. He flung up
his hands instantly. "I s-s-surrendered f-f-f-five minutes ago!"

One of the greatest jokes of all was played upon a friend of the South
in Hamilton County. My younger readers may not suppose that there could
be any friends of the South in Ohio, at that time; but in truth there
were a great many, and far more than there were at the outbreak of the
war. Then most of us believed that it would be quickly fought to an end;
but after it had dragged on for two years, when its drain on the blood
and the money of the nation was severest, and the end seemed as far
off as at the beginning, those who had never loved the cause of freedom
could easily blow the smoldering fires of discontent into a wide and
far-raging flame. It must not be imagined that the Northern enemies of
the North were all bad men; they were sometimes men of conscience, and
sincerely opposed to the war against the South as unjust and hopeless.
But they were called copperheads, because for a long time they lurked
silently among the people, like that deadly snake which used to haunt
the grass of the backwoods, and bite without warning. They were still
called copperheads when they lifted their heads and struck boldly at
the Union cause, under the lead of a very able man, Clement L.
Vallandigham, whom we shall presently learn more of; and it was an
old copperhead who followed Morgan's rear guard with the best horse the
hard-riders had left him, and who tried to get speech with the officer
in command. He explained that he was a follower of Vallandigham and
against the war, and he pleaded that on this ground he ought to have his
horses back. The Morgan colonel said they could not stop to listen, but
they would hear him if he would drive along with them. He added that as
some of his soldiers were worn out, the copperhead had better give them
his wagon; and when the copperhead said that he could not ride, the
colonel answered that he should be allowed to walk. After walking
awhile, he complained that his boots hurt him, and the colonel ordered
them taken off. The copperhead was obliged to follow in his stockings
till the raiders camped. Then, to amuse their leisure, they taught him a
Morgan song, and obliged him to dance, fat and fagged as he was, to his
own music, while they applauded him with shouts of "Go it, old Yank!
Louder!" till their commanding officer ordered them to harness a
worn-out crow bait to his wagon, and bring him three wretched jades for