of the
other regiments had not shown up, and I went off to look for him. Those
fellows had no appreciation of humor, anyway, unless someone else was
the object of remarks!

The prisoners were herded together and counted, checked off and then
recounted. All the male negroes among our troops and with the train had
been killed, and the women and children were huddled in with us.

There had been several citizens with the escort, mostly cotton
speculators. Two of the latter, with whom I had talked while en route,
were now close to me in the counting, and I learned that one had been
forced to give up $140,000 in cash to rebel soldiers, who had traded
boots with him and had given him a pair so much too short as to
necessitate the cutting out of the toes in order to give room to the
toes of his feet. He now stood next to me, the most disconsolate-looking
person imaginable, with his long toes sticking out of his boots so far
as to enable him to touch the ground with them by slight effort. The
other had had $120,000 with him, but had buried it during the fight,
marking the spot. As we have no more to do with these men, it may be
said here that the latter recovered his money later, going for it under
the flag of truce while the dead were being buried.

The only event of the day which had the power to overcome the resolution
I had made to be cheerful, despite all the horror and disaster, occurred
while we were quietly standing there, awaiting the final count, when we
suddenly caught sight of an approaching body of rebels bearing a lot of
captured flags, among which I recognized our own, all torn and
disfigured as it was, the very scars enabling the recognition.

We can talk lightly of a flag as being only a distinguishing mark or
emblem, but its true emblematic character is not realized until some
occasion arises to impress upon us what is meant by the flag of our
country.

When my gaze rested upon that shot-torn flag all the memories of its
associations flashed through my mind in an instant, as well as the full
realization of what its possession would mean to us and what its absence
signified. Words cannot express my feelings. I looked around me for a
moment, and, meeting the eye of one of our men looking at me, his
countenance twitching and his eyes filled with tears, I broke down
completely and sobbed like a child for a few minutes.

O ye men, who have only looked upon our country's flag as a pretty
emblem! You, who only