then fought and conquered. When they had gained the topmost line of
rifle-pits, they entered in and took possession; and when I made my last
visit to the Army of the Mississippi, there they were ensconced as
conies in the rock, enduring the heat of a vertical sun, and crouching,
like beasts of prey, to escape the rebel bullets from the earthworks,
almost within touching distance. The fierce and bloody struggle had
filled long lines of field-hospitals with mangled victims, whose
sufferings were soothed and relieved beyond what I could have conceived
possible, and it rejoiced my heart to see there the comforts and
luxuries of the Sanitary Commission. The main body of the army lay
encamped in the valleys, at the foot of the rifle-pits, and spread its
lines in a semi-circle to a distance of fourteen miles. The health of
the army was perfect, its spirit jubilant. They talked of the rebels as
prisoners, as though they were guarding them, and answered questions
implying doubt of success, with a scornful laugh, saying, 'Why, the boys
in the rear could whip Johnston, and we not know it; and we could take
Vicksburg if we chose, and not disturb them.' Each regiment, if not each
man, felt competent for the work. One glorious day in June, accompanied
by an officer of the 8th Missouri, I set out for the rifle-pits. When I
reached them, I found the heat stifling; and as I bent to avoid the
whizzing minies, and the falling branches of the trees, cut off by an
occasional shell, I felt that war was a terrible reality. The intense
excitement of the scene, the manly, cheerful bearing of the veterans,
the booming of the cannon from the battlements, and the heavy mortars
that were ever and anon throwing their huge iron balls into Vicksburg,
and the picturesque panorama of the army encamped below, obliterated all
sense of personal danger or fatigue. After a friendly talk with the men
in the extreme front, and a peep again and again through the
loop-holes, watched and fired upon continually, by the wary foe, I
descended to the second ledge, where the sound of music reached us. We
followed it quickly, and in a few moments stood behind a rude litter of
boughs, on which lay a gray-haired soldier, face downward, with a
comrade on either side. They did not perceive us, but sang on the
closing line of the verse:

'Come humble sinner in whose breast
A thousand thoughts revolve;
Come with thy sins and fears oppressed,
And make th