rried death in their missiles; had heard the shouts of the
charge; had seen the enemy in full retreat and flying in every direction;
had heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded and dying; had seen the
blood of our countrymen dyeing the earth and enriching the soil; had
been hungry when there was nothing to eat; had been in rags and tatters.
We had marked the frozen earth with bloody and unshod feet; had been
elated with victory and crushed by defeat; had seen and felt the pleasure
of the life of a soldier, and had drank the cup to its dregs. Yes,
we had seen it all, and had shared in its hopes and its fears; its love
and its hate; its good and its bad; its virtue and its vice; its glories
and its shame. We had followed the successes and reverses of the flag of
the Lost Cause through all these years of blood and strife.

I was simply one of hundreds of thousands in the same fix. The tale is
the same that every soldier would tell, except Jim Whitler. Jim had
dodged about, and had escaped being conscripted until "Hood's raid,"
he called it. Hood's army was taking up every able-bodied man and
conscripting him into the army. Jim Whitler had got a position as
over-seer on a large plantation, and had about a hundred negroes under
his surveillance. The army had been passing a given point, and Jim was
sitting quietly on the fence looking at the soldiers. The conscripting
squad nabbed him. Jim tried to beg off, but all entreaty was in vain.
He wanted to go by home and tell his wife and children good-bye, and to
get his clothes. It was no go. But, after awhile, Jim says, "Gentlemen,
ay, Ganny, the law!" You see, Jim "knowed" the law. He didn't know
B from a bull's foot in the spelling-book. But he said, _the law_.
Now, when anyone says anything about the "law," every one stops to
listen. Jim says, "Ah, Ganny, _the law_" (laying great stress upon the
law)--"allows every man who has twenty negroes to stay at home. Ah,
Ganny!" Those old soldiers had long, long ago, forgotten about that old
"law" of the long gone past; but Jim had treasured it up in his memory,
lo! these many years, and he thought it would serve him now, as it had,
no doubt, frequently done in the past. The conscript officer said,
"Law or no law--you fall into line, take this gun and cartridge-box,
and _march_!" Jim's spirits sank; his hopes vanished into air. Jim was
soon in line, and was tramping to the music of the march. He stayed with
the