that iuflicted upon his sensitive 
 spirit a pain it had never endured before. Among the 
 evils under the sun none are sadder than that cruelty 
 
SO THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 committed daily — the wounding of high and delicate 
 souls by base ones. At the opening of our civil war, 
 the young Lieutenant proposed to resign his position 
 and raise a regiment of volunteers. His offer was 
 eagerly accepted, and within twenty days he returned 
 from Xew York with a thousand and twenty hardy 
 firemen eager for battle. "We know of no stronger 
 evidence of Ellsworth's popularity than the rapid 
 raising of this regiment. * I hope God will take care 
 of you, Elmer.' said his mother, as she bade him a last 
 1 good-by.' ' He will,' replied the Colonel. ' He has 
 led me into this work, and He will take care of me.' 
 He was ordered to join an expedition formed to capture 
 Alexandria. News received from that city caused 
 Ellsworth to suppose the undertaking might prove a 
 bloody one, and he prepared for it- accordingly. But 
 his brief address that day to his men shows the natural 
 tenderness of his heart. ' Go to your tents,' he said, in 
 conclusion, ' lie down and take your rest till two o'clock, 
 when the boat will arrive, and we go forward to victory 
 or death. "When we reach our destination, do nothing 
 to shame the regiment ; show the enemy that you are 
 men as well as soldiers. I would we could overcome 
 them with kindness.' This from the bravest of Zou- 
 aves — a class of soldiers whose courage has been ex- 
 celled only by their ferocity ! 
 
 At midnight, before starting on the journey, he wrote 
 the following words to his parents. May they sink 
 into every American heart ! 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 81 
 
 Camp ojIncoln, May 23, 1861. 
 
 My Dear Father and Mother: 
 
 regiment is ordered to cross the river to-night. 
 We have no means of knowing what reception we 
 sluill meet with ; I am inclined to the opinion that our 
 entrance into the city of Alexandria will be hotly con- 
 tested, as [ am just informed that a large force has 
 arrived there to-day. Should this happen, my dear 
 parents, it may be my lot to be injured in some way. 
 Whatever may happen, cherish the consolation that I 
 was engaged in the performance of a sacred duty ; and 
 to-night, thinking over the probabilities of to-morrow, 
 and the occurrences of the past, I am perfectly content 
 to accept whatever my fortune may be, confident that 
 lie who noteth even the fall of the sparrow will have 
 some purpose even in tHfe fate of one like me. My 
 darling and beloved parents, good-by ; God bless, and 
 protect, and care for you. Elmer. 
 
 "The troops entered Alexandria next day unmo- 
 lested, the rebels having hastily fled. As Ellsworth, 
 with a squad of men, was en route to the telegraph 
 office, to prevent the news of their entrance from 
 spreading southward, his eye caught sight of the rebel 
 banner floating from the roof of the Marshall House. 
 ' That flag must come down !' he exclaimed, and entered 
 the building, attended by a Zouave and two other 
 friends. On their way up stairs they met a man who 
 pretended to know nothing about the flag, being, as he 
 said, ' only a boarder.' Having secured the traitors' 
 ensign, they were returning, when the same man con- 
 fronted them with a loaded gun. He was the keeper 
 of the house — a secessionist named Jackson — the man 
 who, report says, cut the ears from John Brown's dead 
 
82 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 body a few years before, and preserved them in spirits, 
 as trophies of the slave power. The wretched man 
 fired upon Ellsworth, and the ball pierced his brave 
 young heart. He died instantly. Jackson then aimed 
 at the Zouave, Francis Brownell, but the latter parried 
 the gun, discharged his own weapon in his enemy's 
 face, and pinned liim to the floor with his bayonet. 
 This brave young man could not save his colonel's life, 
 but he instantly did his utmost to avenge it. The 
 little party made all possible exertion to recall the 
 spirit that a moment before had inspired them with its 
 presence, but in vain. The two men who had just con- 
 fronted one another, were gone to face their Judge. 
 
 " The announcement of the soldier's death produced 
 unutterable sorrow. For a time the news was pru- 
 dently withheld from his Zouaves. When at last it 
 was told them, their amazement and grief were beyond 
 control. Exclamations of love, praise, lamentation, 
 and oaths of revenge went up like the mingled chords 
 of a requiem, from the bowed ranks. It is said, 
 that the venerable father of the dead was in the tele- 
 graph office when the tidings touched the wires, and 
 first divined the sorrow in store for him from the tears 
 of the operator as they fell upon the undeciphered mes- 
 sage. The parents' hearts are broken by the blow, and 
 not theirs alone. The young soldier was shortly to be 
 married to one who sits apart, hoping no longer for his 
 promised return. 
 
 '•' Among those bereaved by this calamity there is no 
 sincerer mourner than our honored President. A gen- 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 83 
 
 t Ionian who saw him on the day of Ellsworth's death, 
 Bays the President's emotions were such that he could 
 not at first command himself to speak. When he 
 did, it was with warmth on the virtues of the dead 
 brave, and with regret at his rashness ; ' but/ he 
 added, ' it only shows the heroic spirit that animates 
 our soldiers from high to low in this righteous cause.' 
 <1 not dwell here on the mourning of the people 
 tidings vibrated from the eastern to the western 
 shore. As in Chicago, where ' every man clenched his 
 teeth.' in the resolve to sustain the war, and avenge 
 this death, so was it throughout the North. Amid 
 the tolling of bells, and the mournful emblems that 
 drape our cities, thousands are springing up to fight at 
 the battle cry of ' Ellsworth 1 ' " 
 
Chapter VI. 
 
 TnE COAST, THE RELAY HOUSE, AND 
 FORTRESS MONROE. 
 
 "Mother," said Franklin, a day or two 
 after the reading of Ellsworth's career, 
 " what does ' blockade ' mean *? I hear 
 men on the street talking of ' the block- 
 ade.' What kind of a concern is it ? " 
 
 " Ah, it's something the rebels regard 
 with great concern," said his mother, smil- 
 ing. "If you find the word in the dic- 
 tionary, Frank, you'll remember it." 
 
 " * Blockade/' 7 read the boy, after a 
 moment's search; " 'the shutting up of a 
 place by surrounding it with hostile troops 
 or ships, or by posting them in such man- 
 ner as to prevent escape, and hinder all 
 supplies from entering, with a view to 
 compel a surrender by hunger and want.' 
 Has our Government blockaded the 
 South in that way, mother?" 
 84 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 85 
 
 " Yes, it is effective now, I believe, on 
 the coast ; that is, ships cannot pass in and 
 out of Southern ports, from South Carolina 
 down, except at great risk of being cap- 
 tured by the vessels of our navy." 
 
 " But, mother," exclaimed Roger, " I 
 should think they'd need all the vessels in 
 the world — a great string of 'em, miles and 
 miles long — to shut in all the South. 
 How did they ever get enougn ?" 
 
 " Oh, our navy is small as yet ; it hasn't 
 a hundred vessels, all told ; the blockade, 
 therefore, isn't made effective in that way. 
 But the ships are stationed near the import- 
 ant points of the Southern coast; by the 
 harbors and channels where ships can pass. 
 Tell me some of the seaports in that region, 
 can you? What is one of them ?" 
 
 Roger hesitated. 
 
 " Beginning with South Carolina, what 
 city lies on the coast ? " 
 
 " Richmond?" suggested Roger. 
 
 " Richmond ! " said Franklin. " Why, 
 Roger, I believe what you say is true, 
 that your geography goes in at your 
 
S6 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 eyes, and comes out by your ears ! Charles- 
 ton — don't you remember? — then comes 
 Savannah. Any in Florida, mother? — oh, 
 yes, Jacksonville and St. Augustine ; then 
 Mobile, New Orleans, — " 
 
 " New Orleans, I know that : n inter- 
 rupted Roger. " Old Walker told us about 
 General Jackson being there ; he and the 
 black folks, in a fight with the English, 
 piled up cotton bales, and got behind them 
 when they fired on the enemy : they had 
 no fortification, you see, so they made 
 one out of the cotton bales." 
 
 " Yes," said Franklin ; " then what is the 
 next port, mother ? In Texas it must be— 
 oh, I know, Galveston. But if the Govern- 
 ment keeps watch only at these places, 
 won't the rebels send their ships out of 
 others — little quiet ones, where they 
 wouldn't be noticed ?" 
 
 " They do so, sometimes. But ships, 
 you know, when not sailing on the seas, 
 must lie in a harbor, otherwise they might 
 be dashed to pieces on the rocks, or 
 stranded in the surf. The cities you 
 
TIIE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 87 
 
 mentioned have harbors where vessels can 
 anehor ; elsewhere on the coast there is 
 peril of shipwreck, particularly off North 
 Carolina." 
 
 " Why ; is that a bad region for ships ?" 
 asked Frank. 
 
 " Yes, indeed ; many a vessel has gone 
 down off Cape Hatteras." 
 
 " I've heard Jack Roper," said Roger, 
 " that old sailor down in the village, 
 tell a long yarn about being ' off Hat- 
 teras.' 7 Twas in winter, and they thought 
 every minute the ship would go to pieces. 
 A man couldn't stay on deck, he said, the 
 wind blew such a hurricane — c a livin' gale,' 
 he said." 
 
 "But, mother," said Franklin, return- 
 ing to the subject of the blockade, " where 
 does our Government get money to buy 
 all the ships, and pay the sailors and 
 soldiers? I thought the rebels took so 
 much money and other things away from 
 us while Buchanan was President." 
 
 " Yes, they did take millions of dollars' 
 worth, and we can't defend ourselves nearly 
 
88 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 so well, on account of these losses. Some 
 money is raised by taxes that we pay 
 on property ; there are other ways, too, 
 of getting it. But the government, and 
 better still, the people, are all the more 
 active just now because their need is great. 
 There are twenty million loyal Americans, 
 Frank, determined to defend their country ; 
 and within the last three or four months 
 they've given, of their own free will, thirty- 
 two million dollars — as I read yesterday — 
 to carry on the war ; therefore I suppose 
 it is safe, don't you? " 
 
 "Thirty-two millions!" repeated both 
 boys at once, for they had never heard of 
 such an amount of money. 
 
 "I can't think how much that is," 
 said Roger, looked very puzzled. "How did 
 they give it, mother*? If I wanted to help 
 the country with money, I shouldn't know 
 how to do it/"' 
 
 . " There are several ways. Many of the 
 State Legislatures, for instance, have voted 
 a supply of so much to the General Gov- 
 ernment, and then the money was raised 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 89 
 
 by the inhabitants throughout the State. 
 In the large cities and towns meetings have 
 been held, where men subscribed sums 
 for regiments going to the w T ar, or for other 
 expenses of the great cause. If you had 
 money to give, Roger, you could dispose of 
 it at such a meeting, or you might send a 
 draft for the amount to one of the officials 
 at Washington." 
 
 " Well," said Roger, with a comical air, 
 " my few thousands would look so small 
 beside those thirty-two millions, that I'm 
 modest about sending them in. I'll wait, I 
 guess, till I've made a little more money. 
 Heigh-ho ! there's Daniel gets a pile of dol- 
 lars every month for soldiering. If I was 
 a drummer-boy, now," — 
 
 "Isn't it time for another letter from 
 him ? " asked Frank. 
 
 For a long time had indeed passed since 
 the family had heard at length from the 
 absent brother. Once there came a note 
 from the Relay House, between Baltimore 
 and Washington. He was then in General 
 Butler's command, and mentioned of an at- 
 
90 THE BROTHER SOLDI: 
 
 tempt the rebels made to kill our soldiers by 
 poisoning their food. " You would laugh/ 7 
 he wrote, "at some of the discoveries we 
 make here every day. Our business is to 
 search each train for contraband articles or 
 persons. Sometimes we find a heavily 
 dressed female, with calm face and large 
 hoops, alone in the car. < What will you 
 do with her,' is the question "that naturally 
 agitates our minds. At last, after some 
 uneasy reflection, the lady is politely 
 requested to rise, in the hope that by so 
 doing she may drop some of her smuggling ; 
 which she does sometimes, but not always. 
 In the next car sits a man who makes a 
 great bluster about the search. He is care- 
 fully examined, and very politely requested 
 to turn his pockets inside out, when down 
 fall half a dozen letters directed to people 
 south of the Potomac, and for that rea- 
 son, confiscated. When the passengers are 
 all searched, the baggage takes its turn, just 
 as if it were in the hands of custom house 
 officers. Here is a small red trunk, marked 
 "Mary Birkitt." Being merely a common 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 91 
 
 wooden receptacle, such as any country girl 
 might claim, it hasn't a suspicious look ; but 
 since no Mary Birkitt appears, the trunk 
 must be opened without her consent. On 
 the top we find a clean pair of under- 
 sleeves, and some other ' chicken fixing,' 
 then a dress, then two million percus- 
 sion caps ! Mistress Mary, quite con- 
 trary to her expectations, waits in vain for 
 her little trunk, while the caps go off on 
 Union muskets. 
 
 " Colonel Jones was going through a car, 
 on the look-out, once, when he found a 
 lunch basket containing sandwiches and 
 gingerbread. While he w T as * seeing what 
 he could see/ the conductor came up and 
 remarked that the old lady who owned the 
 basket had just stepped into the forward 
 car. Well, if it belonged to an old lady, 
 the Colonel wouldn't disturb it ; so he 
 simply took hold of the handle to see how 
 much the thing weighed. Not being quite 
 satisfied with his experiment, he looked 
 again, and found half a peck of brass but- 
 tons en their way to rebel uniforms." 
 
92 TEE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 In the evening the family were again 
 l-ejoiced by another letter from Daniel ; 
 the more so because the parents had latterly 
 seen news of a disaster which they tried to 
 conceal from the children, but which added 
 to the anxiety they constantly felt for their 
 boy. Great was the delight, therefore, 
 when the father unfolded a closely written 
 sheet, and read to the eager circle Daniel's 
 letter. The main part read as follows : 
 
 Fortress Monroe, June — , 1SG1. 
 Mr Dear Ones, Largs and Small : 
 
 I am glad to have a little leisure again in which to 
 write something more than the scraps you have lately 
 received from me. Our General is a real Yankee ; 
 he is always ahead, and has the Tankee faculty of 
 working and keeping others busy. You read, perhaps. 
 of the way he took Baltimore — marching his nine 
 hundred men quietly to Federal Hill at night, and pro- 
 claiming to the amazed people his occupation of the 
 city in an extra the following morning ! From Balti- 
 more he came to this place, which is at the mouth of 
 the James — farther south than I ever dreamed of going 
 till a few months ago. "When our men left the Belay 
 House, I staid behind, with half a dozen others, detailed 
 for a job ; and later we came up with the Massachusetts 
 — th, in which I found some of my college friends. 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 93 
 
 They urged me to stay with them, and finding the 
 change would be to my advantage, I concluded at last 
 to make it, and in that way I came here, still under 
 General Butler. It's a great wonder to me that the 
 " rebs " didn't get this ' Freedom Fort,' as the darkies 
 call it, so near Eichmond as it is, and the key to 
 North Carolina. But 'twas a providential thing for us 
 that they didn't. When Butler cane down here, he 
 went straight to work, as usual. We hadn't enough ' 
 water in the fort, so he ordered the completion of 
 a half made artesian well ; and, meantime, water was 
 sent us in casks from Baltimore. He has a plan started 
 for a railroad from the wharf to the Fort, to save roll- 
 ing up our fodder ; and has already built a bake-house, 
 so that we don't live altogether on hard tack. As he 
 was short of horses, he sent for nine of his own, winch 
 he uses for public service. He found that whiskey was 
 doing immense harm among officers and men ; and as 
 soon as this was fully ascertained, he destroyed every 
 drop he could discover, and then had a talk with his 
 officers, whom he persuaded to join him in the " total 
 abstinence " rule. As this was done simply for the good 
 of his men, we all think more of our General than ever. 
 Whether we like it or not, we're all temperance men 
 now. They tell, by the way, a droll story of one fellow 
 here who used to imbibe freely. It has been the cus- 
 tom, when any " secesh " were taken, to administer the 
 oath and let them go. One day a scouting party 
 brought in a rattlesnake, and tke»question arose, " "What 
 will you do with him ? " " Boys," said our tipsy friend, 
 
94 THE BROTITETl SOLDIEBS. 
 
 slowly turning himself over, ' ; what do you want to 
 wake us all up for? "Why don't you swear him in 
 and let him go ? " 
 
 The fort is pleasant enough inside. Gardens, trees, 
 a nice old brick house and a chapel, would give it 
 a homelike air, but for the great guns in the wall, and 
 other warlike appearances. ^Ye have the most com- 
 fortable quarters here that I have found thus far. The 
 barracks are clean and airy, and our fare is good. So 
 you have small occasion at present, dear mother, to be 
 anxious about my condition. In summer time, they 
 say crowds of people resort hither to walk on the par- 
 apet. I often go down myself to the Sea Battery, 
 that looks Northward, and watch the waves as they 
 strike against the walls, like messengers, as I fancy, 
 from our own shores, bringing good tidings and knock- 
 ing for admittance. 
 
 You heard, perhaps, of the slaves that came to us for 
 protection, soon after we occupied the fort. They 
 gave themselves up to our pickets, saying that their 
 masters intended to send them away from their families 
 to work on fortifications in North Carolina. Our 
 General put them to work in our fortification, with the 
 remark that he should " keep them as contraband of 
 war ;" and since that day no one here speaks of a negro 
 but as a " contraband." The phrase " contraband of 
 war," Frank, Koger, Maedy, means any article the 
 enemy are not allowed to keep — what will certainly be 
 captured when capture is possible. Such articles in- 
 clude arms, powder, provisions, public property, and now, 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 95 
 
 under Butler's rendering, slaves. Since the first " con- 
 trabands" came over, hundreds more have followed, 
 and if they keep coming at the present rate, I 
 don't know where we can stow them all. We asked 
 one of them, " how many more were on their way? " 
 
 •• A good many," he answered, " an' if we's not sent 
 back, dey'll be comin' long, 'fore to-morrow night." 
 
 '• What makes you think so ? " we inquired. 
 
