ht, and rendezvoused at West
Point. Captain Sawtelle sent us off early, with despatches for Fortress
Monroe; this gave us the special fun of being the first to come
leisurely into the panic then raging at Yorktown. 'The Small' was
instantly surrounded by terror-stricken boats; the people of the big
'St. Mark' leaned, pale, over their bulwarks, to question us. Nothing
could be more delightful than to be as calm and monosyllabic as we were.
* * * * * We leave at daybreak for Harrison's Bar, James River, where
our gunboats are said to be; we hope to get further up, but General Dix
warns us that it is not safe. What are we about to learn? No one here
can tell. * * * * * (Harrison's Bar, July 2d). We arrived here yesterday
to hear the thunder of the battle,[G] and to find the army just
approaching this landing; last night it was a verdant shore, to-day it
is a dusty plain. * * * * * 'The Spaulding' has passed and gone ahead of
us; her ironsides can carry her safely past the rifle-pits which line
the shore. No one can tell us as yet what work there is for us; the
wounded have not come in." * * * * *

[Footnote G: Malvern Hill.]

"_Hospital Transport 'Spaulding,' July 3d._--Reached Harrison's Bar at
11 A. M., July 1st, and were ordered to go up the James River, as far as
Carter's Landing. To do this we must pass the batteries at City Point.
We were told there was no danger if we should carry a yellow flag;
_yellow flag_ we had none, so we trusted to the _red_ Sanitary
Commission, and prepared to run it. 'The Galena' hailed us to keep
below, as we passed the battery. Shortly after, we came up with 'The
Monitor,' and the little captain, with his East India hat, trumpet in
hand, repeated the advice of 'The Galena,' and added, that if he heard
firing, he would follow us. Our cannon pointed its black muzzle at the
shore, and on we went. As we left 'The Monitor,' the captain came to me,
with his grim smile, and said, 'I'll take those mattresses you spoke
of.' We had joked, as people will, about our danger, and I had suggested
mattresses round the wheel-house, never thinking that he would try it.
But the captain was in earnest; when was he anything else? So the
contrabands brought up the mattresses, and piled them against the
wheel-house, and the pilot stood against the mast, with a mattress slung
in the rigging to protect him. In an hour we had passed the danger and
reached Carter's Landing, and there was the army, 'all that was le