ather of yours is fighting for his life, and the question
for you to determine now is whether you are going to stay and help
the old man out, or whether you are going to sneak home and sit
down by the chimney corner in ease and comfort while your comrades
by thousands and hundreds of thousands are marching, struggling,
fighting, and dying on battle fields and in prison pens to put down
this wicked rebellion, and save the old Union. Stand by the old
flag, boys! Let us stay and see this thing out! We're going to whip
'em in the end just as sure as God Almighty is looking down on us
right now, and then we'll all go home together, happy and
triumphant. And take my word for it, in after years it will be the
proudest memory of your lives, to be able to say, "I stayed with
the old regiment and the old flag until the last gun cracked and
the war was over, and the Stars and Stripes were floating in
triumph over every foot of the land!'"

"I can see him in my mind's eye, as plain as if it were yesterday.
He stood firm and erect on his feet in the position of a soldier,
and gestured very little, but his strong, sturdy frame fairly
quivered with the intensity of his feelings, and we listened in the
most profound silence.

"It was a raw, cold evening, and the sun, angry and red, was
sinking behind the pine forests that skirted the ridges west of our
camp when the Colonel concluded his address. It did not, I think,
exceed more than ten minutes. The parade was dismissed, and the
companies marched back to their quarters. As I put my musket on its
rack and unbuckled my cartridge box, I said to one of my comrades,
'I believe the old Colonel is right; I am going right now down to
the adjutant's tent and re-enlist;' and go I did, but not alone.
Down to the adjutant's tent that evening streamed the boys by the
score and signed the rolls, and the fruit of that timely and
patriotic talk that Dan Grass made to us boys was that the great
majority of the men re-enlisted, and the regiment retained its
organization and remained in the field until the end of the war.

"But my letter is assuming rather lengthy proportions, and I must
hasten to a close. I have related just one incident in the life of
Col. Grass that illustrates his spirit of patriotism and love of
country. I could speak of many more, but th