st
he should be detected in giving information. But after the General had
promised that he should not be betrayed, "Vicksburg is taken!" resounded
in a loud whisper through the room. It was too good a secret to be kept
in silence, and inspired their hearts with fresh courage to bear their
hard lot.

Major Calhoun came too at this time. He was from Kentucky, a man of
marked character and superior education. He had made an attempt to
escape, and, being caught, was taken back and confined in a cell, in
which he Could neither lie down nor stand up. For six weeks he was kept
there, and then taken out with a brain-fever settled upon him, from
which he had not fully recovered when brought to us. As his pale, thin
face looked forth from the coarse brown blanket in which he was wrapped,
it was as pitiable a sight as can be imagined. It was enough to melt the
stoutest heart to hear him relate his woful experiences, and tell how
many comrades he had left in misery. "Good by, Cap',--we're glad you are
going to God's land; but tell them at home how we fare here, and see if
they can't get us away." These were the parting words from his sorrowful
comrades.

"Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased?"

was often the piteous appeal of countenances among the returned
prisoners, betraying a brain disturbed by depressing fancies or
harrowing imaginations. In some cases the malady amounted to insanity,
and then the patients were removed to an asylum. Homesickness was
frequently the cause of the most unmanageable of cases. No medicine was
effectual in giving an appetite or producing sound sleep. All attempts
to cheer or amuse these childish patients were regarded by them as the
evidence of a heartless want of sympathy. "Just think, I have been out
four months, and not had a furlough yet!" said an officer one day at the
conclusion of an hour's effort to divert his mind; and, with violent
sobbings, he buried his face in the pillow. A leave of absence proved
his cure.

There was a Pennsylvania man who had never before he became a soldier
left his native farm,--a vigorous-looking youth, hearty and robust in
stature. At night he would awake from dreams of haying-scenes or
apple-gatherings, shouting out the names of his brothers; and when he
found himself so far away, and in the hospital, he would break into the
most grievous wails and lamentations. This of course disturbed the other
sick men seriously, and night after night the poor nu