 " 0, dey'll understan'" said the old fellow, "if we's 
 not sent back, dey'll know we's 'mong our fren's ; fur 
 ef d2 massa see us we gets sent right back, sure." 
 
 The men were kept, and true enough, forty or fifty 
 more came in. As I write I hear them at their work 
 near by, singing a favorite chorus : 
 
 " "Wake up, snakes, pelicans, and Seshers, 
 Don't yon hear 'um comin' ? — 
 Wake Tip I till you ! Git up Jefferson ! 
 Bobolishion's comin' — Bob-o-lish-i-on." 
 
 One of the officers was humming "Dixie " the other 
 day. when his contraband servant interrupted him, say- 
 ing : 
 
 " We's gone done singin' dat ar song, Massa." 
 
 " Why ?" asked the officer. 
 
 Sambo was confused for a moment, and replied hes- 
 itatingly, " Well, it don't b'long to my profession, Sah, 
 dat's all. I s'pose Dixie's down in Norfolk, — don't 
 wish we was dar, nohow." 
 
 Lately a regular system of work has been organized 
 tor the poor creatures, and they prove obedient and 
 cheerful at their tasks. 
 
96 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 They are good friends to us soldiers ; though how 
 they ever became so is more than I can tell, for they 
 heard little praise of us from their masters ; but I've yet 
 to see a black man that wishes well to the Rebellion. 
 One of our boys was lately in Boston on a furlough, 
 when a negro accosted him, and inquired after his 
 health. At first the soldier didn't recognize his sable 
 friend, but, upon thinking a moment, he remembered to 
 have seen that same face bending over him as he lay 
 wounded in Pratt St., Baltimore. It seems the negro's 
 wife, a servant, saw the riot from her master's house. 
 She tore her own clothes into rags to stanch the flow 
 of loyal blood, and threw them out the window to her 
 husband, who took them with some water to the injured 
 man. There are good, though humble, Samaritans on 
 the highways still. 
 
 How this '• contraband " business Will end. no one 
 can tell. It is making great commotion among the 
 "rebs" at present. One of them, Col. Mallory by 
 name, came here and asked our General to return his 
 " contented r ' slaves. Butler said to him : " You hold 
 that negro slaves are property, and that Virginia is no 
 longer a part of the United States ?"' 
 
 " I do, sir,'' replied the Colonel. 
 
 '•You are a lawyer, sir/' continued the General. 
 " and I want to know if you claim that the Fugitive 
 Slave Act of the United States is binding over foreign 
 nations, and if a foreign nation uses this kind of pro- 
 perty to injure the United States, if that species of 
 property ought not to be regarded as contraband ? " 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS 97 
 
 The 'Colonel "wasn't prepared to answer," as the 
 darkies say, and withdrew in silence. 
 
 But I have said nothing, as yet, of what I intended 
 to write of; and it is, indeed, not a pleasant thing to 
 mention. To-day is a very gloomy one in the fort, 
 for we have experienced a defeat ; the first one that has 
 crossed my path thus far, and I hope from my heart 'twill 
 be the last. { Let me tell you the truth, so far as I know 
 it, about the fights at Little and Big Bethel. Our loss 
 was not large in numbers — sixteen killed, sixty-five 
 wounded — but great in the loss of our foremost man. 
 It seems that a short time ago, a contraband, named 
 George Scott, came to Major Winthrop, the favorite 
 officer of the fort, and reported that the rebels had in- 
 trenched themselves at two points between us and 
 Yorktown.% The Major reconnoitred with his colored 
 guide, and found the statement to be true. Our Gen- 
 eral has hitherto been restricted by Government orders, 
 but as these places were only nine miles distant, he re- 
 solved to attempt their capture. The plan of attack 
 was mainly entrusted to Winthrop, and at dawn of day 
 (June 10th) he set out with his men, the contraband 
 Scott accompanying them, and at Winthrop's sug- 
 gestion, armed; he is the first instance, I believe, 
 of a colored soldier in the army. The troops reached 
 Little Bethel by two routes, and by a sad mis- 
 take, they both fired, each supposing the other to be 
 the enemy. The result was dreadful confusion and the 
 disclosure of our designs to the enemy. However, it was 
 determined at daylight to go on to Big Bethel, as rein- 
 
9S TIIE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 forcements were coming to the help of our men. Here 
 they made an attack without success on the enemy's 
 battery, and then another which might have won the day. 
 but for a repetition of the morning's error. Colonel 
 Townsend mistook some of our troops for the rebels. 
 He ordered a halt, with the view of attacking the im- 
 aginary foe ; but our beloved Major AVinthrop did not 
 hear the command ; full of energy and enthusiasm, as 
 he always was. lie pressed on cheering the few troops 
 attending him, till within a few yards of the rebel bat- 
 tery, when he sprang upon a log to view the position, 
 says one of his comrades, and a ball struck his brain, 
 killing him in an instant. Such a man's death 
 is a national calamity. I never saw any one that won 
 the love and admiration of strangers so quickly. He 
 belonged to a distinguished Boston family, was a young 
 man of culture, and of religious principles, most 
 genial temper, every inch a nobleman. Even his 
 enemies praise him ; for Captain Levy, a rebel officer 
 engaged in the fight, said to a " civ" (our short for 
 a man not in the army), "If you'd had a hundred 
 men like AVinthrop, and one to lead when he fell, 
 I should be a prisoner of war to-night in Fortress 
 Monroe." He was among the first to enlist. " For," 
 he said to a friend before the President's call for vol- 
 unteers was issued, " I wish to enroll myself at once in 
 the police of the nation, and for life, if the nation will 
 take me." 
 
 All here who have seen him during these sixteen days, 
 mourn his loss with unaffected grief. The fort seems 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 99 
 
 darkened, bereft so suddenly of his bright, brave presence. 
 After his death, the troops retired, disconsolate and panic 
 struck, leaving a few brave men remaining to care for 
 the wounded, which they did nobly, dragging them in 
 wagons with their own hands nine miles back to the fort. 
 
 One poor fellow, Sergeant Goodfellow, of Colonel 
 Allen's regiment, was shot in the breast just before the 
 fight ended. He handed his musket to the next man, 
 and as his comrades flocked around him, he covered his 
 wound, saying : " I guess I've got to go. But oh, 
 don't mind me, boys, go on with the fight ; don't stop 
 for me." And thus urging on those who paused to 
 support him, he sank to the ground. Just then his 
 Colonel passed, and looking up he gasped, " Good-by, 
 Colonel." The comrade who told me the incident, said 
 that Allen's face turned white as a sheet ; he bit his lips, 
 too much affected to speak, and rode on to avenge the 
 soldier's death. 
 
 Our gallant Lieutenant Greble won a proud name for 
 himself before he fell. He had charge of a gun, and I 
 doubt whether a field-piece ever did more effective serv- 
 ice in the same space of time. He fired constantly for 
 two hours, though left in an open road during part of 
 the engagement with only his command of eleven men. 
 His brother officers begged him to retreat, but he 
 would not listen to them. When they urged him to 
 take care at least, and dodge the bullets, as they did, 
 he answered, " I never dodge, and when I hear the 
 bugle calling a retreat, I shall go ; not before." All 
 through the firing he sighted every gun himself, as 
 
100 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 calmly as if on parade, say his men, and noticed the 
 effect of every shot with his glass, while every ball, 
 went to the spot it was meant to hit. At last, 
 finding himself left with only five men, he was about 
 to cease his work, when a ball struck him on the temple # 
 He cried, " Oh, my gun ! : ' and fell dead — his last thought 
 being, doubtless, an apprehension that his faithfully 
 served gun might fall into the enemy's hands. 
 
 Adjutant Stevens, of the First Vermont, tells an in- 
 teresting tale of his adventures that day. I give you 
 a part of them in nearly his own words : 
 
 " Just as we halted to start to the rear, a rebel 
 scoundrel came out of a house and deliberately fired 
 his gun at us. This man, bear in mind, was simply a 
 citizen. The ball whizzed by me and grazed the skin of 
 Orderly Sergeant Sweet. After we secured the ras- 
 cally shooter, I went up to the house, and found out 
 the owner's name, with other information. On my way 
 back I saw a horseman galloping toward me at full 
 speed. I ordered a companion to cover him with his 
 rifle, and, revolver in hand, ordered him to dismount 
 and surrender. He cried out, ; Who are you V 
 
 " Answer, ' Vermont.' 
 
 " ' Then raise your piece, Vermont, I. am Colonel 
 Duryea, of the Zouaves.' 
 
 " "We grasped hands, and I told him of our late en- 
 counter with the rebel, adding that as a punishment for 
 shooting one of my boys, I should like to burn the 
 rascal's house, which, by the way, I had discovered in 
 exploring, was a fine one, elegantly furnished. 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 101 
 
 " ' Tour wish shall bo gratified,' said the Colonel. < I 
 am ordered by General Butler to burn every house 
 whose occupant or owner fires upon our troops. Burn 
 it.' 
 
 " He leaped from his horse, and I upon the steps of 
 the house. By that time three Zouaves were with me. 
 I ordered them to try the door with the butt of their 
 guns— down went the door, in went we. Colonel 
 Duryea had a match ready lighted, and, with the help 
 of some clothing found in a well packed traveling bag 
 we soon had a rousing fire. Before leaving the 
 doomed house, I went into the parlor in the right 
 wing of the building. It was perfectly splendid. A rich 
 carpet and fine piano, library, a case of costly books, 
 carved sofas, chairs with needle-work seats, etagerea in 
 the corners, loaded with articles of taste, and on a cen- 
 tre-table a Bible and a lady's portrait. In the dining- 
 room I found a decanter of the best old brandy, which 
 I brought away with me. As I came up with our rear- 
 guard I saw a sight, the like of which, I trust, never to 
 see again. Nine of our men stretched on the floor of 
 a house, where they had just been carried, and eight of 
 them mortally wounded by our own Iroops—thc fatal 
 mistake of the battle ! Oh ! the sight was dreadful ! I 
 cried like a boy, and so did many others, for remember 
 the excitement we were in at the time. I thought 
 immediately of my decanter, took a tin cup from a 
 soldier, filled it with brandy, and water from his can- 
 teen, and passed the invigorating liquid from one poor 
 boy to another. As their pale, quivering lips received 
 
102 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 it, I wiped the sweat-drops of death from their fore- 
 heads. Oh, how gratefully the poor fellows looked at 
 me, as they saw by my uniform that the usually stem 
 officer was trying to do the duty of a hind, tender- 
 hearted woman for them. One strong fellow, wounded 
 in the head, and bloody as a butcher, soon rallied 
 and was able to talk with me. Pointing to a comrade, 
 he said : 
 
 " ' That one stood at my side ; he was my section man ; 
 I saw his gun fly out of his hands ; it was struck by a 
 grape shot ; and a moment after we both tumbled to 
 the ground.' 
 
 4 ' ; I went out and picked up an Enfield rifle nearly cut 
 in two by a ball. 
 
 " ' That's his gun,' said he. "I saw it's owner die, and 
 brought the gun back to camp as a memento of that 
 dark day." ' 
 
 " I was not in the action, but give you the account as 
 I gathered it from the combatants. I can't help a keen 
 regret at the defeat, and understand now how soldiers 
 that won't flinch in battle will cometimes shed tears 
 over a repulse. It causes a feeling of mortification that 
 is all but unendurable. General Pierce, commander of 
 the expedition, is almost crazy with sorrow. He is a 
 good man, but new in his profession ; indeed, there were 
 no experienced officers on the field ; and this lack 
 probably explains the whole disaster. The loss of 
 such promising men as AVinthrop and Greble is an in- 
 jury we cannot soon repair, not to mention the demor- 
 alization attending every defeat. Still, we have no 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 103 
 
 thought of succumbing- to it. We arc now safe as ever 
 in the fort. The rebels, too, have evacuated Big Bethel, 
 and have gained no advantage in the contest. If our 
 disaster should result in the employment of capable offi- 
 cers, and the enlistment of more men to guard the 
 nation's honor, we shall not have suffered in vain. One 
 thing, at least, cheers me in this hour of despondence. 
 As I mourn for "Winthrop, I can but remember the 
 glorious part our State — his State and mine — has taken 
 in this contest. Massachusetts sent the first regiment to 
 Washington ; her blood spilt in Baltimore was the first 
 shed in the war ; her men first opened the pathway 
 from Annapolis to Washington ; they were the first to 
 invade Virginia, and the first to reinforce .this fort ! 
 It is fitting that the Old Bay State should march thus 
 in the van. All have done valiantly, but all are will- 
 ing to follow her who struck the first blow for the Rev- 
 olution, and who has ever led the way in all noble ad- 
 vancement. " God bless the Commonwealth ! " And 
 Rhode Island is hardly behind her — the little State that 
 the rebels predicted would be first among us to acknowl- 
 edge the Confederacy ! May all like expectations be 
 equally realized ! " 
 
 The rest of the letter was filled with 
 messages and with thanks for a certain box 
 that, after some delay, had reached the Fort 
 in safety. 
 
Chapter VII. 
 
 WESTERN' V I R G I X I A . 
 
 For some weeks after the "Warrens heard 
 nothing directly from the war. ■ Haying 
 time came on, with vacation for the chil- 
 dren, and as Mr. Warren found much 
 difficulty in getting " extra hands" for the 
 mowing this year — many of the laborers 
 thereabouts having gone to the war — 
 Franklin and Roger helped their Hither as 
 they could in the field. Often in the 
 warm, cloudless days, as the three worked 
 together, their warlike talk contrasted 
 strangely with the peaceful labor of their 
 hands. 
 
 " What a great story that was about the 
 French ladv," exclaimed Roger, as he was 
 turning the hay one of these afternoons. 
 
 " I didn't see it," said Franklin. 
 
 "Nor I, that I remember," added his 
 father. " Let us hear it, Roger ? " 
 104 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 105 
 
 " Why, a French lady, as they took her 
 to be, dressed in black, went aboard a 
 steamer at Baltimore— the St. Nicholas, I 
 believe it was — and at the same time a lot 
 of mechanics, with their bags full of 
 tools, went too. But when the boat was 
 under way, out comes the French lady 
 with the mechanics — regular rowdies, all 
 of 'em — rebels, with their knives and pis- 
 tols, and they just told the captain they 
 would manage his boat for him. They' 
 put off the passengers, and took on some 
 more rebels, and when the crew was large 
 enough, they went off and caught three 
 more vessels out on the river. By that 
 time they had grown so bold that they 
 started back to Baltimore to capture some- 
 thing else ; but the police nabbed them, 
 and stopped the steamboat at the fort near 
 Baltimore. The fellows showed fight, but 
 found 'twas ' no go ;' for General Banks — 
 isn't he the general in Baltimore now. 
 father?" 
 
 « Yes." 
 
 " Well, he sent a company on board to 
 
106 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 bring them to the prison. The men 
 hunted and hunted after the leader — that 
 French lady ; and where do you think 
 they found her at last? Shut up in a 
 bureau drawer," and Roger ended his story 
 with a hearty laugh, in which the others 
 joined. 
 
 " I read a good thing about a rebel spy 
 down there in Maryland," added Franklin. 
 •; He told the picket-guard at Hagerstown 
 that he wanted to see General Patterson. 
 But when they brought him to headquar- 
 ters, his hesitating manner made them sus- 
 pect something wrong; so he was searched, 
 and they found he was a spy, with dis- 
 patches from General Johnston to a man 
 in Hagerstown. "Well, they took off his 
 rebel uniform, and put it on one of our 
 men, and he carried the letters to the man 
 they were meant for. The fellow told our 
 soldier everything, and wrote a letter back 
 to Johnston ; but was arrested next day, 
 and all his papers were handed over to our 
 General." 
 
 " That was shaip> practice," said Mr. 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 107 
 
 Warren. " Our men don't want for wit. 
 One of them, a New York colonel, an- 
 swered rightly the other day in Baltimore 
 when his men were marching quietly 
 through the street. 'Where's your music?' 
 asked a bystander, contemptuously. 'In 
 on?- cartridge-boxes, 7 replied the colonel, 
 and marched grimly on." 
 
 " What are cartridges?" asked Roger. 
 
 " Cartridges ? What the men load with ; 
 little pasteboard cases that hold the pow- 
 der and ball." 
 
 "And what is grape, father, and canis- 
 ter?" asked Frank. "Something they 
 shoot, aren't they?" 
 
 " Yes. Grape means a lot of small balls 
 tied together in a bag — not unlike a bunch, 
 of grapes ; and canister is a tin cylinder, 
 filled with shot; the tin vessel is much 
 the same as a tea or coffee canister. When 
 the gun is fired, the vessel bursts, and the 
 shot flies in every direction." 
 
 " That must be nearly as bad as a shell," 
 said Franklin, plying his rake, after the pause 
 he had made to hear his father's explana- 
 
103 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 tion. "Now there's another thing — cais- 
 sons; sometimes we read of so many cais- 
 sons taken from the enemy, and howitzers, 
 too : what are they 7 " 
 
 " Caissons are the boxes that hold bomb- 
 shells — they are for artillery ; and how- 
 itzers are a kind of cannon, that fires at 
 short range — mostly grape and canister." 
 
 " How do you know about all these 
 things, father ? n exclaimed Roger. " I 
 should think you'd been to the war." 
 
 " Why, I read about them ; and if I ever 
 meet with a word I don't understand, I 
 look for it in the dictionary — a good way 
 to net information, BiO<ier." 
 
 The boy began to whistle " John 
 Browns Body."" To tell the truth, he 
 liked information better than the effort to 
 get it. After a moment, catching the 
 spirit, of the tune, he sang aloud in his 
 clear, ringing tones : 
 
 '•He's gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord, 
 He's gone to be a soldier in the army of the Lord, 
 His soul's marching on!" 
 
 "And many a soldier/' said Mr. "Warren, 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 109 
 
 u is ' marching on ' to-day, because John 
 Brown was hung. If spirits in the other 
 world know anything of what happens 
 in this, he must have looked with joy upon 
 a regiment that marched through New 
 York a while ago, singing that hymn. It 
 went up," so Mr. Goodwin said, " as the 
 voice of one man." 
 
