bed, and averred with lifted hands, that "he was one of the best officers who had crossed the ocean." A Scotch physician who was in attendance, afterwards went into the kitchen to examine Mr. Spratt.

"What is the matter with you maun?" he asked.

“I have a fever." The physician felt his pulse, and exclaimed

"Why, maun, you are wounded!"

"And what if I am!" said the patient.

"Ah! I am fearfu' you have been fighting against your lawfu' sovereign, King George!"

"I have been fighting for my country, and if I was well, I would do it again," replied Spratt.

Well, well, you are a brave soldier, and I'll dress your wounds for you," said the Scotchman; and he did so, attending upon him as long as the British troops occupied the house.

These unbidden guests took from Spratt, over a hundred head of cattle, hogs, &c.

Mr. Barnett's house was also plundered. When one of his horses was brought up and bridled for the use of a British soldier, Mrs. Barnett walked up and pulled off the bridle. Some of the men threatened to kill her. "You can do so," she answered: "I am in your power, but you will be punished for it." Seeing a crock of milk which the intruders had brought from her cellar, she

The

passed near and pushed it over with her foot. infuriated soldiers rushed at her, swearing they would cut her to pieces. "Do, if you dare!" said she, with an air of haughty defiance. "You will be shot at from every bush in the country." They did not molest her, but went away without the horse.

Susannah was married to George Smart, in 1795. She related anecdotes of two United States' Presidents; Andrew Jackson, and "little Jamie Polk" who used to run along the road, with his breeches rolled up to his knees. This worthy matron, when informed that a political meeting had been held in York District, South Carolina, to advocate the secession of South Carolina from the Union, said: "The North and South stood shoulder to shoulder in the times of '76. We should settle our family bickerings at all times by a compromise."

SONNET.

ON THE FIELD OF ANTIETAM,

Sept. 25, 1862.

As IF with Autumn's leaves the failing year
Too soon these wasted hills had covered o'er

The soil is crimsoned: but, of human gore,
On nearer sight these deeper dyes appear!
Oh, what a dread Aceldama is here

Of those the treach'rous steel that dared to draw,
And those, asserting Right, avenging Law,

Who nobly fell in duty's high career!

As lustrous amber meaner things contains,
So glory's field embosoms foes unjust
Who found a brotherhood foresworn, in dust:

But the pure ichor from the patriot's veins,

How hath it changed, in one triumphant day,

ANTIETAM'S name unnamed to Fame's proud word for aye.

DRUM HEAD NOTES

FROM THE CAMP AND FIELD.*

FOUR LOCKS ON THE CHES. AND OHIO CANAL,
October 31st, 1862.

Ir is now about day-break, half past five o'clock. The stars are still bright, though light from a superior source is beginning to be visible. The sun rises here on the Virginia side of the river. In Williamsport, the sun sets on the Virginia side. This is owing to the crooked course of the Potomac, which doubles upon itself at this point, and throws a narrow neck of Maryland soil forward into Virginia. Our present station is at a point on the Canal, where a store, a warehouse, a few scattered dwellings, and

*The fragments of correspondence published under the above title, taken from such private letters as have been preserved and could be hastily collected, are not in any sense to be understood as a narration of events. On the contrary, all details of important military movements with which the writer was connected, were expressly requested by him to be omitted. If this has not in all cases been carefully done, it is because he had no opportunity either of selection or of revision.

a distillery, are all generalized as the "Four Locks." The locks themselves, like almost everything else belonging to this Canal, are well built, and very creditable to the State. As an investment, it has never paid, although it cost the State upwards of fifteen millions. * * Our regiment is now guarding the fords of the river, and the culverts and draw-bridges of the canal, for a front of over five miles, from above McCoy's Ferry to below Dam No. 5. McCoy's Ferry is where Stuart crossed the Potomac, and then the Canal, through a culvert beneath it. To see the precautions taken to prevent another similar raid through the same place, would remind one of the old saying, about "locking the stable door," etc. As I went up the Canal with the Adjutant, and a citizen named Hazlett, to visit McCoy's Ferry and the upper posts, the moon shone brightly upon the Canal with its graceful curves, the windings of the river, the steep heights on the Virginia side, and the gigantic rocks on this side at intervals smoothing off into scarped precipices like the palisades on the Hudson; there was a fascination too in the romantic border tales of Hazlett, who, like many of the citizens of this part of the State, had from the first taken a deep personal interest in the war, and no little actual share in it, as guide, scout, and sometimes as a bush-fighter. The excursion had just enough of danger in it to make it a little exciting. I was cautioned by