in hand. Please, therefore, to pay over to the department, as soon as you well can, the sum above named.”

Dr. Bradley makes the fact that he has a son who is of age to serve in the army the occasion of this contribution ; though the son, not being a resident in this country, would be exempted from military duty.

The Secretary of the Treasury, Mr. Chase, in acknowledging the remittance, says that this "noble expression of love of country in an American missionary," who, out of his personal earnings, "in the far-off kingdom of Siam, sends so considerable an amount to the Treasury" of his struggling country, fills him "with admiration,” and inspires him "with confidence that a people whose sons in remote regions exhibit such devotion to their country cannot fail in the speedy suppression of a rebellion the most unprovoked and the most iniquitous recorded in history."

CHAPTER VIII.

INCIDENTS OF THE CAMP AND BATTLE-FIELD.

THE contents of this chapter are miscellaneous. Some of the pieces might have been assigned to the other chapters, but were not at hand in time to be inserted there. Some of the incidents, also, take a wider range as to their import than those of the bulk of the volume.

I. HOW A BODY WAS IDENTIFIED.

The consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, on the nineteenth of November, 1863, brought to that place many relatives of the slain soldiers who were anxious to recover and identify the bodies of sons, brothers, and husbands. Among these was a beautiful lady from Harrisburg, who had been married to one of the Thirteenth Massachusetts Regiment shortly before the battle, but who had heard nothing from him or of him since the first day of the fight. She had gone to Baltimore to ascertain if he had been taken prisoner, and had visited the hospitals there and in other places, hoping to find some acquaintance of her husband who could give her some clew to his fate. All her efforts were unavailing.

On the battle-field, near where the Thirteenth had fought, were twenty "unknown" graves, which, at her request, the committee of the cemetery allowed her to open. The earth was removed and the bodies exposed to view, one

after another, but without her discovering the object of her search. At the last moment, as she was about to turn away in despair from the last of the twenty graves, her eye caught sight of a button upon the overcoat of the buried soldier. She knew instantly that the remains of her husband were before her. In a previous battle, this button had been struck by a ball, and indented in a peculiar manner. The officer had promised to leave it with her as a memento of the danger escaped, but in the haste of departure had forgotten to do so; and now there it was,— the only means of enabling her to discover the fate of him to whom she had so lately committed the hopes of her young life.

II. DREAD OF TEMPTATION.

In an address at the Music Hall, in Boston, Mr. Wendell Phillips related the following instance of heroic firmness on the part of a soldier who felt that he had other enemies to fear than those of the battle-field: :

I know a soldier in the Army of the Potomac, who was picked up in the streets of Philadelphia one year ago, a complete wreck, a confirmed inebriate, but who was, by the love of a sister and the charity of a Boston home, placed once more on his feet.

He was at Ball's Bluff, and three times, with unloaded musket, charged upon the enemy. He was one of the six who heroically defended and brought away the body of the fallen leader of that bloody fight. The captain of the company to which he belonged died in his arms, receiving the last words of consolation from his lips. He was afterwards conspicuous in the conflict until the orders were given for each one to seek his own safety. Removing

USE YOUR TALENTS.

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some of his apparel, he plunged into the inhospitable river, and after great exertion landed on the opposite bank, seven miles below the encampment. Nearly exhausted, chilled, half-clad, half-starved, he finally reached the camp.

The captain of the next company to which he belonged kindly said to him, pouring out a glass of wine, “Let me give you this; you will perish without it.”

"I thank you, sir," said the soldier, "but I would sooner face all the cannon of the enemy than taste that glass of wine."

III. USE YOUR TALENTS.

"And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one." 1

There are many warm hearts and willing hands in the world, anxious, eager to do good; yet because they have not the ability to do precisely what they see others perform in walks of usefulness, they are often discouraged, and sometimes idle. That each person is gifted with power to be useful in some way, let us illustrate by a story which is a true one.

A young lady was heard to say, "I wish I could do something for my country; I would willingly become a nurse in a hospital, but I have not the physical strength. What can I do?"

A friend replied, "You can sing."

"Yes, I can sing, but what of that?"

"Go to one of the hospitals, and sing for the soldiers." The idea pleased her. She accompanied a friend who was long used to such visits, and who introduced her by saying to the patients, "Here is a young lady who has come to sing for you."

At the mere announcement, every face was aglow with

1 Matthew xxv. 15.

animation, every eye was riveted upon her with expectant pleasure. She sang a few songs, commencing with the glorious "Star Spangled Banner." As the thrilling notes of that song rang through the apartment, one poor man, who had been given up by the physician as an almost hopeless case, raised himself in his cot, leaned his head upon his hand, and drank in every note like so much nectar. The effect was electrical. From that moment he began to amend, and finally recovered.

IV. EARLY IMPRESSIONS REVIVED.

A man was wounded on the first day of the fight at Shiloh, concerning whom an interesting fact was ascertained.

He lay all Sunday night in a tent held by the rebels, on the ground, in the mud, without sympathy or care. During that long and terrible night, amid the rain and the roar of artillery, there came vividly back to him the text and all the argument of a sermon he had heard twenty years before. The next day, when our troops were more successful, he was rescued, cared for, and taken to St. Louis, where he was found by certain members of the Young Men's Christian Association, and treated with the tenderness which he so much needed in mind and body.

The Holy Spirit brought home to his heart the impressions of that night; and the seed, buried for twenty years, and apparently lost, sprang up and brought forth fruit in his conversion. He lived six weeks to give testimony to God's goodness, and died in joy and hope. The last words he uttered were, "My God, my country, my mother!"