ing a cavalry hospital, the team, with those from this corps, bore away for Fredericksburg. On Monday they arrived. The supplies which they had husbanded were an immediate relief, furnishing breakfast for hundreds who otherwise would have gone without anything.

He

A case of treachery in the mayor should not be forgotten. When the wounded from the Wilderness, who were able to walk, had come into the town ahead of the wagons and ambulances, they inquired of him for the hospital, which the government had established. directed them as they supposed, to it, at the outer edge of the townbut where there was a number of cavalry who gobbled them up and took them prisoners to Richmond.

Those unable to walk were taken in wagons and ambulances from the Wilderness and Spotsylvania to Fredericksburg. Jarred and jolted in wagons on a rough road, is hard enough for a well man, but what must it be for men with wounds in feet, legs, thighs, arms, body, head; some with one leg, one arm, indeed every kind of wound which can be imagined among so many thousand persons; for days without food, when fed and dressed, then wagoned to Belle Plain, a landing on an arm of the Potomac, about eight to ten miles below Aquia Creek. The travel from Fredericksburg to Belle Plain was in wagons, ambulances and on foot, over a muddy, rough and dreary road. It was necessary to remove them as fast as possible, every house of every description in Fredericksburg being a hospital.

It would be a very difficult work to estimate the labors of the delegates at Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Fredericksburg and Belle Plain, who were supplied as fast as possible, and with an abundance. Bishop McIlvaine, of Ohio, says of a visit, May 23d:

"At Fredericksburg we were set down in the midst of the work. There were from 8,000 to 10,000 wounded men in the various churches, halls and other houses of the town. As some were sent away towards Washington others came in from the field. The application of the work of the commission to those poor sufferers lying in ambulances, just from the battle, and waiting to be placed under shelter, as well as to the thousands in the so-called hospitals, was just the aspect in which it would best exhibit its true character. I joined in it, messed with the delegates, saw the whole interior of how they lived and denied themselves and wrought. The morning was begun and the day was ended with devotional exercises in the open air, for the commission rooms afforded no space for about 270.

"They went out to help the surgeons, some of them surgeons themselves, to wash, to feed, to soothe, take part in the most painful operations, to minister in every wise and loving way to the sick, the maimed, the dying, to talk with them about their souls, to point them to the Lamb of God, to pray with them, under all varieties of trying and painful circumstances, to receive their last messages to dear ones at home, to comfort in all ways those dear men to whom the country is so deeply indebted, to bury them when dead.

"But I cannot expect to give an adequate idea of their work, or of their spirit in it, for all accounts to me, before I saw it, had greatly failed to make me comprehend it so as to do it any justice, greatly as I had valued it. What particularly struck me in the work was the individuality and personality of the connection between the commission agent and the wounded sufferers. There was nothing between them to make the application of aid circuitous or doubtful. It did not take the place of, or in the least interfere with, the work of the official men, the army surgeons, &c. It supplemented them. It helped them. It supplied deficiencies in special emergencies, which no government could be ready for, in all the details of such a condition of things as existed at Fredericksburg. It met the wounded on the field; it. met them on their arrival at the town long before the appliances of a very overworked corps of excellent army surgeons and nurses could get to them.

"I was much struck with the high character of the men, coming from the highest

social positions, reinforcements daily arriving as the time of others expired, but not reaching the necessities of the case; [on our way from Fredericksburg we met twenty or thirty on their way down, walking in the hot sun,] and then with how they laid aside their garments and girded themselves, and became servants to all for Christ's sake, how laboriously they wrought, and how all along, with ministrations to the body, they carried the gospel, and most of all, sought the salvation of the soldier. And how the poor sufferers welcomed them-how they appreciated their work-how they thanked them! In how many cases did I hear them gay "We should have been dead by this time but for the christian commission men." "Having seen the work, under circumstances which tested it to the uttermost, as to the sort of men it gets, the wisdom of its appliances, and the efficiency and economy of its operations, I can say, and I want to say out of my whole heart, that a work more worthy of the confidence, and affection, and co-operation of a christian public, especially of every loyal heart and hand, cannot be devised. It is wonderful to see what, from a very small beginning, it has arrived at. The sight of it is one of the most refreshing alleviations of the grief of the land, under the tribulations of this awful war, and the wicked conspiracy that originated it." Friday, 13th. The wet weather stopped operations, except the building of fortifications and gathering of reinforcements--until Wednesday, the 18th, when the second and ninth corps were engaged, gaining two lines of Lee's intrenchments and taking some guns. On the 19th Ewell made an attempt to capture the ammunition and supply train, in which he failed, losing about twelve hundred killed and wounded and five hundred prisoners; our loss being nine hundred. Grant now stretched his line until Spotsylvania Court House lay to his right. On the 20th our men succeeded in moving south, and on Saturday, 21st, in the evening, occupied Guinney's Bowling Green, and Milford.

