reat pleasure in expressing to you my high
appreciation of your many soldierly qualities. I well remember the
fact that you were once a private in the old regiment I had the
honor to command; and that by attention to duty and good conduct
_alone_, you received promotion. You have my best wishes for your
future advancement, and may command my influence at all times.

Very respectfully and truly yours,
Judson Kilpatrick,
Brigadier-General, U. S. Volunteers.

His application was crowned with success, and upon the twenty-fifth of
February, 1865, he received his commission as First Lieutenant in the
Twenty-sixth Regiment, New York Cavalry.

Not until this important matter was satisfactorily arranged would our
young lieutenant turn his face towards home. He had been absent about
three years, and a report had reached his family that he had died in
prison at Columbia.

With his commission in his pocket, he now allowed thoughts of home to
occupy his mind, and proceeded thither without the loss of a moment. On
reaching the homestead which had been the scene of his birth, and of the
adventures of his boyhood, he knocked and entered, and his mother met
him at the threshold. Three years between the ages of sixteen and
nineteen, especially after vicissitudes and sufferings such as he had
endured, effect changes in the features and height and general
appearance, much more pronounced than a similar interval would produce
at a later or an earlier period of life. The mother did not recognize
her son; and seeing this, he did not announce himself, but inquired if
any news had recently been received of her son Willard, who, he said,
was in the same regiment as himself. She answered that her son was
_dead_--she had seen his name in the death-record of the prison of
Columbia, and asked earnestly concerning him. By this time his sister
Marjorie, with three years added to her stature, but still in her teens,
entered the room, and, looking fixedly at the stranger's solemn
countenance, exclaimed, with a thrilling outcry: "Why, that's Will!" The
spell was broken, and mother and son, sister and brother, amid smiles
and sobs, embraced, and the young soldier, "who was dead and is alive,"
was welcomed to the fond hearts of those who had grieved over his loss.

Filial and fraternal love was a trait in G