desired, to be late for dinner if we wished, and to eat in our shirt
sleeves without protest. Many a man is deprived of these privileges in
his own home, and I have eaten food of a less nourishing character than
that given us by the rebels, even at the table of a newly-married
couple, where perfect bliss should reign supreme.

The war is over. Our foes had neither our resources nor our advantages
in its prosecution, and many things that were easy for us were
impossible for them. Abuse of authority is not a trait of man, but of
men, and those who are indirectly responsible should not be too harshly
censured for what they cannot altogether control. Incidents by the
thousand of heroic, heart-touching actions performed for humanity's sake
during our war by those on one side for those on the other reflect as
much credit upon rebels as upon Yankees, and I have always felt that, on
the whole, our antagonists did the best they could for their prisoners.

THE END.

APPENDIX.

Brief Sketches of my Companions.

FRANCIS MARION DRAKE, GOVERNOR OF IOWA.

The parents of Governor Drake were John Adams Drake and Mrs. Harriet
O'Neil Drake. They were natives of the Old North State; removed to
Rushville, Ill., where the son, Francis Marion, was born December 30,
1830. From Rushville they removed to Fort Madison, Iowa, in the fall of
1837. The father was a merchant in Illinois, but served as judge of
probate of Lee county, Iowa, when a resident of Fort Madison, until the
spring of 1846. He then removed to Davis county, Iowa, and founded the
village of Drakeville. Francis Marion received his early education in
the common schools, and also acquired a knowledge of law.

When the gold excitement in California was at its height he crossed the
plains in 1852 with ox-teams, and again in 1854 with a drove of cattle.
On the first trip across, his company of sixteen men had a severe
engagement with the Pawnees at Shell Creek, Neb., in which they
encountered about 300 Indians, who were defeated with heavy loss and
driven across the Platte river. On his return from California, October
1, 1854, he was a passenger on the ill-fated steamer "Yankee Blade,"
which was wrecked and totally lost, and he was picked up five days later
on a barren coast which he had succeeded in reaching.

He had been successful in his California ventures, and on the 1st of
January, 1855, entered the mercantile business with his father, and
brother, J. H. Drake