he fact that a hundred and fifty thousand men, with
all the appliances of war, have struggled for the possession of these
mountains, rivers, and ridges, gives a solemn interest to the scene, and
renders it one of the most interesting, as it is one of the grandest, in
the world.

When history shall have recorded the thrilling tragedies enacted here;
when poets shall have illuminated every hill-top and mountain peak with
the glow of their imagination; when the novelist shall have given it a
population from his fertile brain, what place can be more attractive to
the traveler?

Looking on this panorama of mountains, ridges, rivers, and valleys, one
has a juster conception of the power of God. Reflecting upon the deeds
that have been done here, he obtains a truer knowledge of the character
of man, and the incontestable evidences of his nobility.

* * * * *

Standing here to-day, I take off my hat to the reader, if by possibility
there be one who has had the patience to follow me thus far, and as I
bid him good-by, wish him "A Happy New Year."

CAPTURE, IMPRISONMENT,

AND

ESCAPE,

BY

GENERAL HARRISON C. HOBART,

OF MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN.

EXPLANATORY.

Among the Union officers who escaped from Libby Prison at Richmond, on
the night of the 9th of February, 1864, was my esteemed friend, General
Harrison C. Hobart, then Colonel of the Twenty-first Wisconsin Volunteer
Infantry. His name is mentioned quite frequently in the preceding pages.
Ten years after the war closed, he spent a few days at my house, and
while there was requested to tell the story of his capture,
imprisonment, and escape. My children gathered about him, and listened
to his narrative with an intensity of interest which I am very sure they
never exhibited when receiving words of admonition and advice from their
father.

While my manuscript was in the hands of the publishers, it occurred to
me that General Hobart's story would be as interesting to others as it
had been to my own family, and so I wrote, urging him to furnish it to
me for publication. He finally consented to do so, and I have the
pleasure now of presenting it to the reader. It bears upon its face the
evidence of its entire truthfulness, and yet is as interesting as a
romance.

JOHN BEATTY.

GENERAL HOBART'S NARRATIVE.

The battles of Chickamauga were fought on the 19th and 20th of
September, 1863. The Twenty-first Wiscons