"Jesus, my God, I know his name,
His name is all my trust;

Nor will he put my soul to shame,

Nor let my hope be lost."

And this man, even in the midnight hour, would be singing, and comforting those poor men around him. Subsequently he was carried to Richmond, a prisoner. I followed my charge to that city. And as I was one day passing through the great hall of the prison, where some four hundred men were lying, in their wounds and agony, covering every inch of the floor, as I stepped over one lacerated limb and another, and looked down into their burning eyes, I heard that song again, sweeter and sweeter, and more and more distinct. At length I found my way to the singer, and it was the same man, still singing, —

"Jesus, my God, I know his name."

And so he comforted the hundreds of men about him, to whom he could not go, and silenced their murmurs and stilled their groans, by this hymn.

Afterward it was thought by the physician that he must die, and it was told to Nolan.

I said to him, "It is very probable that to-day you will be called to appear before God, and stand with the great Father before the divine throne."

"Blessed be God!" he said. "I shall be detailed from the battle-field to go up and be with Jesus forever; detailed to dwell in the world of light and glory; detailed to be wounded and to bleed and to die no more. But," he continued, "doctor, I am not going to die to-day. I feel that I shall live to go away from this place."

And through that hour of great danger the man did live by the joy of his soul, and afterward was carried to Fortress Monroe. I heard from a soldier afterward, that there he was still singing as before, and that subsequently he was

SUDDENLY AT REST.

65

removed thence to Washington, and there died, and went up unto the bosom of his Saviour.

XVI. THE DYING HAND ON THE BIBLE.

On the same battle-field, (says this devoted chaplain,) I remember that as I went to a spot where many of our wounded soldiers were lying, I came to the side of a man who was just dying. I folded his hands together, and told him to look up to the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world, and before I had done praying he was gone. I stooped down and lifted up a Bible that he held in his hand, when he died, that I might find the name of the man who had departed, and might bear to his friends. the testimony that his hand, as he relinquished his hold on life, was resting on the Word of God.

A soldier by his side said, "Sir, do not take the Bible away. The print is plainer than my own, and I wish to read it. My friend here and myself read the Bible together through the long hours of the night. We prayed together, and now he has only gone a step before me into the good kingdom. I shall soon be there. I want to read it until my eyes become too dim to see any more." I said to him that I did not wish to take away the Bible. I found that this man was likewise sustained by a sense of the Saviour's presence. He felt that it was nothing-yes, nothing to die, supported as he was by the peace and joy of conscious reconciliation to God.

XVII. SUDDENLY AT REST.

One of the Second Regiment of the Rhode Island Volunteers, while he was resting for a moment during a lull in

the battle of Bull Run, was seen to take a Testament from his pocket. He was in the act of reading it as a ball struck him, and he fell dead. He was a man of established character as a Christian.

His life testified that he was mindful

of the charge, "Watch, for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." He was called away at the moment his eye rested on the promise made to those who "fight a good fight, who have kept the faith." In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, he was at rest in heaven. He was one of those for whom the Master had in reserve some better thing.

XVIII. SUCH ARE MINISTERING SPIRITS.

Perhaps in no sphere of effort relating to the War have more self-denial and true benevolence been manifested than in the hospital labors performed by Christian women, who have devoted themselves in all parts of the land to the care of our wounded, sick, and dying soldiers. A volume should be written to preserve the remembrance of such services. The following sketch, in the Chicago New Covenant, illustrates the spirit of this class of laborers.

I cannot, says the writer, close this letter from Cairo without a passing word in regard to one whose name is mentioned by thousands of our soldiers with gratitude and blessing. Miss Mary Safford is a resident of this town, whose life, since the beginning of the war, has been devoted to the amelioration of the soldier's lot and his comfort in the hospital. She is a young lady, petite in figure, unpretending, but highly cultivated, by no means officious, and so wholly unconscious of her excellences and the great work that she is achieving that I fear this public allusion to her may pain her modest nature. Her sweet, young face,

SUCH ARE MINISTERING SPIRITS.

67

full of benevolence, her pleasant voice and winning manner, install her in every one's heart directly; and the more one sees of her, the more they admire her great soul and her noble nature. Not a day elapses but she is found in the hospitals, unless indeed she is absent on an errand of mercy up the Tennessee, or to the hospitals in Kentucky.

Every sick and wounded soldier in Cairo knows and loves her, and, as she enters the ward, every pale face brightens at her approach. As she passes along, she inquires of each one how he has passed the night, if he is well supplied with books or tracts, and if there is anything she can do for him. All tell her their story frankly, - the man old enough to be her father, and the boy of fifteen, who should be out of the army and at home with his mother.

For one, she must write a letter to his friends at home; she must sit down and read at the cot of another; must procure, if the doctor will allow it, this or that article of food for a third; must soothe and encourage a fourth, who desponds and is ready to give up his hold on life; must pray for a fifth, who is afraid to die, and wrestle with him till light shines through the dark valley; — and so on, varied as may be the personal or spiritual wants of the sufferers.

Doctors, nurses, medical directors, and army officers, are all her true friends; and so judicious and trustworthy is she, that the Chicago Sanitary Commission have given her carte blanche to draw on their stores at Cairo for anything she may need in her errands of mercy. She is performing a noble work, and that too in the most quiet and unconscious manner.

XIX. THE FIRST SABBATH IN CAMP.

The soldiers sent to Ship Island, at the mouth of the Mississippi, were chiefly from New England. They constituted the nucleus of the force, which, after a few months, bombarded the forts at the entrance of that river, and captured the city of New Orleans.

On the first Sunday after the landing of the troops, the ordinary military labor was intermitted, and the day observed, as far as possible, in a religious manner. The Ninth Connecticut Regiment, under Colonel Cabil, consisted largely of Catholics, and mass was celebrated in the camp on the forenoon of this first Sabbath. The service was attended by many of the sailors and marines from the fort, and from vessels in the harbor.

In the afternoon, the Twenty-sixth Regiment gathered en masse in front of their quarters, when Colonel Jones, taking a sand hillock for a pulpit, performed divine service. After the reading of selections of Scripture, a choir, selected from the rank and file of the regiment, sang a hymn, and the band played an appropriate piece. Colonel Jones, in the absence of the chaplain, Rev. Mr. Babbage, then rose and addressed the men. He said he had never approached a duty when he felt so embarrassed as then. He regretted that he must take the place of one so much more worthy than himself. They had been accustomed to observe the Sabbath at home; they needed its salutary influences there, and he knew of no better means for securing them than such a service. He warned them of their dangers, urged upon them their duties, and assured them that if they obeyed the truth, without regarding the channel through which it might come to them, they would be benefited and saved by it.