are represented among its pages. As a literary effort, this book is worthy of its authorship, and of its distinguished editorship. It will remain as a standing evidence of the enterprise of Maryland in the association of literature with the benevolent purpose, and of the ability and taste of American authorship. A description of the Fair and a further notice of the book will appear in their places in this report.

Statistics of Receipts and Disbursements.

In our supply statement we have given an account of our receipts, expenditures, and disbursements. We make a distinction between expenditures and disbursements, because we have disbursed a large amount of stores which were not received by purchase and for which money was not actually expended by us. From the account it may seem that a large amount of means have been appropriated to the uses of the various needs that have claimed our notice. But so much larger than our resources has been the demand for relief, which has come to us from every part of the immense field occupied, that we have been obliged to distribute our money and stores, after mature consideration, to the best possible. advantage, leaving but partially supplied many interesting cases of appeal which it would have been most pleasant and gratifying to have entirely relieved. The money and stores sent us have been duly acknowledged through the newspapers. Supplies are always in demand, and must be while the soldiers are in the field exposed to the casualties of war, and their families are left at home to struggle with the oppression of poverty which is inevitable when the family is large, and the pay of the soldier per month not much more than sufficient to support one or two persons.

Our trust for success is in the great Author and Giver of all our blessings. It is of His will that we are disposed to labor in the cause of His afflicted servants, and that supplies are granted to us to be applied to the purpose. As it is known to Him to be for the best, so will the means be

provided. And as He affords the ability and the agencies, so may we be the instruments in His hands of doing good to our suffering fellow-men. From Him comes the powers by which the service is performed. His be the praise for its performance.

The Army's Progress and its Battles.

Close upon the marches of the army and fast upon its battle-fields have been the movements of the Christian Commission. We had scarcely narrated the services of our delegates and ourselves in the battles of the summer of 1863, when the enemy appeared in different places along the line of the Potomac, and not only threatened the States of Maryland and Pennsylvania with invasion, but in several instances actually crossed the river and appeared on the Maryland and Pennsylvania shores in pursuit of whatever plunder they could find.

Our last report closed September 1, 1863, and on the 22d of that month the Rebels crossed the Potomac and entered Maryland at Rockville, Montgomery county. They scoured the country for several miles, and secured a considerable amount of plunder in cattle and different kinds of store goods, when they were attacked by the Union troops and forced to return to their own camping grounds in Virginia. It was not without several skirmishes in which many lives were sacrificed, and many of both armies disabled, that they were allowed to escape. As early after this raid as September 25, Mosby's men attacked and destroyed a portion of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad. While at their work they were fallen upon by the Union troops and driven back. with some slaughter on both sides. Again, October 5, Winchester and Harper's Ferry were attacked and captured by the enemy, who as usual held them but a few days, when the Federal army drove them out and re-took the captured towns and vicinities. October 7, skirmishes took place near Martinsburg with various results in the capture of Union troops by the Rebels and the capture of Rebels by the Union troops. On all these occasions men were killed and wounded, and work provided for the delegates of the Christian

Commission. Delegates were sent from our office to the scenes of conflict, where there accustomed services were performed with their accustomed success.

At different periods during the year these raids were repeated. The invasion of the 6th of July, is, perhaps, the most formidable of the efforts of the kind that transpired in the vicinity during the year. It.commenced in the plunder of Frederick city, and was continued in various depredations until after the burning of Chambersburg, which took place on the 6th of August. The result of these raids left by far the most of the dead and wounded of the enemy on our hands. In hurried retreats it was not possible for them to bury their dead, or to take their wounded from the field. Our hospitals were occupied by large numbers of Rebels on account of whose sufferings the sympathies of our people were excited, and a vast deal of labor and money were expended in their relief. The hospitals at Frederick city were sometimes filled with the wounded of the two armies, while many of the disabled were sent to Baltimore and Washington cities.