 " "What ! was our minister there?" asked 
 Franklin. " Oh, I remember, he did go to 
 New York, and was gone over Sunday. 
 Did he hear them ? " 
 
 " Yes, ' and joined in the chorus, with 
 thousands of people that crowded the 
 sidewalks and houses. No statesman or 
 military hero has ever been thus honored 
 by our people ; but the name of the old 
 man who failed in an unwise attempt to 
 set a few negroes free, — who was called 
 a fool and a madman, and who died on the 
 gallows, — John Brown, — has become the 
 war-cry of the nation." 
 
 Another afternoon, as Frank and Roger 
 piled the hay-cocks, the father described 
 to them some of the hard work soldiers do, 
 
110 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 such as digging trenches, casting up earth- 
 works, and laying corduroy roads. 
 
 "Now I thought," said Roger, "'the 
 most they did was to march and fight, and 
 have a grand parade when the General 
 orders one." 
 
 " There were some big battles in Vir- 
 ginia lately, father ; I was reading about 
 them in the papers," said Franklin. 
 
 " Yes ; Rosecrans is making his mark — 
 a deep one too — down in Western Virginia. 
 That's a new State, boys, did you know 
 it? One you won't find on the maps as 
 yet." 
 
 " Virginia's there, but nothing about 
 Western Virginia. What is it divided 
 for?" said Roger. 
 
 "Because that part of the State west of 
 the Alleghanies is populated mostly by 
 loyal people, who, soon after the rebellion 
 began, called a convention and declared 
 themselves for the Union. They chose a 
 governor for the new State, and thus far 
 they've been true to their principles, though 
 they've had to suffer for them. If you'll 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. Ill 
 
 remind me when we go home, boys, I'll 
 show you on the war map where the battles 
 were fought." 
 
 That evening, accordingly, the news- 
 paper was spread on the table, while three 
 young heads moved hither and thither 
 above it, as 'the father traced out the points 
 of his narrative. 
 
 11 Here's the Ohio," he said, pointing on 
 the map, " and here to the east is Wheel- 
 ing, the chief place in that region. By 
 the way, I found a scrap about that city 
 the other day that I thought worth keep- 
 ing, for it describes the first action of the 
 new State for the Union. When Virginia 
 seceded, the Governor sent the following 
 order to Wheeling. 
 
 " Richmond, April 20, 18G1. 
 " To Andrew Sweeney, Mayor of Wheeling : 
 
 "Take possession of the custom-house, post-office, 
 all public buildings and public documents, in the name 
 of Virginia. Virginia has seceded. 
 
 " John Letcher, Governor." 
 And here is the reply : 
 
112 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 " Wheeling, April 21, 1861. 
 " To John letcher, Governor of Virginia : 
 
 " I have taken possession of the custom-house, post- 
 office, and ail public buildings and public documents, 
 in the name of Abraham Lincoln, President of the 
 United States, whose property they are. 
 
 Andrew Sweeney, Mayor of "Wheeling." 
 
 u If you'll let me Have that for my 
 scrap-book, I'd like to keep it for you, 
 father," said Franklin, examining the bit 
 of paper. 
 
 " Very well ; and here's another about a 
 brave Ohio boy :" 
 
 i: Our men were surprised by the enemy near Vienna, 
 Va.. when some twenty were killed. When the Union 
 troops retreated, they brought along a youth named 
 Daniel Sullivan, whose arm had been shattered by 
 grape shot. A handkerchief was bound above the 
 wound, to check the flow of blood. This rude bandage 
 was adjusted frequently by the sufferer himself, who 
 tightened it to check the flow of blood, and again 
 loosened it when the pain became unendurable. While 
 lying in this condition, his comrades gathered around, 
 and one said: ''Sullivan, how do you feel?' The 
 young man was dying ; but with great exertion he 
 held up his mangled arm, supported by the other, and 
 replied : ' Boys, I'm for the Union still.' "While the 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 113 
 
 nation needs defending, these last words will ring in 
 bis comrades' ears." 
 
 " Some troops crossed to this point in 
 the latter part of May/' continued Mr. 
 Warren, " by order of Major-General Mc- 
 Clellan, when the rebel force retreated 
 south to Philippi — here it is — which we 
 captured from them a day or two later. 
 It was there that Oolonel Lander took his 
 famous ride. He had a plan to overtake 
 the rebel baggage trains, and desired to 
 speak with another officer about it. But 
 to do so, he must ride down a steep hill, 
 and that at full gallop, lest the enemy 
 should shoot him. His men stood watch- 
 ing, and fearing every moment to see him 
 pitched headlong to the ground ; but he 
 rode on, and escaped without harm." 
 
 "He was as courageous as old General 
 Putnam who took a ride something like 
 that in the Revolutionary times," added 
 Franklin. 
 
 " A little later the rebel General Garnett 
 was routed from Laurel Hill with the loss of 
 his cannon, tents, wagons, and a host of 
 
114 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 men taken prisoners. This was the battle of 
 Rich Mountain. Garnett retreated down 
 here to Carrick's Ford on the Cheat River," 
 said Mr, Warren, finding the place on a war 
 map. " You see the rebels wanted to get 
 among their friends beyond the mountains. 
 But the ford being by nature a well 
 defended place, Garnett paused to give us 
 battle ; he found shelter behind a thickly 
 shaded bluff with his men, about three 
 thousand all told, and poured a heavy fire 
 into our troops as they came up. While the 
 two armies were contending against each 
 other, a ttrave Indiana man named Colonel 
 Dumont, crept up the blufFwith his soldiers 
 and gained the top at the left of the rebels. 
 Almost immediately he was ordered to turn 
 their right flank — that is, confront them 
 on the other side, and make them give 
 way. He inarched down the bluff again, 
 through the middle of the stream, while 
 both armies were firing over his head, and 
 forced his way through the thicket, to the 
 other side of the rebel troops. When they 
 saw him again with his six hundred men, 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 115 
 
 the whole three thousand turned and fled! 
 all at least but one, a slender Georgian boy, 
 who staid by his General and fell with 
 him ; for Garnett was shot through the 
 heart. He and his young companion were 
 the only faithful men in the whole troop. 
 Our soldiers buried the boy, and here's the 
 inscription they wrote on his headboard," 
 said Mr. Warren, reading from the news- 
 paper. 
 
 " We captured a thousand prisoners and 
 seven guns, says McClellan's dispatch. 
 This last engagement is called the battle of 
 Carrick's Ford. We're driving the rebels 
 out of Western Virginia fast," added Mr. 
 Warren. " You know Jefferson Davis says, 
 * all we ask is to be let alone.' Somebody 
 else says that's what the unclean spirits 
 wanted in the Gospel ; they were not * let 
 alone/ but ' cast out ; ' and this evil spirit 
 of rebellion must be treated in the same 
 way." 
 
 u Children, it's almost bed-time, /V said 
 the mother ; after a victory the army takes 
 rest, you know, and you'll need some too. 
 
116 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 u Why, so it is," said Mr. Warren, look- 
 ing at the clock; u but it won't do to go 
 to bed with our heads full of fighting, or 
 you'll have the nightmare, and dream the 
 rebels are after you. 
 
 " Yes, with bomb-shells like the one they 
 sent into our troops at Big Bethel/' said 
 Mrs. Warren, laughing. 
 
 "Why, what kind of a thing was it, 
 Mamma? " asked Maedy. 
 
 " Oh, a horrible affair, one would think, 
 for no one dared go near it. The shape 
 and pattern were so strange that the men 
 thought it must be an infernal machine ; 
 and at last after due deliberation, they had 
 it very cautiously taken to the arsenal. 
 There it was entrusted to some of the 
 workmen who unscrewed the percussion- 
 tip with trembling, took off the outer 
 wrappers slowly, and found the terrible 
 thing was filled with what do you think, 
 — a quantity of rice." 
 
 u Ha, ha," laughed Roger, " the rebs 
 didn't want to blacken our Yankee boys' 
 handsome faces. Xow that was kind." 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 117 
 
 •'Rice! " exclaimed Maedy, " why tjiey 
 might have had it for dinner." 
 
 "Ah," said the mother, "perhaps that 
 day 'twas a question between pudding and 
 powder ; they couldn't have both, so they 
 let the pudding go." 
 
 u Now, let's have a little play, said 
 Franklin. "Just a few minutes, Mother. 
 What game shall it be ? " 
 
 " Going to Jerusalem," suggested 
 Maedy. 
 
 There aren t enough for that, Maedy, 
 replied Roger. " I say blind-man's-buff," 
 that game being one of the few old-fashioned 
 tilings that Roger particularly likecl. 
 
 And at it they all went, pulling their 
 mother and Aunt Ellen into the sport, 
 while the father, blindfold, dashed wildly 
 about the room, now grasping at nothing 
 and now clutching two at once, to the 
 suppressed delight of the children. But 
 the evening was too warm to play long 
 at such an exciting game, and soon the 
 young folks went laughing and panting to 
 bed. 
 
Chapter VIII. 
 
 A GREAT DISASTER. 
 
 About a week after the evening war- 
 story, occurred the great misfortune, and 
 the great blessing, also, of the war — the bat- 
 tle of Bull Eun. Perhaps some of you 
 young readers can recall the time, — that 
 dismal, rainy Monday when the tidings of 
 defeat and panic stunned the whole North. 
 The shame proved afterward to be less than 
 we thought it, but that discovery could 
 not soften the humiliation of the first shock. 
 Every eye was lowered, every lip was 
 dumb ; not so much for the defeat, though 
 that was grievous, but for the panic after 
 it. Our soldiers were not to be trusted ; 
 they had fled in fear. Our grand army was 
 u pouring back into Washington, a heed- 
 less, worthless, uncontrolled mob." These 
 were the tidings that crushed the high 
 118 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 119 
 
 hope of the nation, and made many exclaim 
 in the first bewilderment, "the cause is 
 lost." The seventy-five thousand three- 
 months' men nearly all left the service and 
 retired to their homes. The Government 
 which just before had been burdened with 
 companies, regiments, and batteries, eager 
 to join in the contest, now found itself re- 
 duced to ask for help— and at first to ask 
 in vain. The rebel host was doubled; 
 our's cut down to half its former number. 
 For once the people staggered ; but they 
 did not utterly fall. The land was full of 
 gloom; and I doubt whether a sadder 
 home could have been found in its borders 
 than that of young Warren. Sorrowing 
 for the common cause, and filled with an- 
 guish at the possible fate of their boy, the 
 parents were as those already bereaved. 
 The children wept to see them pacing 
 the floor with smitten, tearless faces, and 
 refused to be comforted by Aunt Ellen, 
 whose troubled eyes were little calculated 
 to soothe their sorrow. I know not what 
 pitch this household grief might have 
 
120 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 reached — for to the frightened children the 
 silent agony of their father and mother 
 seemed more than could be borne — had 
 not a timely letter arrived from Daniel 
 Looking back, how faintly they had seemed 
 to prize his former letters, how coldly they 
 had read them ! But now, through trouble, 
 the great deeps of the family love were 
 broken up, and tears sprang to all eyes 
 as they saw the familiar superscription, 
 while the mother held the precious envel- 
 ope as if it were the hand of her boy 7 ere 
 she could trust herself to read its contents. 
 The letter ran thus : 
 
 Washington', July — , 1861. 
 
 My Beloved Ones : 
 
 I know what you must have suffered of late ; I have 
 been tortured myself with my inability to relieve your 
 apprehensions. At the outset, then, let me tell you 
 that I came out from the battle of the 21st with no 
 serious injury, and am at present in very good condition. 
 I did get a slight wound, with which I am laid up here 
 in the hospital expecting however to be discharged in 
 a week or so. Perhaps by and by I can get a fur- 
 lough ; I confess I should like one amazingly ; but just 
 now, when the ranks are thinning by thousands. I don't 
 like the idea of leaving even for a short time. But I 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 121 
 
 promise you, dear mother, that the next chance I get, 
 if things only look a little brighter, I will seize the 
 opportunity, and make a visit home. The time of the 
 three months' men is up you know, but our boys are 
 not inclined to be mustered out yet ; we've just begun 
 to learn what a soldier ought to be, and we've no idea 
 of retiring at the very outset of the war. 
 
 My hurt this time is a more fortunate one for my 
 pride than the bruise I got in Baltimore. It's a flesh 
 wound in the cheek, a gouge from a rebel bullet, but 
 bids fair to make a good scar. You would smile to see 
 how eagerly I watch for it, unless you happened to 
 know how such honors are prized among us soldiers. 
 A man with the mark of battle on him stands head 
 and shoulders above his comrades, not to speak of the 
 honor he receives at home. There's a sick man in 
 the bed next to mine, and the first day I came I 
 heard him groaning at a dismal rate. I thought I'd 
 cheer him up a little, so I called out, ' Hey, comrade, 
 don't be so blue, you're not going up yet awhile.' 
 That's the soldier's phrase for dying. ' Oh, no,' says 
 he, ' I almost wish I was. Here I am, down sick with 
 rheumatiz and overdoing, and that lazy little Bill Hardy 
 that stood side o' me, lazy as a drone till he took to 
 his heels, he's got a most powerful cut over his ear ; 
 and me a lying here with nary a scratch.' And the 
 fellow groaned and groaned, till I called out, ' Well, 
 you howl like that, will you, and make yourself sick ; 
 don't you know if you keep still you'll be on your 
 pins the sooner, and get another lick at the rebs; 
 
122 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 there will be a chance for you to beat Bill Ilardy and 
 his gashes before long-, at which the fellow seemed 
 encouraged and ' dried up. ? You notice, perhaps, that 
 my English is not improved by army usage, for in the 
 rough life we lead, and with the rough men we meet, 
 our polite home language soon falls into disuse. I am 
 glad to say. however, that there is very little profanity 
 or intemperance m our regiment, and in Sunday's 
 battle it behaved well; it had no part in the panic- 
 struck route that the papers tell you of. I wish I could 
 give you some faint idea of that conflict. Certainly I 
 never saw anything of war till that day ; such vast 
 bodies of men, such smoke, and blood, and tumult. Of 
 the general outline of the affair I knew nothing at the 
 time ; for all a common soldier sees on the field is his 
 own line, and sometimes through the smoke, the ene- 
 my's ; all he hears apart from the great roar is the 
 command of his officer. Even the firing is mostly 
 at random. I remember fighting in the smoke from 
 early morning, firing my rounds with my company, 
 till toward three o'clock, when I was hurt ; after a 
 while the loss of blood affected me some, and I went to 
 the rear, tore the sleeve from my jacket and bound up 
 my face. Just then the order to retreat was given, 
 and I fell into the ranks, but didn't report to my regi- 
 ment till Monday. 
 
 My idea of the battle is formed mainly from what 1 
 have heard eye-witnesses tell. I have also made some 
 good acquaintances, lately, — among them two aids, — 
 and they've given me much interesting information. 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 123 
 
 " What are aids ? " asked Maedy. 
 
 "They're usually young officers who 
 convey the General's orders and otherwise 
 assist him,' 7 said her Father. 
 
 " The grand army began its march, you know, on 
 Tuesday ; part of it bivouacked that night at Vienna, 
 a little west of "Washington. It moved on by easy 
 stages, till within a short distance of Blackburn's 
 Ford at Bull Eun, where it found the ' rebs ' strongly 
 posted. Our forces were drawn up around Center- 
 villc ; our preparations for attack, however, were some- 
 what delayed, and meanwhile Johnston's army came to 
 the help of the rebels, full fifteen thousand strong. I 
 suppose you've heard how he outwitted our General 
 Patterson at "Winchester. The rebel commander sent 
 out a cavalry force as a ' blind,' and then quietly 
 marched off to join Beauregard at Bull Bun. This at 
 least is Patterson's story, whom many think an incom- 
 petent if not a treacherous man, and whom the soldiers 
 salute with groans as he rides past. "Well, we had 
 our divisions all posted, each in the place assigned it, 
 and after some delay, the fight opened at half-past six 
 on Sunday morning. Burnside and his brigade called 
 out the first fire from the enemy on the "Warrentown 
 road ; they pressed on, followed by Heintzelman's and 
 Hunter's divisions, and nearly cleared the road of bat- 
 teries, driving the rebels back a mile and a half. They 
 fought obstinately, however, charging our batteries, and 
 assailing us with artillery from the heights above. 
 
124 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 Sherman and Keys' brigades crossed the Run, and 
 /ought hand to hand with the rebels, who were rallied 
 by Beauregard and Johnston for a desperate stand. 
 Corcoran's Irish regiment showed its pluck at the cross- 
 ing ; the men stripped off their coats and accoutrements, 
 and plunged into the Eun with their bayonets. Our fel- 
 lows were baffled for a time, but finally held the position. 
 They say Jackson's men were in the rebel front ; and 
 when the Hampton legion came to their support, the 
 General shouted, ' Cover the retreat ; we are beaten 
 and must fall back.' ' Then I will show the enemy our 
 bayonets,' replied the Hampton commander, and calling 
 to the rebels by way of encouragement, he exclaimed, 
 1 Here stands Jackson like a stone wall, and here let 
 us conquer or die.' The men responded ' Stonewall ! 
 Stonewall :' with cheers, and 'tis said the general goes 
 by that name among them now — ■ Stonewall Jackson.' 
 But we did push him back, nevertheless, and in that 
 struggle they failed to conquer. At this point of the 
 battle our officers thought the day was won, and for 
 warded dispatches to that effect to Washington. "Wc 
 had cut down some of the enemy's best men, Bee, Bar- 
 ton, Fisher, Lieut-Col. Johnson, and others ; the 
 rebels meanwhile were panic-struck, and raised the cry 
 of ■ run ! ' Their President, Jefferson Davis, appeared 
 on the field, riding a beautiful white horse, but even 
 then the flight was not stayed. The sight of his 
 wounded friends, and the forlorn aspect of his army, 
 must have made him heavy-hearted. 
 
