for the moment there was peace. The general, whose name was now on all men's lips, rode past me in the near distance, smoking the inevitable cigar, the first time I had seen him. The mounds were not far away where our dead were laid side by side, with here and there a bit of board rudely fashioned with an inscription rudely written with a black lead-pencil by some comrade, to make good for a few days, if no more, the promise given to his friend, perhaps as they sat by the campfires a few days before the battle. The dead are buried, a soldier tells me, every man by his own company, and the prisoners are detailed to bury their own dead; but our men will not let them dig the grave or touch the body of one of their own comrades. These are held sacred even for the grave.

In the far-away time and in the motherland the Puritan and Cavalier came to the deathgrip with each other; but now they sit by the same fireside, each proud of the other's valor in the mighty struggle. So in our great war Marston Moor clasps hands with Gettysburg in the fifteen decisive battles of the world; and now we are learning-nay, we have learned to forget and forgive, to blend again in one

family, because blood is thicker than water,— closer of kin now and more gentle and brotherly than we ever were when the awful curse of human slavery lay over all the land.

XVIII

This memory touches the battle of Fort Donelson, which resulted in the capture of the fort and sent the first clear shaft of light through the shadows which had lain like a pall over the loyal North since the conflicts at Bull Run and Manassas Junction in the previous summer, when we were so confident of an easy victory that the story was told of a chaplain in one of our regiments, who had prepared a sermon from the text, "Manassas is mine." He did not preach that sermon.

The capture of this important stronghold set the Northwest afire, and inspired our people afresh to make every sacrifice the great crisis might demand. This indeed was their purpose from the first; but here was a new springing forth of hope, while I well remember, when the first telegrams were flashed to our city, the news seemed almost too good to be true. But these were confirmed beyond all question presently, and then our city was almost insane for a time in her joy over the victory, as the reports took

on a stormful splendor, while still we knew how weighted with woe the glad tidings must be for some of our neighbors and friends.

We had broken the great bell in the cupola of the court-house some time before, when the news came that Richmond had fallen, and the broken bell was all we had for our pains —and pleasure; for Richmond held her own through many a weary month from that day. But now all the bells in the town swung free, sound or broken we did not care, and went clanging over the prairies and the lake. The flags were shaken out to the wind from every window, and my grand old friend, the judge across our street, sent his flag flying among the first. He had three sons in the battle, and one of them was slain.

We had a good many citizens who were from the South, and their sympathies were there. They durst not unfurl their banners and would not unfurl ours. But men went quietly to see them in their homes, and said to them, "We leave it at your option for so many hours [or minutes as the humor took them] whether you will procure the flag of the Union and hoist it over your place or have no place for the hoisting." Men rushed everywhere through the

streets, saying to each other, "Have you heard the news from Donelson?" Then they would grasp each other's hand, though they had never met before, and break into a laughter which ended not seldom in tears, as I can bear wit

ness.

In the spring before this there had been such a throb of the heart through our city when the ark of our covenant was struck by the shot at Fort Sumter; and they knew, as all the North knew, this meant war with the manhood of our own blood and nurture. And then it was clear to the wise and able men in our city that the Southern point of the State where the great arterial rivers meet and run thence to the sea must be held at all odds. So the young men who stood ready volunteered at once for this service, and went down to Cairo. A number of fine young fellows from our own church were among them; and one of them told me how they intercepted a telegram from the Governor of Louisiana, who wanted to know about a vessel from Galena loaded with lead which was overdue, and they answered, "She is anchored off the point, and we will send down the cargo in small lots when we get a good ready." Regiments and batteries were organized