While the raids were in progress along the upper Potomac the most severe and sanguinary battles of the campaign were fought during the passage of General Grant's army towards Petersburg and Richmond. The contest for Fredericksburg had been severe and bloody, and while the power of possession seemed to be alternately in the Union and Rebel forces, a number of very hardly contested skirmishes took place, in which many were killed and wounded on both sides. At length when the scale was permanently inclined in favor of the Union army, nearly all the wounded of the enemy fell into our hands. The provisions of the hospitals which were sufficient in all cases for our own wounded, were insufficient for the accommodation of the crippled of both armies. Shelter tents, and such temporary accommodations as could be hastily provided were brought into use until the men could be conveyed to distant places of security and comfort. On all occasions the delegates of the Commission were near and ready with their stores for their work of Christian liberality, providing for the sufferer with whatever means

they had on hand, laboring with ceaseless and untiring industry until the objects of their greatly excited interest were as comfortable as they could render them.

Afterwards came on the battles of the Wilderness, Chancellorsville, Spottsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, Bermuda Hundred, Weldon, then the siege of Petersburg and Richmond. The slaughter in these battles was immense. The numbers of the wounded were counted by tens of thousands. They were to be hunted out from among the dead. They were to be taken to the ambulance, or if too badly hurt for the jolting of the ambulance, to the shelter tent of the field. In these shelter tents, rapidly constructed to screen the sufferer from the scorching rays of the summer sun, the Surgeons were in waiting with their instruments for amputation, and for searching the wounds. In the changes of the armies here from Fredericksburg to the North Anna, thence to the White House, thence to City Point, there were perils to be encountered unknown in human warfare. At every point the enemy was stationed in force, and it was only through the most extreme perseverance and at the most fearful risk and expense of life and suffering that these necessary objects were accomplished. Sure as the battle and the bloodshed was the appearance of the delegates of the Commission.

In large numbers from Maryland, and in larger numbers from the central office in Philadelphia, they crowded into our apartments. We were well provided with haversacks and blankets and stores. Haversacks and blankets were delivered to each delegate; the haversack was filled with articles for immediate use, and the boxes were packed and sent by the steamboat, or the railroad, or by the wagon team, as became necessary. In some instances the stores were sent in advance of the delegate, and were in waiting when he arrived. It was indeed cheering, amid the harrowing reflections occasioned by the terrific slaughter of human life, and the fearful mangling of the human form in such multitudes, to witness the eagerness and earnestness with which our men buckled on their armor of peace and humanity, the haverersack and the blanket and hurried out of the office to the

depot of conveyance for the field of their labor. It was a sacrifice to them of time and money and strength, and a risk of sickness and accident. But these drawbacks were not in their consideration. The cost was counted in the duty to which they were committed in the relief of their suffering fellow-men. The duty was imperative. It was counted in humanity's covenant with God. It was God's own work in His care over His creatures, and the trust was in God that He would bless His own work and lead His own selfsacrificing servants through it. The hour for the meditation and the formal prayer with them had passed when they appeared for their equipments for the service, and like men engaged in business transactions, or in pursuit of journeys. in business relations, they entered their names and received their supplies and left for the conveyance. We say formal prayer, because Christian men have their hours and their postures for prayer, but they do not always wait for the hours and for the opportunity of placing themselves in the posture. They pray while in the pursuit of their purpose in God's service. They do not always want the books nor even the immediate thoughts of prayer. The very act is prayer, the business is prayer without a word, and apparently without a conscious thought. There is its conscious thought in the act, there is faith in the act, there is trust in the act; the unconscious thought, the faith, the trust, each is prayer, all is prayer. The prayer is in the act. It is the prayer of faith. It is heard on high. It will be answered.

As we have looked upon these men in the pursuit of their purpose, as anxious as if the large estate were in their view and the extensive business profit to be realized, we have inwardly rejoiced in the view of the better type in which humanity presented itself, and we have prayed that there might be guardian spirits with their unseen protection to shield these messengers of mercy from danger, and conduct them safely through their work. We prayed that there might be such guardian spirits, and we believed there would be. We doubted not that God's invisible leaders and protectors would be with His servants, and that they would be