 At this juncture when our pioneers had remov- 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 125 
 
 ed the obstructions near the bridge, and some of 
 our forces were on their way to cross the Run to 
 aid in completing- our triumph, we heard a pro- 
 longed cheer from the rebel ranks. < Kirby is coming! 
 Kirby is coming with thirty thousand men!' thun- 
 dered along their lines ; and up came Kirby Smith, a 
 Connecticut traitor, with a host behind him that 
 was not quite thirty thousand strong, but yet looked 
 very much like it. And now bear in mind the condition 
 of our men ; it was late in the day, they had been for 
 thirteen hours marching, fighting, hungry, thirsty, 
 weary, without help, through all that bloody contest, 
 while their foe was being continually relieved by fresh 
 men. Moreover, this terrible battle was the first 
 that many of our men had ever seen. Let these facts 
 partly explain the panic in which they fled from the 
 fresh host opposed to them. You have heard enough 
 about that. I will only say of it that there were whole 
 battalions of men who went back that night in order, 
 depressed, but dauntless still ; while the wretched stuff 
 that formed a part of the army, went back on a race, 
 ^ to fill Washington and the country with false alarms.' 
 1 The army should not be judged from its off-scouring, nor 
 from rebel reports, some of which are laughable enough ; 
 as for instance that they ' chased old Scott so close he 
 had to leave his coach, and in running lost his epau- 
 lettes, and one of his cowardly legs ; ' whereas the vet- 
 eran general has not been outside of Washington. 
 Another reports Sherman's famous battery taken ; but 
 it arrived here without the loss of a gun. 
 
126 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 The opinion prevails in the army that our move- 
 ments have been too long delayed. It is affirmed that 
 we had time and means with our force to march into 
 Richmond by the first of July, before the place was 
 strongly defended, or the rebel hosts mustered. I 
 cannot say how far this opinion is correct, but one fact 
 is plain ; wc have been in no hurry to attack. If Patter- 
 son had kept Johnston from coming up. I think we should 
 have gained the battle despite the delay ; and how a 
 loyal general confronting a rebel force away off in Win- 
 chester, could deliberately depart and leave the road 
 clear for him to reinforce Beauregard, is more than 
 I can understand. There's a story around — and a true 
 one too — that he refused for a long while to show the 
 flag at his house in Philadelphia, at the time of the 
 popular uprising, after the nefc-s of Sumter ; and more- 
 over, he's known to be of the extreme pro-slavery party 
 in pohtics. The care of the Union is hardly safe in such 
 hands. Sometimes it happens that the privates behave 
 more worthily than their commanders. That intrepid 
 seaman, William Conway, for instance, did so who 
 disobeyed orders at Pensacola, Florida. The lieutenant 
 intended to surrender that important naval station, and 
 commanded the flag to be hauled down. ' I'll be shot 
 first,' said Conway, and actually refused to execute the 
 order. No one had the face to punish him, and as 
 Pensacola is not surrendered, I'm inclined to think 
 he'll never get anything but glory for his disobedience. 
 
 "While we were suffering for reinforcements twenty 
 thousand .volunteers were lying idle here in _Wash- 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 127 
 
 ington. Why they were not at Bull Run can 
 only be explained by those who control the military 
 department. I think, too, they'll have to ferret out 
 some of the traitors at home before we can move to 
 advantage on the field, for our officers say it was plain 
 from the enemy's movements that he knew beforehand 
 oar plan of battle, and facts kept secret here, known 
 only to a few high officials, were reported at rebel 
 headquarters, c? 
 
 Another misfortune ol tne battle was the disabling 
 of two Generals — Hunter and Heintzelman. They were 
 carried away wounded, early in the attack, when wc 
 most needed their wisdom and leadership. Our defeat 
 in this first great engagement is a great blow to our 
 hopes, and yet I hope it will bring us some compensa- 
 tion. If it serves only to sift the army — officers and 
 men — from the chaff scattered through it, that will be 
 a blessing. And I do believe that the North, rising 
 from the present depression, will rally firmer than ever 
 before to the defense of our imperiled Union. We 
 must move onward till the good flag waves throughout 
 the length and breadth of the land. 
 
 July 26. — I had to stop awhile, as my wound was in- 
 flamed, and the Doctor would not allow much writing 
 at once. In all this I haven't mentioned a little 
 story saved up for Maedy, about our « child of the 
 regiment.' Next to my own little sister, she's the pret- 
 tiest, dearest maiden I know, and that is saying a great 
 deal. She's only ten years old, this little Lizzy ; she 
 carries, slung by her side, a small canteen of brandy for 
 
123 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 the sick, and she ministers to the men in various ways. 
 Sometimes she brings a market-cart with her, and dis- 
 penses strawberries, cherries, or fresh vegetables, as 
 she passes through the camp. . She serves the regiment 
 like a little woman, and makes herself everbody's pet as 
 a matter of course. J "Well, before I left the Sixth we 
 had a ' presentation ' for little Lizzy, when we gave her 
 a beautiful uniform, or costume rather, suitable to her 
 office. Sergeant Crowley made the speech, the same 
 man that bore the flag through Baltimore. :;. The little 
 lady received our gift graciously, and stepped into the 
 hospital close by, returning a moment after, clad in 
 her pretty new garments. Standing on the green with 
 the banner waving over her, she made this little speech, 
 which I noted down as she spoke : .' 
 
 • Comrades, when you took me, a stranger, and 
 adopted me as your daughter, I had but little idea of 
 what you were doing, or of what my duties were ; but 
 having been in camp with you, I have learned to love 
 you all, and I believe that you all love me, because 
 there are none of you when we meet but have a pleasant 
 word and smile for me. | And now that you have put me 
 in uniform, I feel still more that I belong to you, and I 
 will try never to forget it. But you do not expect me to 
 talk. Like this beautiful treasure, which is full to 
 relieve the parched lips of my sick and wounded com- 
 rades, and which I shall prize as a remembrance all 
 through my life, so shall my heart be a canteen full of 
 love and sympathy for every one of you. Comrades, 
 thank you, thank you.' And as the child bowed her 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 129 
 
 thanks, we gave her three cheers and a 'tiger' — as 
 hearty a salute as ever went up for any General-in- 
 chief, and escorted her to head-quarters. 
 
 But the pain in my face warns me again to 
 stop. I expect to leave the hospital in a few days, 
 and will send you further news as soon as possible. 
 Meanwhile, with regards to all friends, and a heart full 
 of love for you, dear ' folks at home/ I remain, as ever, 
 
 Your affectionate 
 
 Daniel. 
 
Chapter IX. 
 
 GLIMPSES OF THE BATTLE FIELD. 
 
 The account Daniel gave of himself was 
 so much better than they had dared to 
 expect, that the Warrens were greatly com- 
 forted. They were cheered, too, by his 
 hopeful words, and began to recover from 
 the shock of the first news. 
 
 " He felt the defeat of Big Bethel so 
 keenly," said Aunt Ellen. "I wonder 
 that he wasn't beside himself over this." 
 
 u Yes, but he wasn't at Big Bethel ; and 
 he was at Bull Run," said Mr. Warren, 
 " fighting hard, and surrounded by men 
 who were straining every nerve to prevent 
 defeat. In such a case, to have done the 
 best one could, must be a consolation, as it 
 is to us farmers when the crops fail. By the 
 way, you remember General Pierce that 
 Daniel described as being so sorrowful after 
 130 " 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIER.!. 133 
 
 the disaster at Big Bethel? I see by the 
 paper that, after serving his time out, he 
 has enlisted as a common private. That 
 shows the true man. I would more of our 
 officers had such courage and sincerity." 
 
 For a week or more after the battle 
 Franklin busied himself with collecting 
 Incidents about it for his scrap book, and as 
 the papers teemed with war-news, his pages 
 were rapidly filled. He had a favorite plan 
 of keeping a part of his collection for this 
 subject, and thus make a sort of war story 
 book. The rest of the family encouraged 
 him in his work by saving whatever they 
 read that w T as suited to his purpose. One 
 rainy afternoon, when " haying v w T a§ past, 
 and the children knew not how to amuse 
 themselves, the mother suggested that 
 Franklin should read some of his stories 
 aloud. 
 
 u Oh, I don- 1 want to, ; ' exciaimed the 
 boy, listlessly, for he felt just as you feel 
 sometimes, little reader, when you don't 
 know what to do. 
 
 " Oh, yes, please, 1 1 rank," said Maedy, 
 
132 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 who had found some work in her ever 
 increasing doll-wardrobe, and was sewing 
 busily on a stool at her mother's feet. 
 
 " I haven't had time to read the papers 
 much lately,'' added his mother ; " I should 
 be really interested to hear your extracts." 
 
 " So should I," added xVunt Ellen. 
 
 u Come, Frank, bring out your dokky- 
 ments," added Eoger, who was disposed to 
 rally Frank on his literary tastes, and who 
 declared one day, when his brother was 
 busy over his book, that he " looked exactly 
 like old Squire Case, poring over his law 
 books ; " and, thereafter, the book went by 
 the name of Roger's christening. 
 
 Thus urged, Franklin slowly complied 
 with the general request. As he turned 
 the leaves his eye caught the words Bull 
 Run. u Here's something about the battle," 
 lie said, as he turned the leaves, and read : 
 
 The treatment received by our wounded at the 
 hands of the rebels is a disgrace to our common 
 humanity. We have certain proof that. after the battle 
 of Bull Run, Union men, left on the field, were brutally 
 kicked, insulted, and bayoneted. One soldier states 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 133 
 
 that as ne lay on ^e sod, he received fourteen wounds 
 from a rebel bayonet. Afterward, when taken to the 
 liichmond Hospital, his leg was amputated by an un- 
 skillful surgeon, and he came near losing it. He testi- 
 fies that our men are entrusted to the care of young 
 surgeons there, who are not allowed to operate upon 
 the rebel wounded. A Colonel Estran, in their army, 
 a European, was denounced for showing attentions to 
 injured Yankees, and was forced to obtain his general's 
 permision, before he dared brave the threats of his 
 comrades in his humane work. 
 
 Eve witnesses say that the bodies of our slain were 
 mangled by the enemy ; that the limbs of our dead 
 were boiled, their bones made into trinkets for 
 souvenirs, and that leg-bones of northern soldiers are 
 used as drumsticks in the rebel army. These facts 
 told of a civilized people, could not be credited except 
 for the many eye-witnesses who repeat them." 
 
 " That reminds me," said the mother, 
 "of a great speech our Senator Sumner made 
 once in Congress. It was called ' The 
 Barbarism of Slavery,' and it showed how 
 slavery made savages of people. A south- 
 ern man tried afterwards to kill him for 
 making the speech, and almost succeeded.'' 
 
 " But that was only proving how true 
 the speech was," said Franklin. 
 
 " Yes, indeed : Brook's assault did as 
 
134 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 much for freedom, perhaps, as Sumner's 
 speech. What comes next, Frank ? " 
 
 A young man by the name of Casey, belonging to 
 the First Minnesota Regiment, refused to retire when 
 his regiment were ordered back. He stood up against 
 the foe alone, loading and firing as fast as he could. 
 One of his lieutenants rushed forward with a drawn 
 sword, and threatened to cut him down if he did not 
 fall back. 
 
 1 Cut away ! ' exclaimed Casey. ' I had rather ba 
 Rilled by you than by the rebels ; ' and he fired again 
 before he retired. 
 
 Capt. Putnam was hit in the shoulder, and thrown 
 to the ground. . 
 
 ' Our captain is killed ! ' shouted a soldier. 
 
 fo No ; he is not killed, boys!' exclaimed the 
 heroic captain, springing to his feet. ' Forward ! for 
 God and Liberty ! ' 
 
 A private in one of the New- York regiments was 
 seriously wounded, and carried from the field. His 
 father came to see him thereafter at the hospital. 
 The boy lay with his head downwards on the pallet. 
 
 'Ah ! my poor boy,' said the father mournfully, ' I 
 am very sorry for you ; but it's a bad place to be hit — 
 thus in the hack* 
 
 " The sufferer turned over, bared his breast, and 
 pointing to the opening above the arm-pit, exclaim- 
 ed,— 
 
 1 Father ! here's where the bail went in.' 
 
THE BKOTHEtt SOLDIEES. 135 
 
 Two members of a New Hampshire regiment were 
 retreating through the woods, when they were met by five 
 rebels, who called out, < halt, or we fire.' The Granite 
 boys saw their dilemma, but the foremost, a man named 
 Hanford, from Dover, N. II., took aim and replied, 
 1 halt you, or we fire ! ' At the words, both discharged' 
 their pieces, and brought down one rebel. Again, he 
 gave the word to < fire,' and two more fell. The others 
 took a sudden leave, while the Granite boys went on 
 their way unmolested. 
 
 Our boys died with courage. One was ordered to 
 fall into the ranks. < I will, if I can,' he answered 
 simply. His arm hung shattered by his side, and he 
 was bleeding to death. In a few minutes he sank mur- 
 muring, 'It grows very dark, mother, very dark. 
 Poor fellow ! His thoughts were far away in his Ohio 
 home, dark, indeed, henceforth to the waiting mother. 
 A corporal of the Michigan Fourth became sepa- 
 rated from his regiment during the withdrawal from 
 the field, and was forced to seek shelter among the 
 bushes. "When night came he wandered along and 
 lost his way in the woods. Being wounded in the hg, 
 he made slow progress ; and by the following Wednes- 
 day he had only reached the neighborhood of Fairfax. 
 Needy and discouraged, he espied a Confederate picket, 
 to whom, he deliberately walked up and told his story ; 
 to his utter surprise, the soldier offered him food and 
 drink, told him where he could find a stack of arms, 
 and pom red to a negro hut in which he could safely 
 sleep through the night. 'lama Union man,' added 
 
136 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 the southerner, by way of explanation, but preferred to 
 volunteer rather than be impressed ; by doing so I 
 save my property, and must trust to luck for the rest. 
 If we meet in battle, I'll not try very hard to hit you, 
 and mind you don't hit me.' Truly there is one 
 Good Samaritan in the southern ranks. 
 
Chapter X. 
 
 WILSONS CREEK. 
 
 " Well, wife, here's something good for 
 us," exclaimed Mr. Warren, as he entered 
 the family " keeping-room, 7 ' and gave a 
 letter to his wife. " We're in luck lately. 
 It's from Horace this time." 
 
 The children overheard their father's 
 words, and came rushing in from the next 
 room. '* A letter from Horace, let's 
 see ! read it ! let's hear it ! they exclaimed 
 all together." 
 
 " At any rate," said Koger, looking at 
 the post-mark, he hasn't gone to the war 
 yet, for here's the stamp, St. Louis." 
 
 (t Gone to the war ! " rejoined Franklin. 
 a Why, the rebels are all round them, out 
 there. He might have been a soldier for 
 ever so long, and not stirred out of the city, 
 mightn't he, father?" 
 137 
 
138 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 " Yes, I suppose so ; for Fremont is in 
 command there, and the place is fortified, 
 I believe. Now, children, be quiet, and 
 let's hear what Horace says." So Mrs. 
 Warren read : 
 
 St. Louis, Aug. — 1SG1. 
 My Dear Ones : 
 
 Again the months have slipped by almost uncon- 
 ciously to me, for I meant before this time to thank 
 you for your news. I was rejoiced to hear of Daniel's 
 safety. It is his advantage, I think, that as yet lie has 
 not seen much active service ; for he'll make all the 
 better soldier for the drill and discipline he's had mean- 
 time. Please tell me when you 'write, if he "was at 
 Bull Run. "We have lived in constant excitement out 
 here since Spring, and this is the main reason why I 
 have not written more often. The guerrillas, scattered 
 thick through the State, together with Price's and Mc- 
 Culloch's armies, both in Missouri, keep us in constant 
 alarm. 
 
 u Guerrillas ! they're a dreadful kind of 
 monkey, aren't they '?" asked Maedy. 
 
 "No, little one, you mean gorillas ," said 
 Mr. Warren, smiling. But the two are alike 
 in one respect ; both are bad company to 
 meet in the woods ; guerrillas herd together 
 like bands of robbers ; they are indepen- 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 139 
 
 dent of the army organization, fight when 
 and where they choose, and they are as 
 reckless, cruel a set of men as can be found 
 on the earth." 
 
 You can guess something of the excitement here, 
 read the mother, from the way one of our citizens 
 left us lately. He was bound for a Free State, he said, 
 where he could live in peace, so he got his two-story 
 house on a barge, and had it towed up the river ! The 
 family continued to live inside, and when last seen they 
 were sailing comfortably up the stream, like Noah and 
 his company in the ark. 
 
 General Fremont, you know, was appointed to the 
 command of the Western District in July. He is a 
 great favorite with our German and other foreign popu- 
 lation, and we all think him a man of ability. He has 
 some brave men, too, among his officers, foremost of whom 
 is Sigel, the " Flying Dutchman," as we call him, because 
 when he is wanted in a place, he reaches it so quickly. 
 He fought our first real battle, on the fifth of July, at 
 Carthage, where the rebels outnumbered him, and 
 made him retreat at last ; but their loss was five times 
 more than ours. His skill there, and the number of 
 prisoners he took, made his reputation in Missouri. 
 fle marched his men forty miles, at that time, and 
 fought two battles in two days, on short rations. He 
 is very popular among the Germans here, for he was 
 an officer in the Prussian army, and is said to be a 
 first-rate artillerist, as well as a military leader. 
 
140 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 But officers can't work without men ; we are short 
 of these, as well as money and arms. There's a diffi- 
 culty, too, beyond these ; for our new governor 
 (Gamble) is opposed to Fremont, and refuses to com- 
 mission his officers; so you can judge military affairs 
 here are considerably muddled ; but our general has 
 managed, in various ways, to deceive the enemy about 
 these things. For instance, when Cairo was threat- 
 ened, soon after he came here, he was short of men ; 
 you'll see by its position on the map that it is the key 
 to our State, a place he could not afford to lose. 
 ."Well, there was a great bustle in forwarding troops; 
 steamers were ordered, and the men marched up and 
 down the streets with colors and music in such 
 1 spread-eagle ' fashion that we thought they numbered 
 twelve or fifteen thousand. At night they were sent to 
 Cairo. The ' rebs ' in that neighborhood heard the 
 place was reinforced with twelve thousand men, so 
 they abandoned their game ; and all he had was barely 
 three thousand ! "With them he saved Cairo to us 
 without a battle ; yet the deception was so well done, 
 that the report went all through the country, that 
 twelve thousand men were defending Cairo. 
 
