the vessel sank to rise no more. Many had been saved in the lifeboat,
and many were drowned. I jumped overboard, and the last thing I saw was
the noble and brave captain still ringing the bell, as the vessel went
down. He went down amid the flames to fill a watery grave. The water
was full of struggling and dying people for miles. I did not go to
Mobile.

HOW I GET BACK TO ATLANTA

When I got to Montgomery, the cars said toot, toot, and I raised the
hue and cry and followed in pursuit. Kind friends, I fear that I have
wearied you with my visit to Montgomery, but I am going back to camp now,
and will not leave it again until our banner is furled never to be again
unfurled.

I, you remember, was without a pass, and did not wish to be carried a
second time before that good, brave, and just provost marshal; and
something told me not to go to the hospital. I found out when the cars
would leave, and thought that I would get on them and go back without any
trouble. I got on the cars, but was hustled off mighty quick, because
I had no pass. A train of box-cars was about leaving for West Point,
and I took a seat on top of one of them, and was again hustled off;
but I had determined to go, and as the engine began to puff, and tug,
and pull, I slipped in between two box-cars, sitting on one part of one
and putting my feet on the other, and rode this way until I got to West
Point. The conductor discovered me, and had put me off several times
before I got to West Point, but I would jump on again as soon as the cars
started. When I got to West Point, a train of cars started off, and I
ran, trying to get on, when Captain Peebles reached out his hand and
pulled me in, and I arrived safe and sound at Atlanta.

On my way back to Atlanta, I got with Dow Akin and Billy March. Billy
March had been shot through the under jaw by a minnie ball at the octagon
house, but by proper attention and nursing, he had recovered. Conner
Akin was killed at the octagon house, and Dow wounded. When we got back
to the regiment, then stationed near a fine concrete house (where Shepard
and I would sleep every night), nearly right on our works, we found
two thirty-two-pound parrot guns stationed in our immediate front, and
throwing shells away over our heads into the city of Atlanta. We had
just begun to tell all the boys howdy, when I saw Dow Akin fall. A
fragment of shell had struck him on his backbone, and he was carried back
wounded an