as picked up from pie peddlers on the way. We
learned the lesson all green troops must learn, when inefficiency of the
commissary is shown. I volunteered to get feed for the men; the Colonel
accepted my tender. I went down to the city limits, pressed three wagons
(those deep box-wagons in use in Baltimore) into service, drove to the
Quartermaster's Department in South Gay Street, represented myself as
Acting Quartermaster (which was a little out of "plumb" but excusable by
the emergency) and drew three wagon loads of aerated bread and coffee,
drove back to camp, turned the kettles up and had the men banqueting
inside of two hours. Inefficiency was surely our Commissary's right
name.

At this point I want to tell something about Aunt Mag, my "Star in the
East," who has ever since guided me.

Union people and the Star Spangled Banner were not so plenty in
Maryland. Not far from Fort Marshal I espied a cheerful looking house.
In its yard from a flagstaff was unfurled our glorious emblem. That was
the house of Aunt Mag. I fell in love with the premises, and very soon
with its occupant. Later on I was stricken down with that dreadful army
plague, typhoid fever, and I was very near to death. That house was my
hospital, and Aunt Mag was my nurse. I lived, and so here we are after
fifty years. Many friends have remarked, how romantic! but we say it is
just love. If the "Over-ruling Hand" was not in it, it certainly has
proven a fortunate "happen so" for our lives have so nicely matched in
the "pinions" as to have needed no other lubrication than love for all
these years.

The house referred to was the home of Thomas Booz (the father of Graham
and Curtis). He was a real "19th of April" Union man; and on that
eventful day he defended his premises with a gun. He was of the firm of
Thos. Booz & Brother, shipbuilders; also he was a member of the
Legislature, and was talked of for Governor. Their firm built the
pontoons that McClellan used to recross the Potomac at Harper's Ferry in
1862, after Antietam; they also built one of the first turreted monitors
(the Waxsaw), patterned after Ericsson's Monitor which fought the battle
with the Merrimac.

[Illustration: THE MONITOR WAXSAW]

What do I mean by an "April 19th" Union man? Well, I will tell you: On
that day was shed the first blood of the war. A mob attacked the 6th
Massachusetts Regiment in Pratt Street, as it was proceeding to
Washington (April 19th, 1861). Like magic all M