 I suppose you at home have heard of our battles at 
 Dug Springs and "Wilson's Creek, the last a sad one for 
 Missouri and the nation. The loyal heart of the "West 
 beats mournfully to day over the loss of our noblest 
 general ; but Lyon's death will not lack avengers. 
 Hundreds are springing up to fight for the cause in 
 which he fell, and his name is the battle-cry on their 
 lips. 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 141 
 
 Fremont sent him to the defence of our South- 
 western region, with headquarters at Springfield. The 
 rebels overran that part of the country, and General 
 Lyon heard of two great columns coming to attack him. 
 lie determined to strike one before the other came up, 
 and succeeded in repelling it at Dug Springs near 
 Springfield. He lured the enemy into a fight by pre- 
 tending to flee ; but when they pursued, he turned 
 back and put them to rout. After this engagement, 
 Lyon had less than four thousand available men to 
 put against Price with his army of fourteen thousand. 
 Lyon and Sigel attacked the foe separately, early on 
 the morning of August 10th, five days ago. Sigel 
 fought hard, for at the next roll-call only four hundred 
 of his twelve hundred men were present ; but the 
 enemy overcame him with numbers. Lyon at the head 
 of his column attacked the rebel front, and throughout 
 the battle was utterly reckless of his own safety ; twice 
 his horse was killed under him, and twice he was 
 wounded. As he saw the vast throng of Confederates 
 rushing again to the charge, he said to his adjutant, " I 
 fear the day is lost." Schofield answered, "No, Gen- 
 eral, let us try them once more." Lyon, bleeding from 
 his wounds — one of which was in the head — swung 
 his hat in the air, and called on his troops to make a 
 bayonet charge. A Kansas regiment rallied around 
 him, and, as they saw their Colonel fall, severely 
 wounded, they cried out, " AVe are ready to follow, 
 who'll lead us ! " "I will ! come on brave men," re- 
 sponded Lyon. Just then a third bullet struck him in 
 
142 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 the breast, and the noblest man of all the army fell. 
 But the battle did not stop then ; six hours the troops 
 stood their ground, and that after a night of marching. 
 The Kansas men received honorable mention for their 
 bravery that day, for they showed the good Free 
 State stock they've sprung from. Major Haldeman, 
 of the First, behaved like a hero throughout the con- 
 flict, leading his troops with the battle-cry of " Forward 
 for Kansas and the old Flag ! " Colonel Mitchell, of the 
 Second, when borne away, severely wounded, met one 
 of his staff, and called to him to support his regiment at 
 all hazards. 'Twas the same that Lyon led when 
 he fell. Toward noon, when the ammunition was 
 about gone, including even that from the boxes of the 
 disabled men, and when the enemy had retired, our 
 troops retreated in good order, bringing their wounded 
 with them, and reached Springfield at five o'clock. I 
 suppose the rebels will claim a victory, but so do we ; and 
 a young doctor affirms that, while he was looking for 
 our General's body, McCulloch said in his hearing to a 
 Union sergeant, ' Your loss was very great, but ours 
 was four times yours.' It was a sad but glorious day ; 
 We cannot rejoice over a victory so dearly bought ; and 
 we say to each other, as we meet, ' Xo one can take 
 Lyon's place.' "We have Fremont, Sigel, Sturgis, and 
 other brave men but none have the people's heart as he 
 had. His last act, of leading a column against our 
 enemies, and his last words, " Come on, brave men," will 
 long be remembered. " Come on, brave men," seems 
 to be rinsing in the air, and the hosts of the land are 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. L43 
 
 heeding the call. I, for one, can't stay idly at home 
 any longer. I thought my duty would be done by giv- 
 ing money to the war, but it was a mistake. I've 
 enlisted in Company A, th Missouri. ' 
 
 Mrs. Warren's face grew pale, and her 
 hands dropped with the letter into her lap. 
 
 "What!" said the Father in a startled 
 tone, " Horace going? Let me see the let- 
 ter." He took it and read : 
 
 I've enlisted in Company A, th Missouri. When 
 
 the State is in peril for lack of troops, and a man like 
 Lyon pours out his blood like spilt water for the 
 Union, it's no time for common men to hold back. I 
 wonder I've been insensible to the need so long. Don't 
 fear for me, dear parents. Somehow, I feel as safe as 
 ever I did in Uncle George's counting-room, and if I 
 should fall, think of Ellsworth, AVinthrop, Lyon, and 
 be thankful that I had something in common with such 
 men — a flag, and, that like them, I could defend it ! I 
 think I can fight now, if I never could before. If our 
 Union goes to pieces, I might as well go with it ; if it's 
 saved, I want to have a hand in its rescue. To hear 
 the talk of some men out here is enough to heat the cool- 
 est blood. I think Colonel Boernstein's rule is about 
 right for these times. When they talk about freedom of 
 speech over in Jefferson City he shrugs his shoulders, 
 and says : " All people zall speak vot dey tinks, write 
 vot dey pleze, and do all tings dey pleze, only dey zall 
 
144 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 speak nor write no treason. 1 ' Somewhat of the same 
 spirit is Captain "Walker, who, if report is true, 
 received a challenge from a member of the " Pillow 
 Guards " of Memphis. Have you seen it ? The fel- 
 low writes in a grandiloquent strain, inviting the 
 Unionists to meet them " at any time, at any place, in 
 any number, and with any arms or equipments," etc., 
 and assures them in conclusion, that " they will be cer- 
 tain to meet the bravest guard the world has ever 
 known." "Walker, who is Captain of the " Prentiss 
 Guards r " at Cairo, writes on the back of the docu- 
 ment, before returning it, " Prentiss Guards to Pillow 
 Guards. We accept no challenge from traitors, but 
 hang them. If we ever meet, you shall suffer the fate 
 of traitors."' 
 
 They must be a hard set in Memphis. I wonder if 
 you Eastern people have heard that our flag was gone 
 —dead and buried forever? Yet, so it is. Some 
 Memphis citizens discovered the other day that the 
 Union was no more ; so they concluded to bury its 
 symbol— their country's flag. They dug a grave and 
 heaped the earth high above it ; then, as if conscious of 
 the lie, they rushed to a statue of Gen. Jackson to erase 
 the motto : " The Federal Union, it must and shall be 
 preserved/' But before they could destroy this inscrip- 
 tion a band of loyal men gathered unarmed around the 
 marble, and declared they would die if need were in 
 defending it. So the motto is preserved, and the good 
 flag still waves. 
 
 I met a man lately who had some strange adventures 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 1 i~> 
 
 among the Secessionists. He is a spy, but that's kept 
 secret, for a '-short shrift and a ready rope" would 
 soon end his days if the enemy found him out. He 
 wouldn't tell me where he had come from, but 'twas 
 somewhere within Southern lines. " How do you 
 make your way among them ? " I asked. "Oh, easily 
 enough," said he, " I disguise myself, hang on the out- 
 skirts of a camp, lounge with the loafers, laugh at their 
 jokes, examine their arms, count their numbers, try to 
 lcara the plans of their leaders, listen to one man while 
 I am talking to another, join in the chorus of a rebel 
 song, abuse the Abolitionists, slander Lincoln and 
 Scott, brag on Beauregard, sneer at Northern fight- 
 ing, talk about the beauty of Southern ladies and 
 the homeliness of Northern ones, call New York 
 a den of thieves and New Orleans a paradise of 
 gallant gentlemen — these are a few duties belonging 
 to my business." I must have looked rather dubious, 
 for he went on quickly, " They don't seem very honor- 
 able nor desirable, I know ; but the country is served, 
 and I'm willing to leave the question of honor with 
 her. The danger is a sight greater and more disagree- 
 able than that of the battle-field — it's no wonder that 
 while soldiers are plenty, spies are scarce." " Don't you 
 have trouble in crossing the lines ? " I asked. " Well, I 
 reckon," said he, with a knowing shake of his head. " I 
 was never so near givin'up the job, though, as this time. 
 I thought my day for gettin' information was about 
 over. " Where were you ? " " Wal,' I won't say exactly, 
 but 'twas on the edge of a deep wood that ran by the 
 
146 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 river, and the night so dark you couldn't tell B from a 
 Buffalo. Rebel pickets were -within call, while I, 
 creeping on all fours, hunted up and down the bank 
 for the boat I had hidden ten days before. Every cry 
 of a bird or plunge of a fish made me think of the 
 papers I carried, and the rope that would swing 
 me in the air if a rebel should set eyes on me. 
 'Twan't no use to hunt for the boat. I'd lost my bear- 
 ings — knew no more -where I was, than a squirrel that's 
 gone to sleep for the winter. You've jes' got to 
 lay down and float on the current, says I to myself. 
 There's no help for it ; them northern pickets must be 
 reached afore sunrise or you'll be a-swingin' from a limb 
 of this Black Forest. Jes' then, as I was a standin' 
 in the water, up to my waist, I heerd the low baying 
 of a blood-hound. It sounded kinder good now, and 
 no mistake ! After having all sorts of fears, alone 
 there in the dark on the great river, 'twas relieving to 
 know for certain what one of the dangers was. I crept 
 along down stream, the beast growling all the time 
 beside me on shore, when something struck me in the 
 breast, and I couldn't hinder a little shout as I grasped 
 the gunwale of my boat moored under the bank. "What 
 with a-stiflin' the noise I was half choked, but scrambled 
 in and set to hunting tor the painter in the bow to let 
 her loose. All of a sudden out shone the moon — the 
 first light that had beamed through all that black 
 night — and right there on the log from which I had 
 just unmoored the boat, crouched the bloodhound, 
 poising for the spring. I saw his eyes, red as flames, 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 147 
 
 and his open jaws ; the next instant the boat shot into 
 the stream, the creetur' after it. I tried to hit him on 
 the head with an oar, but he dodged. My craft 
 careened over, and he tried desperately to get his fore- 
 paws over the side, but only managed to clinch the 
 gunwale with his teeth. • Now or never you villain,' I 
 muttered under breath, and put the muzzle of my re- 
 volver between his eyes ; but just then I thought of the 
 pickets on shore. The noise of my pistol might send 
 a volley of rebel shots after me. The hound still hung 
 to the boat, and all the time the water rushing over 
 her side a3 if 'twould swamp her. I threw down 
 the pistol and hauled out my ' Bowie ' sharp and shining. 
 It went clear through brawn and muscle to the nape 
 of the brute's neck. He leaped half way out the water 
 and then sank out of sight. Ten minutes pull brought 
 me over the stream, and an hour afterward I delivered 
 my papers. I have an errand there again in a few days, 
 and if ever I meet a bloodhound again I shall know 
 what to do with him," said the spy with a grim look as 
 he ended his story. 
 
 But so many things come to mind that I could 
 write on for a week, I believe, if the time would admit. 
 We know not how soon we may be ordered away ; 
 meantime I am settling my affairs, and helping the 
 new clerk — my substitute in the counting-room — to 
 learn the duties of his position. 
 
 Give Daniel my soldiers' greeting, please, and tell the 
 boys they must come up and take our places if we don't 
 return. I hope you won't be worried, dear parents. 
 
148 TIIE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 God will take care of me ; His word is better taan our 
 fears. Perhaps I ought to have written before enlist- 
 ing, but I didn't like to delay so long. I felt I must 
 go, after thinking it over. With best love to all, and 
 kisses for mother, Aunt Ellen, and Maedy, I remain 
 
 dear ones, 
 
 Tour ever affectionate 
 
 Horace. 
 
 A postscript followed, with directions 
 for addressing letters. 
 
 Roger was the first to break silence 
 when Mr. Warren's voice ceased. " Horace 
 gone!*' he exclaimed. "And he never 
 came home, like Daniel, to say good-bye !" 
 
 "Brother Horace gone to the war," 
 echoed Franklin and Maedy, in dismal as- 
 tonishment. 
 
 The parents were silent, for the sudden 
 blow stunned them. Horace had early 
 showed a talent for business, which de- 
 veloped so fast that within a year after 
 he went to Missouri as clerk in his uncle's 
 counting-room he was admitted as junior 
 partner in the firm. 
 
 The hopes of the parents rested equally, 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 149 
 
 though differently, on Daniel. His years of 
 preparation for a noble career, and Horace's 
 diligence, which promised wealth, were now 
 to be given np, perhaps forever, a family 
 sacrifice to the country. Ah, how many such 
 offerings has the rebellion wrung from the 
 anguish of a household ! How many homes 
 have suffered the same ordeal of wakeful 
 nights and struggling days that these pa- 
 rents endured ! In the great day, when the 
 books are opened, and the accounts reck- 
 oned, whose will be the sum of a nation's 
 sorrow? Who will be charged with the 
 tears and moans, the wearing suspense, the 
 life-long loss, the lonely chambers and deso- 
 late firesides of a great people ? Pray, 
 dear children, that the Great Judge will 
 show mercy to these guilty ones before that 
 terrible day shall come, that they may 
 repent of their crime and be forgiven. 
 " For God shall bring every work into 
 judgment. To Him belongeth vengeance 
 and recompense." 
 
Chapter XI. 
 
 PRIVATEERS AND TIIEIR CRIMES. 
 
 The good resulting from defeat hoped 
 for in Daniel's letter, was soon realized by 
 a new uprising of the people, for the 
 people, now more resolved than ever, de- 
 termined that the great rebellion should 
 never destroy their Government nor divide 
 their country. With one accord they en- 
 dorsed the action of that u Grand Union 
 Convention " spoken of by a Methodist 
 Bishop in the West.* "We haven't its 
 report by telegraph,*' he said in preaching, 
 " but it was held amid the fastnesses of 
 the everlasting hills. The Rocky Mountains 
 presided, the mighty Mississippi made the 
 motion, the Alleghany mountains seconded 
 it, and every mountain and hill, river and 
 valley in this vast country sent up a unani- 
 
 * Ames. 
 
 150 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 151 
 
 mous voice, ■ Resolved, That we are one 
 and inseparable now and forever, and that 
 what God has joined together no man 
 shall put asunder.' And all the people re- 
 sponded ' Amen.' " 
 
 " We will take our glorious flag," said 
 another Methodist Bishop* — ''the flag of our 
 country — and nail it just below the cross! 
 That is high enough ! There let it wave, as 
 it waved of old; around it let us gather. 
 First Christ, then our country." Another 
 minister, who was preaching at a camp- 
 meeting, when the news of our defeat at 
 Bull Run was received, closed his sermon, 
 saying, " Brethren, we had better adjourn 
 this camp-meeting ; I propose that we go 
 home, and drill without delay." The 
 advice of these good men was followed by 
 whole regiments of Christian men. The 
 South said, after the battle of Bull Run — or, 
 as they term it, Manassas — that the war was 
 mostly done, the spirit of the nation broken. 
 But the North replied by raising sixty thou- 
 sand men in two days. The President's 
 
 * Simpson. 
 
152 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 " War Message" stated that not one com- 
 mon sailor or soldier was known to have 
 deserted his flag, — a most honorable re- 
 cord for our defenders by land and sea. 
 
 " Sixty thousand men ! I guess that'll set 
 'em to thinking down South," exclaimed 
 Eoger, as his father mentioned the fact in 
 one of his " war-stories." 
 
 " Why, that's a city full," said Franklin. 
 " Do all these men go to Washington ?" 
 
 u Yes, they are sent there first," said 
 Mr. Warren. " There is hardly a town in 
 the North but is busy now, raising regi- 
 ments and batteries, recruiting and equip- 
 ping the army as fast as the work can be 
 done." 
 
 ''But don't you remember the papers 
 said Washington was full of soldiers after 
 the battle of Bull Kun?" replied the boy, 
 ' ; Where do they put all these new ones ? 
 How can they possibly take care of so 
 many ? " 
 
 "It does seem an undertaking, but they 
 do it, and well, too, since McClellan has 
 taken charge of the army. Do you remem- 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 153 
 
 ber I told you awhile ago about Western 
 Virgina, where Rosecrans gained his victo- 
 ries, and Garnett, the rebel general, was 
 killed?" 
 
 li Yes, we remember/*' said the chil- 
 dren. 
 
 "Well, McClellan was then head of the 
 Department of Western Virginia, but now 
 he has that of Washington and north-east- 
 ern Virginia, while Rosecrans takes his 
 place in Western Virginia. And McClel- 
 lan has been reorganizing the army of the 
 Potomac most thoroughly, arranging and 
 dividing it in such a way as will make 
 it orderly and easily used. In an army, 
 you know, the smallest division is a com- 
 pany, formed of a hundred men ; then ten 
 companies or a thousand men, make a full 
 regiment. Beyond this our army has 
 brigades, divisions, corps, each with its 
 commander, but all subject to the General 
 who controls the whole. 
 
 Beside our soldiers, we have other means 
 to uphold the Government. An order from 
 the President has been issued lately, which 
 
1-54 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 forbids all buying and selling between us 
 and the rebels. They used to get many 
 things from the North — shoes, cloth, and 
 other manufactured articles. But now 
 they must go without them. 
 
 " Jolly soldiers they'll be, without coats 
 and shoes," said Roger drily. 
 
 "' But, father, we get cotton and other 
 things from them. We shall be badly off 
 too, shan't we ? w asked Franklin. 
 
 " Yes, but the order won't press so 
 heavily on us, for with our means of com- 
 merce we can ' manage,' as the Yankees 
 say, to get cotton, sugar, and rice from 
 other countries. But the South can't send 
 out her ships regularly on account of the 
 blockade, you know. They trv to ' run ? 
 it, and are often caught." 
 
