have been approved and commended by his brethren, who have wrought with him and witnessed his ardent devotion to the cause of his Master.

Fort Delaware.

The island was at one

The name was derived of the island is some

The location of Fort Delaware is on the island in the Delaware river near its entrance into the Delaware Bay, formerly well known as Pea Patch Island. time regarded as a large pea patch. from that circumstance. The area thing less than one hundred acres. The fort occupies a large proportion of the land, the whole of which is appropriated to its use. The fort is about forty miles below Philadelphia and is almost directly opposite Delaware City, a small town at the eastern terminus of the Chesapeake and Delaware Canal. It is about a mile from the Delaware shore and a mile and a half from that of New Jersey. Steamboats ply between Philadelphia, Wilmington, New Castle, Delaware City and the fort every day. The location is very pleasant in summer, open as it is to the winds on all sides. It is healthy, with the exception of its periodical visitation by intermittent fevers, which those who are careful in not exposing themselves can generally avoid.

Fort Delaware has been used, since there was occasion for it, as a place of confinement for political prisoners, rebel sympathizers and prisoners of war. It is occasionally used as a depot for the paroled of the Federal army. Political prisoners when allotted to apartments inside the fort have been allowed the privilege of walking on the outside, on which there are many very beautiful spots inviting the sojourner to their enjoyment.

General Shoepf, the present commander of the fort, resides on the outside of the fort. His residence is embowered among the foliage of trees and shrubbery and intertwining trails of grape and other vines. A number of residences occupy the island outside the fort, which are very beautiful and present to the visitor many attractions. We spent an

hour very pleasantly with the family of the General. His excellent lady, who is an ornament to the most elevated circle of refined society, is the daughter of one of the most esteemed friends of our earlier years, the Rev. Wm. Kesley, a distinguished minister and one of the founders of the Methodist Protestant Church. The mother and sister of Mrs. Shoepf, happened to be on a visit to the family, which rendered our social enjoyment most agreeable and pleasant. In his home relations no man can be more happily situated than the General. The intelligence of the ladies department, to which he may retire in the evening, is sufficient to afford him a rich fund of enjoyment as a means of relief for the toils and responsibilities of the day.

The business relations of the fort are kept under the General's close supervision, and are regulated after the strictest order of military discipline.

A beautiful Chapel occupies one of the most prominent and attractive spots on the island. The structure is architectural and arrests the eye of the visitor, inducing a closer inspection in the promise of full remuneration for the effort. The plan of the Chapel was given by the General, by whose exertions it was erected. It is, as we were informed by the General, in imitation of a Hungarian edifice, which attracted his notice and pleased his fancy in his earlier years.

There are about eight thousand prisoners confined on the island. Their barracks are outside of the fort walls. They are protected by a high and close wooden fence. The officers have apartments separate from the privates. There is a number of political prisoners, some of them residents of Baltimore, confined in the barracks. Several regiments of Union soldiers are detailed as guards over the prisoners. The hospitals are situated a short distance from the barracks. The wards of the hospitals are as comfortable and kept as clean as any we have visited. The rebel sick occupy the same wards with the Union soldiers and receive the same attention.

There are two Chaplains connected with the fort. The

Rev. Mr. Way, of the Methodist Episcopal Church, is the Post Chaplain. The Rev. Mr. Paddock, of the Protestant, Episcopal Church, has charge of the hospitals. Public services are held in the Chapel on Sundays and during the week. Public preaching and prayer meetings are frequent in such locations about the barracks as can be used for the purpose. Among the prisoners there are several preachers, who exercise a laudable Christian leadership over their companions. One of them, the Rev. Dr. Handy, is a man of very superior abilities. We were introduced to him and spent some time in conversation with him, and were satisfied of his purpose to use himself as industriously as possible in his labors for the spiritual advantages of his brethren in misfortune. His influence is almost unbounded among the prisoners, all of whom appear to look up to him for religious counsel and instruction. A large number of the prisoners have made an open profession of religion under his spiritual advisement. Every possible facility for the performance of religious services is afforded the Dr. and his associates by the officers of the post.

