opened against the positive orders of the Washington
Government. Butler's own brother was the thrifty banker and broker of
this corrupt transaction.

Property was "confiscated" right and left, provisions and military
stores were exchanged for cotton. The chief of this regime of organized
plunder lived in daily fear of assassination. It was said he wore secret
armor. He never ventured out except heavily guarded. In his office
several pistols lay beside him and the chair on which his visitor was
seated was chained to the wall to prevent someone suddenly rising and
smashing his brains out.

There were ten thousand soldiers in Baton Rouge now though the
anticipated attack of the Confederates had not materialized. Perhaps
they had heard of the heavy reenforcements in time. The poor fellows
from the cool hills and mountains of the North were dying in hundreds in
the blistering July sun of the South. They didn't know how to take care
of themselves and their officers didn't seem to care. Butler was a
lawyer and a politician first--a general only when the navy had done his
work for him.

Jennie saw hundreds of these sick and dying men lying on their backs in
the broiling sun, waiting for wagons to carry them to the hospital. One
had died absolutely alone without a human being near to notice or to
care. The girl's heart was sick with anguish at the sight of scores too
weak to lift their hands to fight the ravenous flies swarming in their
eyes and months. All day and all night Baumstark, the little undertaker,
was working with half a dozen aides making coffins.

Day and night they died like dogs with no human help extended. The
Catholic priest who had not been arrested as yet, passing among them in
search of his own, bent for a moment over a dying soldier and spoke in
friendly tones. The poor fellow burst into tears and with his last gasp
cried:

"Thank God! I have heard _one_ kind word before I die!"

The Federal pickets were driven in at last, and the guard around the
house withdrawn. General Williams insisted that Jennie and her
grandmother find a place of refuge more secure than the coming
battlefield.

They thanked the General but decided to brave battle at home to the
terrors of another flight.

The little band of twenty-five hundred Confederates struck the town like
a thunderbolt and fought with desperation against the combined fleet and
heavy garrison. They drove the Federals at first in panic to the water's
ed