 " Yes, there was the Sumter," said Frank- 
 lin. u What an excitement we had about 
 her. To think she has destroyed so many 
 vessels and is still abroad. It's too bad." 
 
 u And the ' Sumter ' isn't the first or 
 only one. There was the ' Savannah ' that 
 ran out of Charleston Harbor. One day 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 155 
 
 as she was cruising about, a brig hove in 
 sight. The Savannah thought she was 
 going to secure a splendid prize in the 
 shape of a richly laden merchantman. But 
 the stranger proved to be a government 
 vessel, and so the tables were turned; 
 instead of being chased, the brig turned 
 upon the Savannah, firing now and then to 
 let her know she was expected to stop. 
 After awhile our vessel came up close 
 enough to ' board her,' and all hands sur- 
 rendered without bloodshed. That was the 
 last we heard of the Savannah." 
 
 " ' That reminds me of a little story,' as 
 President Lincoln says," rejoined Franklin. 
 " I found it only the other day. The wife of 
 a Captain McGilvery, whose ship was 
 boarded by these rebel pirates. The ves- 
 sel was called the Mary Goodell. The 
 pirates told Mrs. McGilvery they must have 
 some ' goodies,' — sugar, crackers, and such 
 things, as their stock was getting low. 
 She said she had nothing for them but 
 arsenic; she would gladly give them a good 
 supply of that, but they could have noth- 
 
156 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 ing else from her. The American flag was 
 lying near, and they tried to secure it ; but 
 she sprang forward and threw it into a 
 chest. Then she stood on the cover and 
 told them if they carried away the flag, 
 they must take her with it. They didn't 
 wish the company of a loyal-spirited 
 woman, so they left her in silence." 
 
 " Good for Mrs. McGive-freely, or what 
 you may call her," added Roger. 
 
 u What was the other privateer you 
 spoke of? Oh, the 'Sumter.' Tell us 
 more about her, will you, father?*' asked 
 Roger, who dearly loved anything like a 
 1 yarn,' and whose favorite acquaintance 
 was old Jack Roper, a sailor that after 
 cruising over the oceans had by some odd 
 chance come to end his days at inland 
 Fairbrook. Jack had the sailor's license to 
 stretch a point, and his stories were more- 
 over sometimes colored with whiskey; but 
 they were none the less interesting to 
 Rogers ear. 
 
 "All, the Sumter!" said his father; 
 " she's a troublesome customer and a swift 
 one. She ran the blockade last summer." 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 157 
 
 " But why did they let her out, papa?" 
 interrupted Maedy. 
 
 ," Oh, they were trying to catch her, 
 dear, but she got through the blockading 
 line at the mouths of the Mississippi, a 
 hard place to watch. You know how it 
 looks in your geography." 
 
 " Yes/' said Maedy, pleased to show her 
 knowledge of the place, "I remember; 
 there are two or three mouths, and they 
 are broad ones, I suppose, though they're so 
 near together on the map." 
 
 "■The Sumter slipped through one of 
 them, and darted about the gulf," con- 
 tinued Mr. Warren, taking a dozen vessels 
 in almost as many days. She went among 
 the West India Islands, where there are 
 always plenty of northern merchantmen 
 with money and rich cargoes. The Sumter 
 would open her big guns on them, and 
 then they must either sink or give them- 
 selves up. The Government has sent ships 
 after her, but she's been too swift for them 
 thus far ; and the probability is that Sem- 
 mes, her captain, will become a hero with 
 
15S THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 the southerners ; a bolder, fiercer pirate 
 never sailed the sea." 
 
 "A gallus hero ! " exclaimed Roger, who 
 picked up " slang" no one knew how ; but 
 as many good people thought that Semmes 
 deserved to swing from the gallows for his 
 crimes, perhaps Roger's title was not mis- 
 placed. "If I were a man, I'd take my 
 choice on the other side. "Wouldn't a fel- 
 low feel gay, now, to be thumping away 
 at Fort Hatteras in one of our great ships- 
 of-war ? I'd like to be there." 
 
 " But the fort is taken," said Mr. Warren. 
 " What do you know about the Hatteras 
 expedition ? " 
 
 "Oh, I've heard them talking about it 
 Old Walker"— 
 
 " Roger ! " said his mother, reprovingly. 
 
 11 Well, mother, I wont ; but it does 
 sound queer though to say Mr. Walker, — 
 he talks ever so much about the war; 
 sometimes he spends all Geography hour in 
 showiug us where the battles were fought, 
 and describing them. He told us of Gen- 
 eral Butler's going there with the soldiers, 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 159 
 
 and Commodore Sfcringham with the sail- 
 ors. They set out in August, and when 
 they came to North Carolina there were 
 two new forts ready to blow them up." 
 
 "Our fleet numbered twelve vessels, 
 with about eight hundred men ; the rebels 
 were seven hundred.' 7 
 
 " Yes," said Eoger, " but their gunners 
 weren't lively ; they couldn't keep up with 
 Butler. I saw a picture of the vessels- 
 shells bowling in the air like sky rockets on 
 a Fourth of July. The rebels didn't care to 
 be long out in that rain. It was uncom- 
 mon even for an August thunder shower ; 
 1 warm, but not exactly mild,' as the man 
 said when the boiler burst. Their commo- 
 dore gave up. 
 
 " Who was he? " asked Franklin. 
 " A man named Barron," said Mr. War- 
 ren. " He used to be in our navy." 
 
 "Did he? Well, he came back to us 
 very suddenly. Butler took the forts and 
 held all hands as prisoners of war." 
 
 "Yes, that expedition is a grand success 
 —a triumph for the national cause," added 
 
160 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 Mr. Warren. " The rebels will soon find 
 
 their ship Secession sinking if our boys 
 keep at work scuttling her in that fashion. 
 It's a long way round rebeldom, but our 
 soldiers are enclosing it with a ' picket ' 
 fence, as they, obeying the command, 
 ' stand still and go forward,' as the old He- 
 brews were commanded to do. Last spring 
 the rebels thought they would fight us on 
 Northern ground ; but after six months 
 hard work they haven't pushed us out of 
 Virginia — indeed, they are giving much of 
 it up to our forces. Rosecrans is fast 
 loosing their hold of Western Virginia." 
 
 " That's where their General Garnett was 
 killed/' said Franklin. 
 
 "Yes, at Carrick's Ford. Our men had 
 several skirmishes afterwards, and in Septem- 
 ber they gained another victory at Carni- 
 fex Ferry, when Rosecrans pounced sud- 
 denly down with ten-thousand men upon 
 Floyd, a man who, while in the service of 
 our Government, robbed it of a million 
 dollars or more. Rosecrans ordered a re- 
 connoisance, — 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 1G1 
 
 "A what," exclaimed Roger, " that's 
 a tongue-twister ; do they expect soldiers 
 to learn all their long names ?" 
 
 " It's a military word, and means to go 
 round a place and look at it carefully. 
 They determined to make an assault next 
 morning, but Floyd prevented them ; what 
 do you think he did V 
 
 il Skedaddled ?" guessed Roger. 
 
 " Right the first time, Roger, and he did 
 so in such a hurry, that he forgot to take 
 his baggage and small arms with him. 
 Afterwards he published a droll dispatch, 
 saying if he could have had six thousand 
 men, he would have destroyed the enemy, 
 and taken the rest prisoners." 
 
 u Hi !" said Roger, u kill 'em all and take 
 the rest prisoners ! That's a gay way. I 
 hope they'll get just so many and no more 
 as long as we fight them in Virginia." 
 
 "Ah, but it wasn't ' gay' a little later, 
 at Ball's Bluff*. There we lost eleven 
 hundred men, nearly half of them taken 
 prisoners. Nothing since Bull Run has 
 been so sorrowful as that." 
 
162 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 "One would think," said Aunt Ellen, 
 looking up from sewing, tl that the * BV of 
 Virginia were had places for Union soldiers, 
 —Big Bethel, Bull Run, and Ball's Bluff 
 where Baker fell ; I used to read of him in 
 the papers, when he was a senator. His 
 death adds one more to the list of good and 
 talented men sacrificed in this war." 
 
 u I heard somethiug ahout our soldiers 
 being deceived at Ball's Bluff,'' said Frank- 
 lin. 
 
 " Yes, the scouts saw the moonlight 
 glimmering through rows of trees, and 
 mistook it for a line of tents. Col. Devens 
 had to defend himself against a troop of 
 rebel cavalry, and fell back to the Bluff, 
 to wait for the aid of Col. Baker with his 
 California regiment. When they came up 
 in the afternoon the battle began in earnest, 
 and though it went against us, the Union 
 colonel was the hero of the day. He was 
 foremost in the fight, minding the shower 
 of bullets aimed at him no more than so 
 many snow-flakes. The men, 'twas said, 
 were ordered to lie down, between the 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 163 
 
 firing, but Baker kept his position. When 
 a ball whizzed close by his head, he turned 
 to his soldiers and showing them the shooter, 
 said, calmly, ' See if some of you can't hit 
 him.' At one time he rushed to serve a 
 cannon, which was exposed to the ene- 
 my's fire so, that every one near it fell. 
 His daring inspired others, and after a few 
 minutes he was able to leave it to the care 
 of men willing to imitate his boldness. But 
 we all wish now that he had taken better 
 care of himself; for a high-minded senator, 
 a talented orator, and a pure-hearted 
 Christian — and Colonel Baker was all 
 these — is no light loss to the nation. You 
 children will not often hear his name ; had 
 he lived, it would have been a household 
 word throughout the land. It will ever 
 shine in the history of that defeat. He 
 fought with tireless bravery for several 
 hours, and fell at last covered with wounds, 
 dying in an instant. Then our men began 
 to waver. As they were met and slaugh- 
 tered by fresh troops, they tried to escape, 
 but in the darkness, the bluffand river were 
 
164 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 not easily passed. Some of the scattered 
 force were rowed back in a scow by an old 
 negro ; some leaped into the water, while, in 
 the confusion of embarking, an overloaded 
 boat sank in the stream. We lost full half 
 our force on that dark day, and yet those 
 who were left did not lose heart, for when 
 their Colonel addressed them a few days 
 later, and asked if they were ready to fight 
 again next week, to-morrow, that very day, 
 they responded ' Yes, yes,' with cheers. 
 When some wonder was expressed that any 
 resistance had been made in the face of such 
 disaster, Col. Devens said that, to a foreign 
 foe be might submit, to traitors never. But 
 the battle was not all disaster. Our soldiers 
 there showed themselves willing to die ; 
 they were courageous, without the hope of 
 success, and you remember how much dis- 
 couraging talk we heard after the Bull Run 
 defeat ; the army had lost its spirit, 'twas 
 said ; the men would not fight well. It was 
 a falsehood which Baker and his followers 
 answered by their behavior, and that twenty- 
 first of October will be memorable in our his- 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. I flfi 
 
 tory as a day of deeds. While men in the East 
 were showing ns how soldiers should die, 
 our Western troops were driving and con- 
 quering the enemy. In Kentucky, the rebel 
 General Zollicoffer, who has been molest- 
 ing the State, attacked Camp Wild Cat, 
 where our men were organizing. They 
 fell upon him and his seven hundred men, 
 and drove them so far back that they did 
 not care to return. In Missouri, too, we 
 were successful in an engagement at Fred- 
 ericton, in the southern part of the State. 
 Even Ball's Bluff will, I think, work out 
 some advantage for us, judging from its 
 effect on the rebels. Their heads are so 
 filled with vanity that they've done little 
 since but boast, dwindling their own num- 
 bers and enlarging ours, till the Southerners 
 are ready to think beating Yankees is the 
 easiest work they can do. 
 
 "Roger," said Frank, " what's that you 
 were singing to-day about the ' gallant 
 young Southerner ?' Where you rake up 
 such things is more than I can tell." 
 
 ' u Oh, that's a jolly one ; I only know 
 
166 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 two verses though. There's a long string 
 of them." "Sing us what you can, do, 
 Roger, that's a good fellow," said Maedy 
 persuadingly. 
 
 u Oh, well, if you want me to," said the 
 brother in his rough, good-natured way, 
 " Let's see — what's the begining ?" And 
 he sung to a rollicking air these verses : — 
 
 " I'm a dashing young Southerner, gallant and tall ; 
 I am willing to tight but unwilling to fall ; 
 I am willing to fight, but I think I may say, 
 That I'm still more in favor of running away ; 
 So forth from my quarters I fearlessly go, 
 "With my face firmly set, and my back to the foe. 
 
 " The life of a trooper is pleasure and ease, 
 Just suited to sprigs of the old F. F. Y's ; 
 
 " I can't remember the rest of that," said 
 Roger, pausing. 
 
 " Sometimes I put Sambo and Cuffee and Clew, 
 'Twixt me and the Yankees, who shoot into them ; 
 But when at close quarters with pistol and knife, 
 I find it much safer to run for my life, 
 So the dust from my horse-shoes I haughtily throw, 
 As I dash from the field with my back to the foe." 
 
Chapter XII. 
 
 REFUGEES AND THEIR 'SORROWS. 
 
 "Mamma," said Meady, looking up from 
 
 the sock she had been knitting intently, 
 
 it was her first effort in that direction, and 
 if it succeeded was to be a Christmas present 
 to Papa of a pair of winter socks. She had 
 courageously given up the Saturday after- 
 noon play, to sit down by her mother, who 
 was making some flannel shirts to go to 
 Daniel, far away in camp. 
 
 11 Well, deary,"— 
 
 '•' Oh, here's a mistake— I forget so about 
 the ribbing— can you maKe that into a seam 
 stitch, mamma ?" 
 
 " Let me see it, Maedy." Meantime, as 
 the child sat waiting for the error to be 
 righted, the thought it had driven out came 
 hack again. 
 
 " Mamma," she.said again, " I wasthink- 
 167 
 
1GS THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 ing about the rebels ; sometimes I do really 
 feel sorry for them, for when we get a 
 victory, or when people talk against them 
 I think, ' suppose you were a little rebel, 
 how sadly you would feel'; and then I pity 
 them ; though they are so bad, I suppose it 
 isn't just right.' ; 
 
 "Oh, yes, my darling it is right," said 
 Mrs. Warren, earnestly. " We must pity 
 such people and love them too, for God 
 does. I am sorry for the Southern people 
 from my heart. It pains me to think of all 
 the suffering this war has brought upon 
 them. Most of us in the Xorth bear them 
 no ill-will, in spite of the hatred they often 
 show for us." 
 
 u But why do our soldiers kill them 
 then, 7 ' asked Maedy ? 
 
 u Because the rebels are determined to 
 carry out a wicked plan. They want to 
 destroy our nation. And never mind how 
 unwilling we might be to fight, yet the 
 Northern men would be cowards if they 
 quietly sat still and saw their Government 
 ruined, their homes broken up, and their 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 169 
 
 lives in clanger. They must fight for these ; 
 they hate the rebellion, but not therefore 
 the rebels ; the wrong, yet not the wrong 
 doer." 
 
 " I don't see how they can do that, 7 ' said 
 the little girl with a questioning look. 
 
 a Perhaps you'll understand what I mean 
 if we try to imagine how God regards a 
 wicked man. We know that our good 
 Father hates sin ; but He hates none of his 
 creatures ; not even the worst of us. He 
 tells all to come to Him ; c whosoever will, 
 let him come,' He says, and he has promised 
 to ' love us freely. 7 And all his followers 
 are trying to destroy sin. Now Union people 
 for the most part feel tenderly to our 
 brethren in the South, though ready at the 
 same time to fight for their country. I 
 certainly would rejoice to help their wound- 
 ed if I could.; and so would most of the 
 'vile Yankees' as they call us. I've heard 
 of a Methodist chaplain, who both prays 
 and fights. Whenever he fires at a rebel he 
 exclaims, "And may God have mercy upon 
 your soul." That's what I should say, I 
 
170 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS 
 
 think, if I had to do such work. You 
 might go through all the loyal States and 
 hardly find as much bitterness and cruelty 
 toward our foes as one common rebel cher- 
 ishes against Union men. Here's the knit- 
 ting. Remember two plain, one seam." 
 
 " Yes'm," said Maedy, as she began again 
 to knit ; as soon, however, as the work 
 went smoothly, her thoughts went back to 
 her mother's words. u What makes you 
 think that the Southern people feel so, 
 mamma? I know we've heard stories of 
 how badly they treated our men, but don't 
 you suppose they tell such things about us 
 too?" 
 
 " Yes, but not so many true chics ; for 
 we're free, my darling, and freedom helps 
 men to be just and kind, and slavery 
 makes them unjust and cruel. - That was 
 made plain long ago in the world's history, 
 but never more so than by the spirit 
 shown in the conduct of this war. The 
 Southerners try to injure us in wa}~s that 
 are far from honorable. I They poison the 
 food of our men ; they burn our railroad 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 171 
 
 bridges, and put stones on the track to de- 
 stroy whole car loads of defenceless men, 
 women and children ; they have refused 
 to let their surgeons attend to our wound- 
 ed on the battle-field; they make rings 
 and trinkets out of the bones of Union 
 men, and their papers are full of angry 
 abuse and threatenings. You heard some- 
 thing of their cruelties at Bull Run. After 
 the battle they obeyed the order to care 
 for our wounded, but that was not issued 
 early enough to restrain their natural 
 ferocity. Long before the rebellion began 
 they persecuted people who disliked slav- 
 ery or loved the Union." 
 
