rness. It seemed that our old flag had
descended to a degenerate people. It was not now, as formerly, a proud
recollection that I was an American. If I survived the retreat, it would
become my mission to herald the evil tidings through the length and
breadth of the land. If I fainted in their pursuit, a loathsome prison,
or a grave in the trenches, were to be my awards. When I lay down in a
shelter-tent, rolling from side to side, I remembered that this was the
Sabbath day. A battle Sabbath! How this din and slaughter contrasted
with my dear old Lord's days in the prayerful parsonage! The chimes in
the white spire, where the pigeons cooed in the hush of the singing,
were changed to cannon peals; and the boys that dozed in the "Amen
corner," were asleep forever in the trampled grain-fields. The good
parson, whose clauses were not less truthful, because spoken through his
nose, now blew the loud trumpet for the babes he had baptized, to join
the Captains of fifties and thousands; and while the feeble old women in
the side pews made tremulous responses to the prayer for "thy soldiers
fighting in thy cause," the banners of the Republic were craped, dusty,
and bloody, and the scattered regiments were resting upon their arms for
the shock of the coming dawn.

Thus I thought, tossing and talking through the long watches, and toward
morning, when sleep brought fever-dreams, a monstrous something leered
at me from the blackness, saying, in a sort of music--

"Gobbled up! Gobbled up!"

CHAPTER XVIII.

BY THE RIVERSIDE.

A crash and a stunning shock, as of a falling sphere, aroused me at nine
o'clock. A shell had burst in front of our tent, and the enemy's
artillery was thundering from Casey's old hill, beyond the swamp. As I
hastily drew on my boots,--for I had not otherwise undressed,--I had
opportunity to remark one of those unaccountable panics which develop
among civilian soldiers. The camps were plunged into disorder. As the
shells dropped here and there, among the tents and teams, the wildest
and most fearful deeds were enacted. Here a caisson blew up, tearing the
horses to pieces, and whirling a cannoneer among the clouds. There an
ammunition wagon exploded, and the air seemed to be filled with
fragments of wood, iron, and flesh. A boy stood at one of the fires,
combing out his matted hair; suddenly his head flew off, spattering the
brains, and the shell--which we could not see--exploded in a piece of
woods,