bility is mine." When he spoke those words the Nation forgot the disaster, and he was at once restored to the national heart and the national confidence. Sir, the State of Indiana takes pride in General Burnside, and high upon the national roll of honor his name is inscribed, to be read with pleasure, affection, and admiration by all coming generations.

Nearly five thousand citizens of the State of Rhode Island signed a letter addressed to General Burnside, in which they denounced the remarks of Senator Sprague as having wantonly and maliciously assailed the officers and soldiers of Rhode Island before the whole country. "We feel," said the writers, "that a great wrong has been done to you and to the brave men, both the living and the dead, who served with you in the army of the Republic; and also that the military honor of Rhode Island has been deeply wounded, and the fair fame of the State foully traduced in the National Senate at Washington by one who was bound to cherish and protect them. For the purpose, therefore, of rebuking these atrocious calumnies, and of renewing both to you and to those who served with you the expression of our undiminished gratitude, confidence, and respect, we hereby invite you to name a day, at your own convenience, on which you will meet us and others of your fellow-citizens, at a public reception in the city of Providence.

General Burnside replied to this letter, and after declining the invitation, he went on to show that the attack of Mr. Sprague on the First Regiment was "unprovoked, unjustifiable, and untruthful." "With reference to the personal charges against me, I have nothing to say. My conduct is well known to my comrades and to the people; my character and reputation must rest upon their testimony, and not on any statement of mine." "What has induced Mr. Sprague to make this outrageous attack upon me and

my regiment I do not know. To you, my fellow-citizens and comrades, I shall ever be grateful for this renewed expression of friendship and support. It adds one more to the many obligations due from me for your numerous acts of kindness."

The Ninth Army Corps had its first annual reunion at Rocky Point on the 7th of July, 1869. It was largely attended, and it concluded with a banquet, at which General Burnside presided. He declined, however, making a speech. Those present, he said, all knew how glad he was to see them, and it would be folly for him to talk to them of the Ninth Corps and the Burnside Expedition. They were so well known to every man within the sound of his voice that he would not attempt to speak of them. He cordially thanked them for the cordial manner in which they received him, and begged to be excused.

Meanwhile contractors had been at work constructing the Cairo and Vincennes Railroad, and up to the 1st of July, 1869, work amounting to upwards of half a million dollars had been done. To this point General Burnside had carried on the construction by the sale of bonds and his individual credit, but just when he had strained his credit to its utmost point, the railroad companies refused to execute the contract agreed upon, and work was temporarily suspended. In the following November, General Burnside had so arranged his business that he was able to devote himself to the affairs of this road, and went to London, where he hoped to negotiate a sufficient amount of bonds to finish it.

LEADERS

POST DR. RUSSELL'S ACCOUNT OF VERSAILLES AND THE GER-
MAN
FONDNESS OF BISMARCK FOR BURNSIDE
VISITS PARIS UNDER A FLAG OF TRUCE
- SECOND VISIT - RETURN TO LONDON.

G

THE BESIEGED CITY

ENERAL BURNSIDE was in London, negotiating for the sale of the bonds of the Covington and Vincennes Railroad, when the declaration of war between France and Germany deranged the English money market, and made it impossible to place American securities. General Burnside was cordially received by the leading statesmen and soldiers of Great Britain. He was made an honorary member of several of the London clubs, and was not only invited to the fashionable city entertainments, but to the country houses, so justly famed as "the rural homes of England." As the German army defeated the French and advanced on Paris, General Burnside felt a strong desire to witness the hostilities between these two great powers, and finally left for the headquarters of the

King of Prussia, at Versailles. Mr. Alexander Forbes, celebrated as a war correspondent and as a lecturer, has kindly furnished for this work the following account of General Burnside's first introduction to the German Army before Paris :