 " How did they ? " asked Maedy ; " What 
 did they do?" 
 
 li I'll tell you a story about a poor fami- 
 ly that suffered at their hands," said the 
 mother, after a moment's hesitation ; and she 
 laid down her work and took the little girl 
 on her lap. "Then we won't talk any 
 more about such things," she added, ''for 
 we can't help them, and they only make us 
 feel sad. Not long ago there was a family 
 
172 TIIE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 living near a village down in Arkansas. The 
 father and mother came from New Eng- 
 land, had bought a farm in the South, and 
 lived there comfortably as we live here. 
 They had a little girl like you, darling — 
 we'll call her Maedy, and two boys — they 
 shall be named Franklin and Roger. Be- 
 sides the farm the father had a large yard 
 full of lumber or boards, and these he kept 
 for sale. By and bye the rebellion began 
 to be talked of, and then the father felt 
 afraid, for the neighbors hated Union men, 
 and had killed several of them. So he 
 kissed his children one night as they lay 
 asleep, and went away, telling his wife to 
 come after him when she could, and com- 
 forting her with the hope that they might 
 have a happy home again in New England. 
 When the rebels found he had gone, they 
 entered the house and destroyed everything 
 they could lay their hands on, even to the 
 food the mother had saved for the children ; 
 for they are not ashamed of such cruelties. 
 1 Go after your husband/ they said, ' we 
 won't have vou in the State another week.' 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 173 
 
 The poor woman sorrowfully packed up 
 the few things left her ; but even then her 
 persecutors robbed her of some of her 
 boxes. She hired a waggon to go a little 
 way, and thus she and the little ones were 
 driven out of their home. She, too, start- 
 ed for New England, but found many hard- 
 ships to endure, many rough words, and 
 perilous escapes before she reached the 
 Free States. Once out from under the 
 black cloud of Slavery, a little sunshine 
 brightened her path, and kind-hearted 
 people helped her now and then, till at 
 last she arrived at Cleveland, a city 
 in Ohio, a thousand miles from her Arkan- 
 sas home ; and she had more than a thou- 
 sand still to go before she could reach her 
 friends in New England. The children 
 were barefooted and ragged. They had 
 no garments but those they wore when the 
 rebels turned them out, and the mother had 
 only two dollars left in her pocket. The 
 good superintendent of the railroad gave 
 her a free ticket for herself and children, 
 and other kind-hearted gentlemen added to 
 
174 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 her stock of money. She seemed very 
 grateful, but hesitated to accept their 
 gifts, particularly the money. The gentle- 
 men told her to keep it, and sent her 
 on her way eastward. One of them wrote 
 down her story as she told it to him, but 
 whether the wandering father ever rejoined 
 his family I cannot tell." 
 
 Maedy's eyelids were brimming with 
 tears as the mother ended her story. Mrs. 
 Warren tried to divert her thoughts, when 
 Aunt Ellen's voice was heard calling, and 
 'she left the room to see what was needed. 
 
 Koger had come in during the recital, 
 and perhaps from a boyish desire to add to 
 the effect of what had been said, he now 
 exclaimed — " Hoh, I know worse things 
 than that about 'em. Down South they 
 caught a lot of Union men and made 'em 
 enlist. Some said they wouldn't, then the 
 ' rebs' took 'em, cropped the hair all off their 
 heads, cut up their backs with a leather 
 lash, and put 'em in prison on bread and 
 water for a month. But they got out, and 
 lived to tell their story up North. They 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 175 
 
 w feren't so hard up though as five fellows in 
 Pensacola. They had to join the army too ; 
 three said they'd rather die ; so the ' rebs' 
 swung 'em off from the nearest tree. One 
 of the other two, when he saw what was 
 done couldn't keep still, but called the 'rebs.' 
 cowards and traitors. Then they took a 
 pot of tar, and poured it all over him and 
 set lire to it ! The men" — 
 
 u Oh, oh," cried Maedy, half screaming. 
 With a shudder she ran and hid her horri- 
 fied face in her mother's dress. 
 
 " Roger, stop," commanded Mrs. Warren, 
 who had re-entered the room in time to 
 hear his last words. " How can you be so 
 cruel ? Let me never again hear you repeat 
 anything simply to give your sister pain," 
 she continued in a tone of displeasure. 
 
 u Why, mother," said Roger, disturbed 
 himself at the trouble he had caused, (t I 
 didn't make them up ; they're true ; besides, 
 I didn't think she'd feel so. I wouldn't have 
 told her if I'd thought"— 
 
 " You did wrong, Roger ; go away and 
 
17G THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 think a .lttle now ; go," she repeated more 
 decidedly, " leave us alone." 
 
 It took all the good mother's care to 
 divert the little girl through the rest of the 
 afternoon. Ever and anon the sober look on 
 her face showed that her thoughts had flit- 
 ted back to the painful things she had heard. 
 After Mrs. Warren had told many pleasant 
 stories, and played some little plays, such 
 as " what's my thought like," and " Hove 
 my love with an A," she persuaded Maedy 
 to leave her knitting, and go with Frank 
 into the wood-shed where he was to finish 
 a doll's chair long ago begun. 
 
 While they were still busy in the shed, 
 Mr. Warren came in, and soon after the 
 bell rang for tea. 
 
 " Children," said the mother at table, 
 " father brought us home something to- 
 night, — something good, — guess what it is." 
 
 Several efforts were made to divine it, 
 but without success. 
 
 u Did he bring it from the village," asked 
 Maedy, who had sharpened her guessing 
 faculty by playing " Twenty Questions." 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 177 
 
 « Yes." 
 
 •• Was it made there?" 
 
 " No." 
 
 " Where then," asked the boys? 
 
 u Hundreds of miles from here." 
 
 Then followed more guessing and more 
 mystifying. 
 
 " Why, what dull heads !" said the mother 
 pleasantly. "It came from the West. Now 
 guess again." 
 
 " Oh, oh, I know," they all exclaimed ; 
 "from Horace, a letter from Horace." 
 
 Yes, they had found it. They clamored 
 to have it read, but first the table must be 
 cleared, the dishes put away, the curtains 
 drawn, and the Franklin stove replenish- 
 ed with a hickory log. Then Aunt Ellen 
 read Horace's letter. 
 
Chapter XIII. 
 
 A DEFENCE AND AN ASSAULT. 
 
 Ix Camp near Rolla, 
 
 "Nov. — th, 1861.^ 
 Dear Ones at Home : Your letters, with Daniel's 
 enclosed, have, I believe, all come to hand, though not 
 without some delay. \Ye have been ' od the go' much 
 of the time, and twice our mails have come near falling 
 into rebel hands. You can't think what an excitement 
 there is in camp when a mail comes in. Till the boys 
 get to reading their letters and papers it's like Bedlam 
 let loose. I've seen great, rough men, who never 
 thought of flinching iu a fight, fairly cry with disap- 
 pointment, on finding their names weren't read off on 
 the mail list — while others are rubbing the tears from 
 their eyes, as they read the affectionate words of the 
 home letter. I'm counted the luckiest man of our 
 company, having received the biggest mail thus far. 
 You'd laugh, too, to see us answering our correspon- 
 dents. Just now I'm writing on a drum -head, quite a 
 convenient desk, only the rim of the drum is in the way 
 a little, and makes my letters too up-and-down. I 
 begged the use of it from our good-natured drummer 
 boy. As the mail goes out to-morrow most of us are 
 I7S 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 179 
 
 busy writing to-day. One of my comrades, sitting 
 near, has found an old mess-kettle, and having covered 
 the bottom with a newspaper he's slowly filling up his 
 sheet. Another, stretched at full length, makes more 
 headway on his knapsack. We're rather a hard-look- 
 ing set, here in this Western army, though I'm free to 
 say there are no better nor braver men fighting than 
 you'll find in our ranks. But in arms, training, every- 
 thing but courage and will, we're wofully short. And 
 the times out here are even harder than we. Since 
 Lyon's death on the 10th of August, our State has been 
 struggling with the storm ; and the gleams of sunshine 
 have been fitful. When the news of defeat came at 
 that time, Fremont fortified the important military 
 points in the southern part of the State, and then 
 issued that famous proclamation in which he promises 
 freedom to the slaves of Missouri rebels. There is a 
 great outcry against it, you know, and perhaps it isn't 
 the best thing for this time. Many of us in the army, 
 however, are full of hope that before the war ends, not 
 only his plan of freeing the slaves in this State may be 
 accomplished, but that every American slave shall bo 
 set at liberty. Fremont had two hundred black men 
 in his army at Springfield, sometime since, and for 
 aught I know they were just as available for service as 
 the same number of whites. I can but think our 
 General has the interest of the country at heart, for last 
 September, when he was in an emergency, and a 
 Government order demanded troops of him, he sent 
 them without hesitation, though his friend, Senator 
 
ISO THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 Colfax, advised him to send word that they could not 
 possibly be spared. ' Xo,' said Fremont, M they must 
 go,' though his own plans should be defeated and him- 
 self sacrificed. In his position at the time that was 
 noble, for news had just come that Price, with twenty- 
 five thousand men, was besieging our Colonel Mulligan, 
 whose little force of twenty-seven hundred, short of 
 ammunition, were entrenched on Masonic Hill, over- 
 looking Lexington. Now, Fremont was straining every 
 nerve to reinforce that brave leader. His army of 
 fifty-six thousand was disposed for the most part at 
 seven different points in his department, including St. 
 Louis, where there were but seven thousand men. The 
 Department covers a vast extent, as you will see by 
 referring to the map ; it comprises Illinois, and all 
 the country between the Mississippi and the Rocky 
 Mountains, including New Mexico. The same day 
 that brought news of Price's advance brought also 
 a pressing demand for more troops from Grant, com- 
 manding at Cairo, which the rebels were threatening, 
 and the order from ^Washington for " five thousand well- 
 armed infantry*' to be forwarded without delay. "Well, 
 Fremont did the bt j st he could, and though the effort 
 failed, I doubt whether any man could do better. 
 He sent part of the force to "Washington, and 
 ordered men from Jefferson City, from Pope's com- 
 mand, and other quarters to the relief of Mulligan, 
 but no force ever reached that sorely-pressed com- 
 mander. Some were beaten back on the way, some 
 delayed by bad roads — and Mulligan was left to his 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 1S1 
 
 fate. The siege lasted eight days. On the fifth 
 the enemy cut off all access to the river ; and till the 
 surrender, our men had no water except what they 
 -caught in their blankets during rain, and wrung out in 
 camp-dishes. On the fifth day the enemy charged 
 with his entire force, — twenty-eight thousand men and 
 thirteen pieces of artillery ; a mass of human beings 
 stretching " far as the eye could reach," 'tis said, and 
 for three days the shot poured incessantly over our 
 twenty-seven hundred. The rebels took our hospital 
 and made it a vantage-ground for firing. The chaplain, 
 surgeon, and a number of wounded men were inside ; 
 and Col. Mulligan, who by the way is an Irishman, de- 
 clared that it could not be allowed to remain in the 
 possesssion of the enemy. Several companies tried to 
 recapture it, without success, till finally the Mont- 
 gomery Guard, Capt. Gleason of the Irish brigade, were 
 brought forward for the task. With a brief exhorta- 
 tation to uphold the name they bore, the order came to 
 charge. "And on they went," says Mulligan, "first 
 quick, then double quick, then on a run, then faster, a 
 wild line of steel, and what is better than steel, of 
 human will, till the eight hundred yards were passed, the 
 slope gained, and the foe hurled down the hill. Capt. 
 Gleason led his men into the building ; when he returned 
 there was a shot through his cheek, another through his 
 arm, and only fifty of the eighty men he led forth came 
 back. But the hospital was regained." The rebels made 
 unsuccessful assaults for three days afterward ; Mulli- 
 gan still holding out, though there was no water, little and 
 
1S2 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 poor ammunition, and murmuring among the men, "who 
 feared a pestilence from the numbers of dead horse3 
 lying on the hillside. When a demand for surrender 
 was sent, the colonel replied, ' ; if you want us come and 
 take us." At last, on the 20th Sept., when the " rebs" 
 had entrenched themselves within ten rods of the belea- 
 guered men, an officer raised the white flag — and the 
 defence was ended. A lieutenant relates that, shortly 
 after, he saw Col. Mulligan — the man who had borne the 
 horrors of this seige without a murmur, crying like a 
 child, and exclaiming " death is preferable to this." But 
 that defeat will remain forever honorable. Price felt it to 
 be such, for he returned the Colonel's sword saying, " I 
 should be sorry to see so brave an officer deprived of his 
 sword.'' He refused to be paroled, and 'tis said his 
 wife has gone to Lexington to share his captivity. 
 Their little child, left behind, is seen on the streets 
 wearing a dress made of the American flag. When an 
 adjutant was called upon to produce the ammunition, 
 after the surrender, he showed the empty cartridge- 
 boxes of the men, and said, " I believe, sir. we gave you 
 all the ammunition we had before we stopped fighting. 
 Had there been any more, upon my word you should 
 have had it. sir." We lost forty killed and a hundred 
 and twenty wounded in this heroic defence. The rebels 
 make small returns of their loss, but we know it was 
 greater than ours. Lexington did not remain unmo- 
 lested in their keeping ; for scarcely a month afterwards 
 it was retaken by Major White, commanding our 
 "' Prairie Scouts." a man that has vet to find the obsta- 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 183 
 
 clo that he can't get round or over. Immediately after 
 the unsuccessful but glorious engagement at Lexington, 
 Fremont mustered such force as he could command, in 
 all thirty thousand men, and gave chase to Price, who 
 was in the southwestern corner of the State. Sigel's 
 columns joined us, and we all crossed the Osage on the 
 22d of October. We were encouraged at the same 
 time by hearing that " Old Swamp Fox" was defeated 
 in south-eastern Missouri. Perhaps you know him by 
 his other title, Brig-Gen. Jeff. Thompson. He escaped 
 — that is the only drawback to the story — but his gang 
 was all broken up at Pilot Knob, and his occupation's 
 gone in the bushwhacking line. 
 
 Well, we went on, Major "White scouts keeping the 
 advance. North of Springfield they were joined by the 
 " Fremont Body-Guard, ' whose leader, Major Zagonyi, 
 assumed command of the force. They laid a plan to 
 capture Springfield by suprise, and rode all night to get 
 there. And now, children, you may begin to open your 
 eyes ; for a braver deed than that " charge" of the 
 cavalry guard was never done, nor will be were the war 
 to last a century. I've heard they don't believe the ac- 
 count of it yet in the East, and I don't wonder ; but it's 
 true — not a word of exaggeration in it. I know a 
 corporal who was there, an honest man, awl his story 
 tallies with the official report. "When the guard reached 
 the town there was a large force waiting to oppose 
 them. Zagonyi said to his officers, " follow me and do 
 like me." I send you the following scrap containing 
 his few words to the men. " Comrades, the hour of 
 
1S4 TIIK BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 danger has come ; your first battle is before you. The 
 enemy is two thousand strong, and you are three 
 hundred. If any of you would turn back, you can do 
 so now." 
 
 But not a man moved. 
 
 " Let the watchword be, ' the Union and Fremont." 
 Draw sabers! By the right flank — quick trot — march;*' 
 Listening to the story I could almost hear the ringing 
 shout as their battalion dashed forward, over brook, fence, 
 and lane, past the sharpshooters. In one moment these 
 are cleared ; one maddening moment in which seventy 
 comrades are stretched dead, or writhing on the ground. 
 " Xow strike,*' says the leader to a body of thirty horse- 
 men ; they leap on the enemy's four hundred cavalry 
 and it scatters in confused flight through the corn- 
 fields, while the sabers of our horsemen flash after them 
 as they disappear — a flying cloud. Zagonyi calls again, 
 " in open order — charge." The line lengthens out that 
 each man may swing his sword, and they rush with 
 cheers into the shower of bullets that rains from the 
 hill-side. " Blow,"' says Zagonyi to the bugler. " Tirra- 
 tirra, la-la," he plays, but the next moment his sword 
 swings red above his head. " Put that away ; blow 
 your bugle," comes the order again ; and again the notes 
 reply for an instant, and the sword drips in the air. 
 * ; Mind your orders. Blow till I say stop," cries the 
 commander sharply ; but the good sword has work to do, 
 and between the notes fall the strokes as it still flashes, 
 a red cresent in the air. At last the bugle's mouth is 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 185 
 
 shot away, and with an exultant shout the bugler 
 plunges into the fight. 
 
 Afterwards Zagonyi arraigned him for disobedience. 
 " You are unworthy to belong to the guard, you would 
 not mind the order," said the commander. " But ze 
 mouf was shoot off/' replied the man, who was a French- 
 man. " I could not bugle viz mon bugle, and so I bugle 
 viz mon pistol and sabre." He was not discharged. 
 
 The mere sight of these horsemen is appalling ; the 
 enemy tremble, waver, and fly ; they hurry to the corn- 
 fields, to the woods ; they swarm over the fence, along 
 the road back to the village ; but wherever they flee, the 
 guard is beside them. Zagonyi's voice calls to his 
 Kentuckians, " Come on, I'm with you," and they follow 
 the flashing of his sword. He approaches a barn ; a 
 man steps from behind the door and lowers his rifle, but 
 before he can take aim, Zagonyi's quick saber falls on 
 his head, and a jet of blood leaps into the air. The 
 enemy fly to the village. Up and down the streets, in 
 the public square, wherever a group of rebels are seen 
 there follow the guard. It is a hand-to-hand fight, and 
 no one may escape the fray. At last the Union 
 prisoners are brought out into the free air to see the 
 Stars and Stripes wave over the town. Now, tell me, 
 with such a defence as Mulligan's, and such an attack as 
 Zagonyi's, shall we not plant the true flag finally in M is- 
 souri ? In the day of honor give her place in the front 
 rank by the side of Massachusetts, New York, and 
 the best of them. Even our two reverses, Wilson's 
 Creek, and Lexington, are notable for the courage 
 
186 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 shown by our army. In their moral effect, they are 
 like victories, for they inspire with resolution and 
 strength. Only fifteen of the " guard" horses were 
 ever brought back to St. Louis, and the uniforms of the 
 surviving men were so bullet-rent that they were unfit 
 for further use. We hear no talk now of Zagonyi*s 
 " pavement soldiers,*' of their being tl showy on parade.'' 
 — slurs that used to be cast at them by certain St. Louis 
 citizens. The spirit of our "Western army has been 
 somewhat sobered by the loss of its general ; for Fre- 
 mont is recalled. AVe can only guess at the reasons 
 for his removal, and there is any amount of grumbling 
 over it, since the soldiers, if they are ignorant of what 
 he has failed to do, are proud of what he has done in 
 raising and equipping an army of sixty thousand men 
 within a period of sixty days, and driving a strong 
 rebel army to the very edge of the State. But, as if the 
 recall was not enough, what should happen next but the 
 abandonment of Springfield, by Fremont's successor, 
 Gen. Hunter, and the return of our force here to Rolla 
 again, while Price and the guerillas are suffered to re- 
 take the region wrested from them by our advance 
 and the charge of the guard ! To say the truth, for 
 about a week, what with the two blows, I felt as if the 
 rebels could scatter us like a basket of chips if they 
 chose. I thought of going East or somewhere else, 
 when my time was up, to enlist where there was more 
 chance of success, but unless things get very much 
 worse, I've about concluded I'll stay and fight for my 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. * 1S7 
 
 adopted State. Hunter did not stay long ; be was 
 superseded by Ilalleck on the 12th of this month. 
 
