suspended. A provost-marshal's pass was necessary to enable one to
walk the streets in security. The same document was required of any
person who wished to hire a carriage, or take a pleasant drive to
the Kentucky side of the Ohio. Most of the able-bodied citizens
voluntarily offered their services, and took their places in the
rifle-pits, but there were some who refused to go. These were hunted
out and taken to the front, much against their will. Some were found
in or under beds; others were clad in women's garments, and working at
wash-tubs. Some tied up their hands as if disabled, and others plead
baldness or indigestion to excuse a lack of patriotism. All was of no
avail. The provost-marshal had no charity for human weakness.

This severity was not pleasant to the citizens, but it served an
admirable purpose. When Kirby Smith arrived in front of the defenses,
he found forty thousand men confronting him. Of these, not over six
or eight thousand had borne arms more than a week or ten days. The
volunteer militia of Cincinnati, and the squirrel-hunters from the
interior of Ohio and Indiana, formed the balance of our forces.
Our line of defenses encircled the cities of Covington and Newport,
touching the Ohio above and below their extreme limits. Nearly every
hill was crowned with a fortification. These fortifications were
connected by rifle-pits, which were kept constantly filled with men.
On the river we had a fleet of gun-boats, improvised from ordinary
steamers by surrounding their vulnerable parts with bales of hay. The
river was low, so that it was necessary to watch several places where
fording was possible. A pontoon bridge was thrown across the Ohio, and
continued there until the siege was ended.

It had been a matter of jest among the journalists at Memphis and
other points in the Southwest, that the vicissitudes of war might some
day enable us to witness military operations from the principal hotels
in the Northern cities. "When we can write war letters from the Burnet
or the Sherman House," was the occasional remark, "there will be some
personal comfort in being an army correspondent." What we had said
in jest was now proving true. We could take a carriage at the Burnet
House, and in half an hour stand on our front lines and witness the
operations of the skirmishers. Later in the war I was enabled to write
letters upon interesting topics from Detroit and St. Paul.

The way in which our large defensive for