with cheers by the Ninth Corps,
who looked upon her as their guardian angel. She remained with them
until the evening of their masterly retreat, and until the wounded men
of the corps in the hospitals were all safely across. While she was in
Fredericksburg, after the battle of the 13th, some soldiers of the corps
who had been roving about the city, came to her quarters bringing with
great difficulty a large and very costly and elegant carpet. "What is
this for?" asked Miss Barton. "It is for you, ma'am," said one of the
soldiers; "you have been so good to us, that we wanted to bring you
something." "Where did you get it?" she asked. "Oh! ma'am, we
confiscated it," said the soldiers. "No! no!" said the lady; "that will
never do. Governments confiscate. Soldiers when they take such things,
steal. I am afraid, my men, you will have to take it back to the house
from which you took it. I can't receive a stolen carpet." The men looked
sheepish enough, but they shouldered the carpet and carried it back. In
the wearisome weeks that followed the Fredericksburg disaster, when
there was not the excitement of a coming battle, and the wounded whether
detained in the hospitals around Falmouth or forwarded through the deep
mud to the hospital transports on the Potomac, still with saddened
countenances and depressed spirits looked forward to a dreary future,
Miss Barton toiled on, infusing hope and cheerfulness into sad hearts,
and bringing the consolations of religion to her aid, pointed them to
the only true source of hope and comfort.

In the early days of April, 1863, Miss Barton went to the South with the
expectation of being present at the combined land and naval attack on
Charleston. She reached the wharf at Hilton Head on the afternoon of the
7th, in time to hear the crack of Sumter's guns as they opened in
broadside on Dupont's fleet. That memorable assault accomplished nothing
unless it might be to ascertain that Charleston could not be taken by
water. The expedition returned to Hilton Head, and a period of
inactivity followed, enlivened only by unimportant raids, newspaper
correspondence, and the small quarrels that naturally arise in an
unemployed army.

Later in the season Miss Barton accompanied the Gilmore and Dahlgren
expedition, and was present at nearly all the military operations on
James, Folly, and Morris Islands. The ground occupied on the latter by
the army, during the long siege of Fort Wagner, was the low sand