 But what a letter I've made out here on the drum- 
 head ! And not a word about some adventures of my 
 own that I meant to speak of. You shall hear from me 
 again however. Little Rub-a-dub has come for his 
 drum, and can't wait as it is nearly time for " taps." 
 The mail goes in the morning, so I'll close up with 
 good-by to Maedy and the boys, and love to every one 
 of you. Don't be anxious, dear mother, about me. I 
 keep sound and " hearty as a trooper," and remain ever, 
 Your affectionate 
 
 Horace. 
 
 v 
 
Chapter XIV. 
 
 HOLIDAYS. 
 
 "Thanksgiving is coming," shouted the 
 children, as they woke one morning to find 
 a sprinkling of snow thrown like a lace 
 veil over the earth. But one could guess 
 the day was near without looking out the 
 window ; for in the kitchen lay a great 
 orange colored pumpkin, and cut, cut, 
 went the chopper through the mince-meat 
 as Aunt Ellen sang : 
 
 " Long mar our land be bright, 
 With freedom's holy light, 
 Protect us by thy might, 
 Great God, our King." 
 
 The house was astir, the children cracked 
 nuts, and Roger was commissioned to catch 
 the proudest turkey of the flock, in which 
 undertaking the boy outdid the bird in fuss 
 and noise. At last the pies were baked, 
 1S8 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 189 
 
 the cranberries jellied, and the " gobbler " 
 safely stowed away in the oven, with Aunt 
 Ellen -at hand to watch him, while the 
 others went to offer thanks in the service 
 at church. How the good care of God had 
 blessed them through this eventful year ! 
 How had He kept their nation '* when the 
 blast of the terrible ones was as a storm 
 against the wall !" 
 
 u Let us praise him," said Mr. Goodwin, 
 " for the Spirit lie has sent us, for the up- 
 rising of the people, for the full coffers of 
 our treasury, for the produce of our fields : 
 not forgetting to thank Him especially for 
 the two hundred thousand men that fill 
 the disciplined ranks of the army of the 
 Potomac, for the victories of Western Vir- 
 ginia, the retaking of our forts, and lastly, 
 perhaps mostly, for the heroic examples 
 and useful lessons of Big Bethel, Bull Run, 
 Ball's Bluff, and Wilson's Creek." 
 
 " Salvation will God appoint for walls 
 and bulwarks. In Him is everlasting 
 strength," sang the village choir in its 
 closing anthem. ' 
 
190 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 More snow had fallen the day before, 
 and then Jack Frost had covered it with 
 such a thick coat of his patent polish that 
 even the brown gate-posts shone in the 
 sun-light. The children longed to try 
 their sleds in the afternoon, but had hardly 
 brought them out, when a certain jingling 
 up by the barn caused a sudden scam- 
 pering in that direction. 
 
 4< Come, bundle in all of you," called 
 the father's cheery voice. " Muff and Buff 
 are in a hurry,' 7 and what was stranger, 
 they hurried all 'the way, steady, jog-trot 
 horses though they were. The <rav voices 
 behind seemed to inspire them like the 
 music of a quickstep. 
 
 But after the ride and supper were over, 
 Maedy found a little chair beside Aunt 
 Ellen, and said, " We're tired of play, 
 Aunt} T , won't you tell us a story ; you 
 won't say ' no 7 on Thanksgiving day, now, 
 will you?" 
 
 " But I don't know what to tell you, 
 dear; I havn't any new ones.*' 
 
 u Oh, make up something," urged Roger. 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 191 
 
 " Have it happen ever so far off, Aunt 
 Ellen. I read a first rate story awhile ago 
 about a man that got on a barren island 
 among savages. 7 ' 
 
 " Well," said Aunt Ellen, musing a mo- 
 ment, " I've thought of a little thing ; per- 
 haps I shall come to an island before I get 
 through. Once there was a great city, full 
 of people, and among them were hun- 
 dreds of rough men, such as prize fighters, 
 house-breakers, and thieves, who delight 
 to make trouble and get up what the 
 policemen call ' regular rows.' By-and- 
 by, when a war broke out in another part 
 of the land, one of these rough men said to 
 himself, i why not get our fellows to turn 
 soldiers? They kill each other with a 
 good will ; since they like fighting, they 
 may as well follow it as a trade. 7 So he 
 got a thousand or so of the men together, 
 and was sent with them, not to the field 
 with other regiments — you can think why, 
 perhaps — but way off to a lonesome, sandy 
 island, named after a Saint ; Santa Rosa, 
 or in English, Saint Rose. There they 
 
192 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 pitched their tents, and strange to say, 
 lived entirely at peace with each other; 
 but whenever the enemy showed them- 
 selves they grew fierce as tigers, and drove 
 them straight back to their boats. Ten 
 thousand men staid on the mainland watch- 
 ing the island, and by detaining them thus 
 the rowdies were not only peaceable among 
 themselves, but very useful to the army 
 they served." 
 
 u Ah," said Franklin, " 1 know who you 
 mean, the Unionists and Secessionists. 
 But where is Santa Rosa V 
 
 " OIF the western coast of Florida; and 
 these rough men, Wilson's New York 
 Zouaves, are keeping watch over Fort 
 Pickens opposite; and a cleanlier, more 
 orderly camp than that of Santa Rosa can- 
 not be found in the country." 
 
 " Tell us some more about these fellows, 
 Aunt Ellen," said Roger. 
 
 " Oh, I can't now. That's the end of 
 my story, a true though not a long one." 
 
 The family had long been waiting for 
 the " furlough " that Daniel spoke of in one 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 193 
 
 of his letters. In case he could get it, per- 
 haps he would come home suddenly; and 
 every foot-step at the door made a heart- 
 throb within, at the thought of whose step 
 it might possibly be. When Christmas eve 
 came, the children hung up a stocking for 
 Daniel with their own, "just for fun," 
 they said; and it was not to be disturbed 
 till he should open it. For fear Santa 
 Claus might neglect such a big brother, 
 they dropped in some gifts that had been 
 preparing for him ; but suddenly on Christ- 
 mas day he made his appearance, somewhat 
 worn by the long journey, but hardier and 
 browner than he had ever looked before. 
 The train had been crojvded and delayed ; 
 by means, however, of a (i forced march" 
 that morning, he had reached home ahead ot 
 the train. He found that the good Saint, or 
 some one else had not forgotten him ; for 
 behold, stowed away in the stocking was a 
 little plated pocket-cup that took up 
 scarcely more room than a watch, a have- 
 lock, a comfort-bag, balls of pop-corn, and 
 sundry other knick-knacks. What a j ubilee 
 
194 THE BROTHER SOLDIER?. 
 
 was held in the house that day ! What 
 stones he had ever ready to tell, of forced 
 marches — so far sometimes that he had 
 dropped food, knapsack, blanket, every- 
 thing at last but the lightest clothing and 
 his musket ; of being glad to drink muddy 
 water, of spending two hard working days 
 without food when somebody made a mis- 
 take and the salt pork and hard tack failed 
 to arrive, of the diversions of the men after 
 evening parade, and the jolly times around 
 the bivouac fires. His furlough lasted into 
 the New Year, but the time was all too 
 short to hear his adventures. 
 
 " The hardest thing I've endured yet," 
 he said, as they all-sat together one after- 
 noon, " is the sight of the wounded. The 
 first time I saw a dozen men lying in a row 
 on the ground, waiting to be taken to the 
 hospital, I felt weak as a baby, and had to 
 turn my head the other way. One poor 
 fellow lay there with a severed artery, and 
 his comrade sat beside him, pressing it to 
 stay the flow of blood. If the hand had 
 been withdrawn a few moments, the man's 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 195 
 
 life would have ebbed away. To see brave 
 men look as wofully as they did, suffering 
 for want of care, gasping for a swallow of 
 water, some in the hospitals suffering day 
 after day for proper food and medicine, 
 makes one tremble more than to witness 
 the fiercest battles.' 7 
 
 " But must they suffer so, 7 ' asked Aunt 
 Ellen. " Can't the Government take care 
 of them ? I never read the list of wounded, 
 but I long to do something for them. 7 ' 
 
 " The Government provides hospital 
 wagons, surgeons, and nurses. But clothes, 
 bedding, and food for the sick are furnished 
 in very limited supplies. Then times come 
 when many are brought in unexpectedly, 
 and there isn 7 t supply on hand for half of 
 them. It 7 s a distressing state of things, but 
 they say that our Medical Department is 
 larger than that of other countries, and 
 that it does all in its power. 7 ' 
 
 " Well, however that may be," rejoined 
 Aunt Ellen, " it gives us women at home 
 the heart-ache to know that a single 
 American soldier suffers for want of supplies 
 
19G THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 and care. I've thought a great deal about 
 our sick and wounded, and I don't know, 
 Daniel, but you may find me among the 
 hospital nurses some day," she added look- 
 in cr at him with smiling, earnest eves. 
 
 But these words caused an outcry, in 
 which the children's voices were loudest. 
 '•What did Aunt Ellen mean?" "She 
 must be crazy?" " That would never do ;" 
 and so on. 
 
 " Perhaps it wouldn't," she said, u but 
 suppose Horace or Daniel were lying sick 
 in the hospital, what would you say to my 
 going to see them "? However, even if I 
 went, the authorities might not want to ac- 
 cept me." After a pause, she added in a 
 lighter tone, u tell the children, Daniel, how 
 the ships sailed, when they took the forts at 
 Port Royal. I was listening this morn- 
 ing, when your father took you off to see 
 the new oxen, and the story was left un- 
 finished." 
 
 u I only wish they could have seen the 
 fleet," said Daniel, his face brightening at 
 the recollection of it, as he rose and walked 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 197 
 
 the floor. " If there are sad scenes in war, 
 there are also some of the grandest, and 
 most splendid. I never expect to see a 
 statelier, sight than those seventy-five vessels 
 sailing down Hampton Roads, just after 
 sunrise — the great flag-ship, Wabash, steam- 
 ing ahead. There were sailing-vessels, 
 gun-boats, small and large steamers, and the 
 steam-frigates. We of the land force num- 
 bered ten thousand men, under Gen. Thomas 
 W. Sherman, commander of the expedi- 
 tion ; but Du Pont, you know, was Com- 
 modore, and we only looked on at the time 
 of the engagement; it was a purely naval 
 victory. We left the 29th of October. 
 When we were off Hatteras there came up 
 a November gale. I never saw anything 
 like it. The fleet was scattered, four tran- 
 sports were wrecked, and our own vessel 
 shook as if she would go to pieces every 
 minute. On board the ' Governor' the men 
 stood forty-eight hours, emptying out the 
 water. She went down at last, though, and 
 some of the crew with her. When the 
 flag-ship anchored off the South Carolina 
 
19S THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 coast, there were only twenty-five vessels 
 to be seen, but ours with the others hove in 
 sight during the dav. After avast amount 
 of exploring and sounding, the channel was 
 found, and the vessels, including the Great 
 Wabash crossed the bar in safety, amid the 
 cheers of the fleet. It was a difficult task, 
 and when we saw it accomplished, I could 
 but believe that God, who had brought the 
 fleet in safety to that point, would give us 
 a triumphant issue to the struggle. Then 
 followed reconnoissances by the gun-boats, 
 and something of a fight between them and 
 Commodore Tatnall's fleet, which ended in 
 a thorough peppering of the rebels, and 
 their escape to the creeks. Here's a little 
 map that I drew of the port while our 
 transport lay at anchor," added Daniel, 
 searching in his wallet, and bringing out a 
 small square of paper, marked in pencil. 
 " There, the fleet went round and round, 
 between those two forts, for five hours — 
 from a little before nine o'clock, Thursday 
 morning, the seventh of November, till half- 
 past two. Walker is the stronger fort, and 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 199 
 
 received special attention, but the proces- 
 sion of ships left their fiery respects on both 
 sides, and a plenty of them too. The 
 Wabash led the way; her guns fired a 
 thousand and sixty times in the twenty 
 minutes that was spent in passing Walker. 
 For a mile and a half in going by the forts 
 the firing was continuous, as you can 
 imagine, from the fact that about fifty 
 missiles fell into each fort every moment. 
 The wonder is that the rebel garrison could 
 endure so long ; for one shell can easily 
 harm a score of lives, and there for five 
 hours shot and shell poured in on them 
 like a shower of hail. At the end of 
 that time we saw a boat lowered from 
 the flag-ship, bearing a flag of truce in 
 the bow, and our own banner in the 
 stern ; we supposed, then, that the re- 
 bels had struck their colors, and sure 
 enough, a litle later, the true flag shone 
 like a flame in the air, and the bands crashed 
 in magnificently with the ' Star Spangled 
 Banner.' The rebels had fled in haste, as 
 we found upon landing. Everything was 
 
200 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 in confusion inside the fort ; and the meadows 
 beyond were strewn with clothes, arms, and 
 fragments of all kinds. I noticed some 
 broken carriages ; and a slave who gave him- 
 self up to us, said that the rebels were 
 so sure of sinking our ships, that they in- 
 vited ladies, who came in these coaches to 
 see our destruction." 
 
 '• And instead," said Mr. Warren," they 
 had to behold the American banner floating 
 once more over the soil of South Carolina." 
 
 " Yes/' said Daniel, " that banner is the 
 first that has been raised in the State since 
 the one at Sumter fell. The Commodore 
 sent it to Washington with the message of 
 our victory. We found a great deal in the 
 forts. Forty-three large cannon, three 
 hundred muskets, heaps of ammunition and 
 camp equipage fell into our hands, besides 
 the plunder that the men in the first excite- 
 ment seized for themselves. Our gun-boats 
 went up to Beaufort next day, but found 
 not a soul there to defend it. Only one white 
 man was to be seen, and he too drunk to 
 give an account of himself. But the negroes 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 201 
 
 were dancing and hallooing, half-mad with 
 joy at sight of our boats ; they swarmed 
 down to the shore with their bundles tied 
 up in handkerchiefs, and begged to be taken 
 aboard." 
 
 " Did you see them," asked Frank. 
 
 '•Yes — a crowd of them." 
 
 " Oh, brother," said Maedy, what did 
 they say to you V 
 
 " They gave us a warm greeting," said 
 Daniel. " We had to stay and garrison the 
 forts. We didn't sit still there without 
 some grumbling, though soldiers, like 
 school-boys, have to obey orders. We 
 wanted to pursue the enemy. They are 
 getting -alarmed in that region; for little 
 more than a month later, almost the whole 
 of Charleston was burned ; that was 
 another misfortune. And now the harbors 
 of both Charleston and Savannah are ob- 
 structed. Naval men say the sunken vessels 
 won't thoroughly close up the passages, but 
 however that may be, the flow of boastful 
 speech has been somewhat checked in that 
 part of the Confederacy." 
 
202 THE BKOTHEB B0LDIEE8. 
 
 Afterwards Franklin found the following 
 u Song of the Negro Boatmen" at Port 
 Royal, by a poet who has touched many a 
 note for freedom : 
 
 " Oh, praise an 'tanks ! De Lord he come 
 
 To set de people free ; 
 An' niassa think it day ob doom, 
 
 An' Ave ob jubilee. 
 De Lord, that heap de Red Sea waves, 
 
 He jus' as 'trong as den ; 
 He say de -word — we las' night slaves, 
 To-day de Lord's freemen. 
 
 De yam will grow, de cotton blow, 
 
 Will hab de rice an' com ; 
 Oh, nebber you fear, if nebbcr you hear 
 De driver blow his horn ! 
 
 " Ole massa on he trabbles gone ; 
 
 He leab de land behind ; 
 De Lord's breff blow him furder on, 
 
 Like corn-shuck in de wind, 
 "We own dehoe, we own de plow, 
 
 We own de hands dat hold ; 
 We sell de pig, we sell de coat, 
 
 But nebber child be sold. 
 
 De yam will grow, etc. 
 
 " We pray de Lord ; he gib us signs 
 
 Dat seme day Ave be free ; 
 De Norf-wind tell it to de pines 
 
 De wild duck to de sea : 
 We tink it Avhen de church-bell ring, 
 
THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 203 
 
 We dream it in tic dream, 
 De rice-bird mean it when he sing, 
 De eagle when he scream. % 
 De yam will grow, etc. 
 
 " We know de promise nebberfail, 
 
 An' nebber lie de word ; 
 So like de 'postles in de. jail, 
 
 We waited for de Lord ; 
 An' now he open every door 
 
 An' trow away de key ; 
 He think we lub Him as before, 
 
 We lub Him better free. 
 
 De yam will grow, etc. 
 
 • But the holidays and the furlough came 
 to an end before the children were ready 
 for school days again, or the parents to say 
 good-by to their son. There was, however, 
 a kind of hope and pride in their hearts, 
 that made this parting brighter than the 
 first one. After all, the change from the 
 studious boy to the manly, honorable de- 
 fender of the nation was not one they could 
 regret, and as for Daniel, his spirit was un- 
 changed, his confidence in the success of 
 the good cause sure. "Who knows," he 
 said, as he drew on the blue coat and 
 donned the army cap, " but we'll all come 
 
204 THE BROTHER SOLDIERS. 
 
 marching up from Dixie before the year is 
 out, with our grand Potomac Army, our 
 noble commanders, and our good President 
 at the head of us all. I believe that 
 our footholds are secured in the rebel 
 country, and that the New Year will be a 
 happy one for the Union." A moment later 
 father and son were on their way to the 
 depot, the children, meantime, watching 
 Daniel's figure as it moved steadily for- 
 ward to the soldierly tramp of his feet. 
 
 But of the conflicts and victories of 1S62, 
 and what share the Warrens had in them, 
 we may perhaps learn hereafter. 
 
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