then I told him I was sorry to inconvenience him,
but he would have to accompany me to camp. He said certainly, he had
expected to be captured ever since he saw that the house was surrounded,
and while at first he had made up his mind to take his rifle and kill
us all from the gallery of the house, he had thought better of it, and
would surrender without bloodshed. What was the use of killing any more
men? The war was nearly over, and why not submit, and save carnage. I
told him that was the way I felt about it. Then he said if I would wait
until he retired to an adjoining room and changed his linen, he would be
ready. I said of course, certainly, and he went out of a door. I waited
about half an hour, until it seemed to me the rebel had had time to
change all the linen in the state of Alabama. The Iron Brigade had gone
to sleep on a lounge, and the German troop was full as a goat, and some
of the others were beginning to feel the hospitality.

"I beg your pardon for intruding," said I, as I opened the door and
walked into the room the rebel had entered. "Great Scott, he is gone!"

My army, all except the Iron Brigade and the Dutchman, followed me, and
the room was empty. A window was up, through which he had escaped. We
searched the house, but there was no rebel captain. On going to the
front door I found that the horse belonging to the iron brigade was
gone, and that the saddle girths of all the other horses had been
unbuckled, so we would be delayed in following him. The Irishman was
awakened, and when he found his horse was gone, he sobered up and went
to the pasture and borrowed a mule to ride.

It took us half an hour to fix our saddles, so we could ride, and then
we sadly started for camp. How could I face the major, and report to
him that I had met the rebel captain, talked with him, drank with
him, enjoyed his hospitality, and then let him escape? I felt that my
military career had come to an inglorious ending. "We rode slow, because
the Iron Brigade was insecurely mounted on a slippery bare-backed mule.
As we neared the corporal and one man, that I had left to guard the
cross-roads, I noticed that there was a stranger with them, and on
riding closer what was my surprise to find that it was the rebel
captain, under arrest. So the confounded corporal, whom I had left there
so he would be out of the way, and not get any of the glory of capturing
the rebel, had captured him, and got _all_ the glory. I was hurt,