d away he shouted after me--

"Be sure you spell my name right! it's Smith, with an 'E'--S-M-I-T-H-E."

In one place I met five drunken men escorting a wounded sergeant; the
latter had been shot in the jaw, and when he attempted to speak, the
blood choked his articulation.

"You let go him, pardner," said one of the staggering brutes, "he's not
your sergeant. Go 'way!"

"Now, sergeant," said the other, idiotically, "I'll see you all right,
sergeant. Come, Bill, fetch him over to the corn-crib and we'll give him
a drink."

Here the first speaker struck the second, and the sergeant, in wrath,
knocked them both down. All this time the enemy's cannon were booming
close at hand.

I came to an officer of rank, whose shoulder-emblem I could not
distinguish, riding upon a limping field-horse. Four men held him to his
seat, and a fifth led the animal. The officer was evidently wounded,
though he did not seem to be bleeding, and the dust of battle had
settled upon his blanched, stiffening face, like grave-mould upon a
corpse. He was swaying in the saddle, and his hair--for he was
bare-headed--shook across his white eyeballs. He reminded me of the
famous Cid, whose body was sent forth to scare the Saracens.

A mile or more from Grapevine Bridge, on a hill-top, lay a frame
farm-house, with cherry trees encircling it, and along the declivity of
the hill were some cabins, corn-sheds, and corn-bins. The house was now
a Surgeon's headquarters, and the wounded lay in the yard and lane,
under the shade, waiting their turns to be hacked and maimed. I caught a
glimpse through the door, of the butchers and their victims; some
curious people were peeping through the windows at the operation. As the
processions of freshly wounded went by, the poor fellows, lying on their
backs, looked mutely at me, and their great eyes smote my heart.

Something has been written in the course of the war upon straggling
from the ranks, during battle. But I have seen nothing that conveys an
adequate idea of the number of cowards and idlers that so stroll off. In
this instance, I met squads, companies, almost regiments of them. Some
came boldly along the road; others skulked in woods, and made long
detours to escape detection; a few were composedly playing cards, or
heating their coffee, or discussing the order and consequences of the
fight. The rolling drums, the constant clatter of file and
volley-firing,--nothing could remind them of the requirements