officers and recounted the touching story of what he had seen and heard there, closing his remarks with, "For God's sake, gentlemen, if any of you have anything to spare, send it to those starving men." Each officer responded nobly. One by one they went to their scanty board, and, taking the lion's share therefrom, gladly contributed it to the soldiers whom Neal Dow had visited. The officer whose story I am writing had consumed all the contents of his box except three pieces of dried beef. Two of these he sent to the camp across the river, keeping one for himself. The next day he began cutting into the last piece. Two days later, and the day before Christmas, he was hacking away at the meat, getting a few chips for his dinner. The knife struck a hard substance. A minute later he pulled out the vial which loving hands had placed in this singular receptacle, and cautiously withdrew the two Lincoln pictures for which he had written. They had finally reached him, almost by a miracle. "Just in time for a Christmas dinner," was the first thought and exclamation. He sold one of the $10 bills for $150 Confederate money, and got the prison keeper to buy him from the market the materials for his contemplated feast. The next day Col. A. K. Dunklee, now secretary of internal affairs of Pennsylvania, invited Capt. John C. Johnson, 149th Pennsylvania, and Lieutenant Fellows of the same regiment, to enjoy the good cheer with him. Here is the bill of fare and the cost of each item. One chicken, $12; one dozen eggs, $12; half pound of sugar, $4; a few potatoes, $3; one pound of butter, $12; total, $43. This spread was the envy of all the prisoners in Libby, and it was divided among them as far as it would go. Not a dozen officers had anything but prison fare. Col. J. M. Sanderson, commissary of subsistence on General Reynolds's staff, who had friends in Richmond, had a turkey sent to him-the only one in the prison. A Massachusetts officer, who had received a ham from home, and in cutting into it had found it stuffed with gold dollars, was also one of the fortunate ones, and had something that resembled a dinner in his New England home. Instances of this kind in this holiday dinner in Libby were not numerous, but they were striking. Columns might be written of the scenes before and after Christmas, but the plain story is the best. Hundreds who were there are still living, and will recall them as though they transpired only yesterday. The events of that time are indelibly engraved on their memory. I recall the following names as those of New England men who were present: Col. Charles W. Tilden, 16th Maine; Lieut.Col. C. Farnsworth, 1st Connecticut Cavalry; Lieut. -Col. G. C. Joslyn, 15th Massachusetts; Lieut. - Col. M. Nichols, 18th Connecticut Infantry; Maj. J. J. Edwards, 37th Massachusetts; Maj. J. H. Hooper, 15th Massachusetts; Maj. J. B. Hill, 17th Massachusetts; Maj. J. Hall, 1st Vermont Cavalry; Capt. C. A. Adams, 1st Vermont Infantry; E. W. Atwood, 16th Maine; E. D. Brown, 18th Connecticut; D. Barton, 1st Massachusetts; F. B. Doten, 18th Connecticut; H. C. Davis, 18th Connecticut; G. C. Davis, 4th Maine; E. Dillingham, 10th Vermont; W. L. Hubbell, 17th Connecticut; F. R. Josselyn, 18th Massachusetts; R. O. Ivro, 10th Massachusetts; W. F. Martins, 4th Massachusetts; E. J. Matthewson, 18th Connecticut; F. H. Pillsbury, 5th Maine; F. E. Wentworth, 16th Maine; G. W. Warner, 18th Connecticut; Lieuts. H. M. Anderson, 3d Maine; G. C. Bleak, 3d Maine; L. C. Bisbee, 16th Maine; J. D. Bisbee, 16th Maine; D. S. Bartram, 17th Connecticut; E. G. Birun, 3d Massachusetts; L. D. Comins, 17th Massachusetts; E. D. Carpenter, 18th Connecticut; H. F. Cowell, 18th Connecticut; J. N. Childs, 16th Maine; S. E. Cary, 13th Massachusetts; F. C. McKeag, 18th Connecticut; R. N. Mann, 17th Massachusetts; S. F. Merwin, 18th Connecticut; J. B. Sampson, 12th Massachusetts; J. E. Woodward, 18th Connecticut; W. Wadsworth, 16th Maine; D. Whiston, 13th Massachusetts; J. C. Norcross, 2d Massachusetts Cavalry; J. B. Stevens, 5th Maine; M. Tiffany, 18th Connecticut; M. Tower, 18th Massachusetts; A. B. Rockwell, 18th Connecticut; J. H. Russell, 12th Massachusetts; J. Ranny, 11th Massachusetts; N. A. Robinson, 4th Maine; A. J. Scranton, 18th Connecticut; J. N. Whitney, 2d Rhode Island Cavalry; N. A. Robbins, 4th Maine; Fuller Dinley, 17th Rhode Island; Capt. C. Chase, 1st Rhode Island Cavalry; Capt. Julius Litchfield, 4th Maine; Lieut. George A. Chandler, 5th Maine. The names of these officers are recalled as among those who spent the Christmas of 1863 in Libby Prison. There may have been many more. The roll