General Burnside and Brigadier-General Duff, U. S. V., who represented the New York Herald (and who, by the way, was a brother of the late Andrew Halliday, the dramatic author), were struggling their way from Lagny, the interior terminus of the Chemin de fer de l'Est, about twenty miles east of Paris, toward the front. The Saxon Army Corps (Twelfth German Army) occupied that section of the environment rising due east of Paris, from about Le Blanc Mesnil south to Villiers le Bel. The two Americans, forging straight to their own front as if they had been on the prairie, struck from the rear the covering picquets of the Saxon corps. They had no " laisser passer" of a kind to be accepted as satisfactory; they could speak no German; they were eminently suspicious-looking characters, in flannel shirts, flap hats, and mud galore. So they were summarily apprehended. But the Saxons are a courteous people, and an officer sent them on to the headquarters, in Le Vert Gallant, of Prince George of Saxony, who commanded the Saxon corps. They looked not a little mean, as, travel-stained and embarrassed, they were brought into the drawing room of the Prince's chateau, just as the suite and staff had gathered for dinner. But Prince George, a man of the world, at once recognized the situation; had seats prepared for them, one on either side of himself; gave them quarters for the night, and duly forwarded them next day to Versailles. Bismarck, from the first, conceived a curious, magnetic regard for Burnside. He was always trying to be with him, and would smoke and gossip with him by the hour. There was some affinity in the straightforward, rugged bluntness of the two men, apparently. If Burnside cared he could have thrown some curious sidelights on the story of the motives and springs of that Franco-German war, derived from Bismarck's free speaking. I do believe that Generals Burnside and Sheridan had more of Bismarck's confidence - almost brutally frank and cynical as it was than any other persons who were spectators of the momentous melo-drama.

Dr. Russell (of Bull Run fame), in a letter to the London Times, written soon after General Burnside's arrival at Versailles, gives the following graphic picture of

the Prussian headquarters where General Burnside met General Sheridan, General Hazen, and General Forsyth :

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The foliage is now in its greatest beauty, but the slightest touch of the invisible fingers of the wind scatters the leaves in showers, and thins the screen of rich russet, orange, red, and brown which yet hides the trunks and branches of the forest trees. There was a living margin to the two parterres, clear of people, to whom the fish were an attraction, and the Allee de l'Orangerie and the Allee des Trois Fontaines were filled with saunterers. Another mass, tolerably compact, grew up along the front of the terrace, enjoying the spectacle of their fellows below, and looking out on the Tapis Vert of the Grand Canal, in placid enjoyment of a scene not often to be met with amid the realities of war. These became animated and excited, particularly the French, when some great people arrived, just dropping in without formality or attendance · aides, or officers of ordnance, or orderlies - and walked about, or stood chatting with their friends. "Is that really Von Moltke?" "Where?" You see that tall, thin man, without any mustache or whiskers, his hands behind his back - the officer with the grayish hair, very short, and a face cut with many fine lines, his head slightly stooped, the eyebrows pronounced, and the eyes deep set? There is the man whom the Junkers of Berlin called the old schoolmaster.' What a lesson he has taught Austrians and French!" Is that the strategist who caught Benedek in a vise at Königgrätz, mouse-trapped Bazaine at Metz, and netted an emperor, a marshal of France, and 150,000 men at Sedan, and who is now angling for such an enormous prize as the capital of France?" "He looks very grave." "He is always so. But there, you see, striding through the crowd, is a very different-looking person." "Yes! who is that frank, smiling major of dragoons? He comes this way - the officer in the white cap and yellow band, dark blue or nearly black doublebreasted frock-coat with yellow collar, taller than the tall officers around him?" "That is Count Bismarck!" There is a stir wherever he goescaps touched and hats raised. He makes straight for a little knot of Americans General Burnside in plain clothes, General Sheridan, General Hazen, and General Forsyth in uniform, but without swords. You hear his laugh above the murmurs of the crowd and the wave of sound in which his name, “Bismarck,” is borne. How heartily he shakes hands with them, buoyant and free, elated as some officer might be who had just won promotion on a battle-field. All the world knows the soulless likeness, out of which even photography has failed, however, to take all expression; but one must have actual experience of the peculiar vivacity, or rather penetration, of his glance, as it is emitted from under those