What is somewhat remarkable in the associations of these prisoners, is their establishment of schools for daily study and instruction. There are several excellent scholars among them, evidently men of superior standing, who are selected as teachers, and they receive all as their pupils who are willing to organize themselves into classes for the receipt. of their instructions. Nearly all the branches of education, including those of the college, are pursued in these prison schools. We have had application for works in the higher Mathematics, and in Latin and Greek for use among the classes. We most heartily commend this exercise of talent and expenditure of time that might be otherwise unprofitably employed. A man's intelligence may be made a part of his religion, and it is so made when properly employed. The exercise of the higher intelligence in the religious service, affords the highest and most elevating means of religious enjoyment. The students of those prisoner schools and classes. may be made wiser as well as better men by their daily appli

cation to systematic study. How much better and how much more profitably employed is the time thus occupied than that which is spent in other less humanizing, less ennobling pursuits? And how infinitely greater the difference between the character produced by such employment and that which results from the idle habit and the listless careless waste of the hours as they pass? Employment is man's duty. Employment is necessary for his health, for the prolongation of his life. Let the employment be of the proper kind and humanity must serve itself by doing the service to God that His laws demand.

The Rev. Erastus Colton served several weeks at the fort. He gives an interesting account of his labors in a letter recently received. The number of prisoners at the fort was. much larger than usual during his visit:

MR. G. S. GRIFFITH, Chairman,

FORT DELAWARE, August 5th, 1864.

REV. G. R. BENT, Agent U. S. C. C, Baltimore District:

DEAR SIRS :-I herein make my first report. Coming here under your direction, to co-operate with the two Chaplains, the one, Chaplain Way, of the post, the other, Chaplain Paddock, of the hospital, I was very kindly received by them as well as by General Schoepf, who is in command. As soon as quartered, being introduced in the hospital and the barracks, to the prisoners both officers and co-operators, I went to work. I have mainly labored in the two barracks among the officers and privates and in the hospital, though I once carried reading matter to the Ohio regiment that is doing guard duty at this post.

As subsequently, Rev. Mr. Frazer, of Steubenville, Ohio, came in part to labor with that regiment, one company of which was from his place, in the want of a Chaplain, I ceased from action in that direction, except to supply some reading matter. Mr. Frazer came also under appointment from Philadelphia as a Delegate of the U. S. C. C., and bringing a box of excellent reading matter, which supplied said regiment and gave some to me for use in the barracks and the hospital. He preached for me several times in the privates barracks, and with good effect, while I was laboring under great hoarseness from a cold taken here by a sudden change in the weather. He preached to the regiment in their quarters and also in the Chapel on the Sabbath. I have preached

in the Chapel once on each of the two Sabbaths that I have spent here to the Ohio men mainly; to many others also. In the officers barracks I have attended three of their daily prayer meetings at ten and a half o'clock; they were very spiritual and interesting, so much so that I longed to be with them every day, as an officer invited me to come. But the seven or eight thousand of privates demanded my services in their barracks, one of which takes place at the same hour in which the prayer meeting is held; of course I cannot attend them both.

Last spring several officers were converted, seventeen of whom joined the church, generally under Dr. Handy, a rebel prisoner and preacher. He informs me that these seventeen are growing in Grace, and are active in doing good. Others there are now serious, asking for prayers. Four rose in the meeting last evening and asked to be prayed for.

As the sun is hot and the meetings held out of doors, an awning is now sought by donations of the officers friends in Philadelphia and elsewhere. General Schoepf will have the awning put up when obtained, and under it the meetings will be held in the open yard. Great good is looked for. There is a "school of the Prophets" in this barracks of eight young men, under Dr. Handy, while an Education Society has been formed and several officers have pupils in the Greek language, in the Sciences, &c. I have procured from Philadelphia, books for some of the young to pursue their studies in Greek.

A decided religious, moral, educating, elevating and refining influence is most evidently being exerted in that barracks. There are several preachers in the barracks and in some divisions, as in Dr. Handy's. There is preaching every evening at sundown. A new prisoner preacher has lately been added,-a Baptist. I am exceedingly pleased with the state of things in that barracks; the men will be better fitted to return home when exchanged, or at the end of the war; and they will go with favorable impressions of us who seek to do them spiritual good. I have a brother, once resident in Baton Rouge, La., in the Rebel service, as Quartermaster under Johnson-a Captain here informed me of him. I am, anywhere among these officers, always most cordially received. If I could have an assistant, whom Chaplain Paddock has sought to obtain for me in Philadelphia, and I have written there for one-a six weeks Delegate, then another six weeks man, after the time of the first has expired, to act under me and with me, then I could oftener go into the officers barracks, and I could there labor more