Both armies were marching all Saturday night. On Monday, 23rd, our forces crossed the North Anna near the central railroad, after severe opposition.

On Wednesday, 25th, at night, after burning the railroad bridge, our army was between the North and South Anna rivers. About three o'clock it was reported that the fifth corps had crossed the North Anna, but only a brigade of one division, under General Griffin, had. The whole corps were preparing to cross, and were allowed by Lee, calculating on attacking and driving them back to the river When he attacked, General Griffin maintained his position so firmly as to save the day and bring all through in safety, though Lee had opened on him with nearly one hundred cannon. Lee had also formed a new line of defence on the north side of the South Anna river, which he probably supposed General Grant would attempt to pass, as he had done at Wilderness and Spotsylvania. But he on Thursday, 26th, prepared to recross the North Anna, and in a few days had removed his army down to and across the Pamunkey, in such a position that he could communicate with White House as a base, where he had already had his supplies forwarded.

On May 5th General Butler sent a heavy force up the York river, making it probable that he was going to West Point or White House. Coming back, it was supposed he was going to Yorktown, but he returned and went up the James river to Bermuda Hundred, where he disembarked his forces, taking possession of Bermuda Hundred. Whatever was the object of the movement, one thing is certain, that Fortress Monroe was virtually removed to the junction of the James and Appomattox, and Bermuda Hundred and City Point made a position

for operations which will not cease until the rebellion is overthrown. From Bermuda Hundred, on the James, Butler, with the tenth and eighteenth corps, under Smith and Gilmore, took possession of all the ground from a line above the Point of Rocks, on the Appomattox, to Trent's Reach, on the James, the line of which works will be seen on the map. He was not more than twelve miles from Petersburg, and about fifteen to seventeen from Richmond.

May 3rd, we went down to Fortress Monroe, with Mr. J. R. Miller, one of our field agents, to see where was the best place to make the base for the operations of the commission, believing it certain that the line would be the James. At the suggestion of General Butler, and with the kind attention of Captain Plato, Quartermaster at Norfolk, placed our stores in the quartermaster's warehouse for a few days.

Mr. Miller went to Yorktown. General Butler's fleet returning, he came back, and put up a tent at Fortress Monroe, where afterwards a little shanty of 12 by 32 was put up, in which has been kept part of our stores. Hundreds of our delegates, and others connected with humane purposes, some seeking their wounded children and fathers,' and others the bodies of those who had fallen on the field or died in the hospital, have here been provided for.

In a few days, Mr. Miller went up and established a station at Bermuda Hundred, another about five miles west in the tenth corps, near General Gilmore's headquarters, at the eighteenth corps, (then under General Smith,) at the Point of Rocks, a third.

General Kautz, with about 3,000 cavalry from Suffolk, came up by Stony Creek, burned the railroad bridge, and came into our lines about City Point. His wounded and others who had lost their clothes, &c., in the raid, Mr. Miller saw supplied. On the 9th, General Butler announced his hopefulness of the success of Kautz to the Secretary of War Intrenching from the Appomattox to the James; Wednesday, May 11th, he advanced out of his lines, and had a fight with the rebel forces, about 2, P. M., driving them to the outside line of their works, near Drury's Bluff; 12th and 13th they were skirmishing. On Saturday, the 14th, he drove them to their inner line. In the evening they made a sortie, and after several volleys returned. Sabbath, 15th, our sharpshooters, some within one hundred and fifty yards, kept their artillery quiet. Monday, 16th, there was a very heavy fog. The rebels taking advantage of it made a sortie, early in the morning, got around and took largely of Heckman's brigade. The engagement was very severe, and loss great on both sides. At night, our forces retired into our works. The rebels did not follow.

The wagon, under Michael Finnegan and delegates, had been on hand from the 11th to the 16th. On Sabbath (15th) they were up with our lines, and by 7 o'clock, on the 16th, were on the line of the intrenchments, where they met the wounded coming in streams They stopped the wagons and supplied coffee, tea, beef tea. crackers, milk, &c. Four to five camp kettles were boiling nearly all day. Some of the men went to Point of Rocks, others to the tenth corps hospital. There was no other provision made for any of these men until they went to the hospital, about two miles. When our delegates came to the hospital, Dr. Snow, who had it in charge, said: "I never was so rejoiced in

my life. You came in the time of our greatest need." No one could have been more kind and attentive than the doctor was to our men while at the hospital. Two young men from Princeton, of the Sanitary Commission, were here rendering what aid they could, but no stores had been sent to them, nor was even a tent provided for them,

On the 9th of May, Sheridan's cavalry left near the Wilderness, crossed the Rapidan in the evening, on to Beaver Dam Station, on the Richmond and Gordonsville road, around to the right of Lee's army.Here he tore up the railroad, destroyed three trains of cars and a large amount of stores. Turning off, made for Richmond, crossing the Chickahominy and entered the exterior defences of Richmond. Encountering the rebel cavalry, under General J. E B. Stuart, he recrossed the Chickahominy and made for General Butler's lines.

