nsible, shot through one of the lungs. Upon recovering
consciousness, he found himself on a litter borne by Federal soldiers.
An officer leaned over him, and offered him some liquor from his
canteen, which revived him so far that he was able to speak. His humane
captor then volunteered to transmit any message to B.'s friends and
relatives. While B. was rallying his failing senses to deliver what he
believed to be his dying messages to the loved ones at home, a rattling
fire of musketry opened upon them, the litter bearers and the officer
were shot down; the latter falling across Brown, who relapsed into
insensibility. When he again recovered consciousness, he found himself
borne in the same litter, now carried by Confederate soldiers. The
position had been retaken. His good friend had been shot dead.

Our mess at Acquia Creek was abundantly supplied with food from land and
water. Every member of it, no doubt, frequently longed afterwards for
the "flesh pots of Egypt." We discovered, by chance, a large bulk of
coal, which had been stored on the long wharf where the Acquia Creek
steam-boats used to make their landings. When the Point was shelled
about the commencement of the war by the gunboats, the wharf was
destroyed, the coal falling uninjured ten or twelve feet to the bottom
of the river. We fished up our supplies with oyster tongs as they were
needed, and our snug quarters were kept warm during the winter. Towards
the end of the season, one of the mess servants lately arrived from the
rural districts, was sent in the boat for a supply from the _coal mine_.
He had made many a fire of soft coal in the drawing room at home; but
although an accomplished servant, his education had been so far
neglected that he was ignorant of all the "'ologies." He was very much
astonished at our process of coal mining, and asked me with great
gravity, on his return with the load, "if coal grew like that all over
the Potomac." Of course I replied in the affirmative. It was anthracite
hard coal, a specimen of which he had never seen; so he was further
informed that it was hard or soft according to the season when it was
fished up, being soft in the summer and hard in the winter. He was much
pleased to have acquired all this information, and probably took the
earliest opportunity, on his return home, to enlighten his circle of
friends and acquaintances upon the subject of coal mining on the
Potomac.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] The belief still prev