reliable source, that the
rebels in and around Knoxville were actually suffering for food. An
order was issued by the rebel commander at Knoxville, a few days
since, to seize all the hams, sides, and bacon belonging to private
parties, leaving only fifty pounds for each family. A Mrs. Tillery, of
Knox County, residing twelve miles from Knoxville, when her house was
visited for the purpose of being pillaged, in the fulfillment of this
order, expostulated with the lieutenant in command. She told him that
fifty pounds would not keep her family two weeks, and she had no way
of obtaining more. Notwithstanding her entreaties, the rebel
lieutenant ordered fifty pounds to be weighed and given to her. He had
scarcely given the order when Mrs. Tillery drew a pistol and shot the
lieutenant through the heart. The rebel detail left the meat, and took
off the corpse of their commander. The spirit of discontent is
manifesting itself in various ways among even the most ultra rebels.
They are getting tired of seeing their country devastated by the two
armies, and are anxious for a settlement; and it only awaits the
_daring of a few_ to inaugurate a "rebellion within a rebellion,"
which, if once started, will spread like wild-fire.

PICKET DUTY AND ITS DANGERS.

Of all the duties of a soldier, outpost duty is the most trying and
dangerous. Courage, caution, patience, sleepless vigilance, and iron
nerve are essential to its due performance. Upon the picket-guards of
an army rests an immense responsibility. They are the eyes and ears of
the encamped or embattled host. Hence, if they are negligent or
faithless, the thousands dependent upon their zeal and watchfulness
for safety, might almost as well be blind and deaf. The bravest army,
under such circumstances, is liable, like a strong man in his sleep,
to be pounced upon and discomfited by an inferior foe. For this reason
the laws of war declare that the punishment of a soldier found
sleeping on his post shall be death.

But although the peril and responsibility involved in picket duty are
so great, the heroes who are selected for it rarely receive honorable
mention in our military bulletins. Their collisions with the enemy are
"skirmishes." The proportion of killed and wounded in these collisions
may be double or triple what it was at Magenta or Solferino, but still
they are mere "affairs of outposts." "Our pickets were driven in," or
"The enemy's pickets were put to flight," and th