On Saturday, (28th) at Bermuda Hundred the troops were coming in all night and getting upon transports. On Sabbath morning we helped our wagon and horses on board a vessel, and by 10 to 12 o'clock, all was quiet and clear of troops. On Monday they were at the White House, having gone down the James and up the York river.

Lee was aiming to keep Grant from Richmond, and Grant was moving down toward his new base at White House. If Lee could cut him off. he would interfere greatly with his movements. But Lee was in danger, if he went too far in the way of cutting off supplies at White House, of opening the door for Grant into Richmond

:

The cavalry engagements from day to day, hindered Lee, but on the 29th, Sheridan drove him back from the west of Hanovertown toward Bethesda church. This cavalry fight one of the most severe during the war, prepared the way for our army to secure their position. lines were from Atlee's Station, on the Virginia Central railroad, on north of the Chickahominy to Shady Grove Church, about eight miles from Richmond.

Lee's

On the 30th, General Warren, with the fifth corps, pressed up towards Lee's right. General Hancock, of the second corps also got into the right of the fifth. With the aid of the cavalry, on this and the 31st, the sixth and 18th coming up, our forces were enabled on the next day, June 1st, to form a line of battle, as may be seen from the map-ninth corps on west of Bethesda church, across the Mechanicsville road, fifth between that and the Walnut Grove road, eighteenth between that and the new Cold Harbor road facing Gaines' Mill, sixth across new Cold Harbor road, second across Sumner's Bridge road. Directly in front of our forces was Lee's army intrenched The battle of this day secured us Cold Harbor.

We were about the same distance from Richmond and White House. If we could move a little more to the left, and across the Chickahominy, the way would have been opened into Richmond. Wednesday night it was arranged to move on Thursday, (2d) but a ́severe storm hindered, and gave Lee time to complete his fortifications. On Friday, (3d) they were more strongly fortified.

The importance of this point was dúly appreciated by General Grant when he commenced his work of fortifying, intrenching and advancing upon Lee, line by line, until our fortifications were within a few rods in some places of theirs-so near that men could exchange papers and hold

conversation from the two armies. The position could not be carried without fearful loss of life.

Early this morning a charge, which had been ordered the preceding evening, was made, in which we suffered severely. General Tyler was wounded. Great numbers of our wounded lay on the field, though strenuous efforts were made to carry them off.

Colonel Peter B. Porter, of Niagara Falls, commanding the 8th New York heavy artillery, was killed within 5 to 6 rods of the rebel lines. Seven wounds were found upon his body. One in his neck, one between his shoulders, one on the right side, and lower part of the stɔmach, one on the left, and near his heart, and two in his legs. The evening before he said, "that if the charge was made he would not come out alive; but that if required, he would go into it.” The last words heard from him were : Boys, follow me. We notice the following extract from his will, which was made before entering the service, which shows the man:

"Feeling to its full extent the probability that I may not return from the path of duty on which I have entered-if it please God that it be so-I can say with truth Ï have entered on the career of danger with no ambitious aspirations, nor with the idea that I am fitted by nature or experience to be of any important service to the Government; but in obedience to the call of duty demanding every citizen to contribute what he could in means, labor, or life to sustain the government of his country; a sacrifice made, too, the more willingly by me when I consider how singularly benefited I have been by the institutions of this land, and that up to this time all the blessings of life have been showered upon me beyond what falls usually to the lot of man."

The White House is on the south side of the Pamunkey river, about three-quarters of a mile below where the railroad from Richmond to West Point crosses. West Point is at the head of the York river and in the fork of the Pamunkey and Mattapony. The former is exceedingly crooked, but navigable for steamers and gunboats to the railroad bridge. For a mile or two west, and for miles south, the land is level and tillable. Its name is from an old house with brick foundation, upon which we suppose there was a comfortable and well arranged house. The walls seem to have been whitewashed. There is not now any building standing, nor when our army went there for its base, the iron of the railroad near being removed, and the ties burned by McClellan's army in 1862.

Mr. Miller with Finnegan pitched tent north of the railroad embankment and within twenty steps of the river. This became our store tent, from which our wagons for the fifth, sixth, ninth, second and eighteenth drew their supplies, and took them out in company with the Government trains to the vicinity of Cold Harbor, &c., to which ever place our tents for the corps were pitched. A few hundred yards below on the river was the barge from which we received our stores, and along the river for nearly a quarter of a mile were boats continually unloading stores, ammunition, forage and everything of every kind needed for the army. Along the shore and in procession for half a mile, coming and going, were the wagons for and with supplies. Before you get down to the White House was a little ravine through which a very small stream of water runs, over which was a bridge that at least onehalf of the wagons passed coming or going. The delay at it and the