was a long one, and if any name has been omitted, the mention of which would appeal to a New England heart, it has been forgotten in the mist that twenty years have spread over the track of war. Almost every state in the Union was represented in the crowd who spent the Christmas of 1863 in Libby Prison. New England had a large number of her brave men there, as did Pennsylvania, New York, and other states. Lieutenant Rockwell, I hear, is dead. Engineer McCauley runs a boat on the Schuylkill, and you meet almost every day, on Washington street, men who were captured at Gettysburg and in other battles, and who spent months of 1863 as prisoners of war. Those who were not there or in other prisons can find in this story, from one who was a prisoner of war, a faithful picture of a Christmas in Libby Prison. Gen. B. F. Butler Originated the First Move for Raising Volunteers. THE credit of originating the first movement for the raising of volunteers has been awarded to General Butler, who issued a call for a meeting of the officers of the 6th Mass. Regt., to be held at Lowell, on the 21st day of January, 1861; but the records show that the honor is justly due to Capt. (General) Allen Rutherford of New Cavalry Charge at Bull Run. THE the second battle of Bull Run was made by the 1st Mich. and 4th N. Y. Cavalry Regts., under the direction of Gen. John Buford. York City (now of Washington). Cap tain Rutherford issued a call for a meeting, which was held at the Mercer House in New York, on the 9th of January-twelve days before the meeting at Lowell-for the purpose of organizing for the protection of the United States and the enforcement of the laws. Com. Vanderbilt's Handsome Gift. COMMODORE VANDERBILT'S name stands first on the list of magnificent donations to the United States government. He presented the steamer Vanderbilt, which cost $800,000. The Last Silk Dress in the Confeder- THE last silk dress in the Confed eracy was lost when the Federals in 1862 captured a balloon which had been made of all the silk dresses to be found in the Confederacy. Gen. James Longstreet said in the Century Magazine that the capture of this balloon was the meanest trick of the war, and one he has never yet forgiven. DRIVING HOME THE COWs. A Reminiscence of the War in Verse. UT of the clover and blue-eyed For news had come to the lonely farm grass, He turned them into the river lane; One after another he let them pass, Under the willows and over the hill, He patiently followed their sober trace; The merry whistle for once was still, And something shadowed the sunny face. Only a boy; and his father had said He never would let his youngest go; Two already were lying dead, Under the feet of the trampling foe. But after the evening work was done, And the frogs were loud in the meadow-swamp, Over his shoulder he swung his gun And stealthily followed the foot-path damp. Across the clover and through the wheat, That three were lying where two had lain; And the old man's tremulous, palsied arm Could never lean on a son's again. The summer day grew cold and late, He went for the cows when the work was done; But down the lane, as he opened the gate, He saw them coming one by one. Brindle, Ebony, Speckle, and Bess, Shaking their horns in the evening wind; Cropping the buttercups out of the grass But who was it following close behind? Loosely swung in the idle air The empty sleeve of army blue; And worn and pale, from the crisping hair, Looked out a face that the father knew. With resolute heart and purpose For southern prisons will sometimes Thrice since then had the lanes been The great tears sprung to their meeting white, And the orchards sweet with apple bloom; eyes; For the heart must speak when the lips are dumb And now when the cows came back at And under the silent evening skies night, The feeble father drove them home. Together they followed the cattle home. One Country and One Flag. LEE'S FLIGHT AND THE PURSUIT. The Grapple at Sailor's Creek.-The Surrender at Appomattox. M IN SEARCH OF JOHNSTON. By JAMES L. BOWEN, 37th Mass. M OT the Army of the Potomac alone but the whole country was electrified by the tidings which that never-to-beforgotten 3d of April, 1865, proclaimed to the world. Not only Petersburg but Richmond had been evacuated during the night; the Confederate government as well as Lee's army was in full flight. General Weitzel, whose lines faced the Richmond defenses, was startled by heavy explosions and volumes of black smoke rising from the city. A cavalry vidette was pushed forward which entered unopposed the city to gain which such countless thousands of lives had been sacrificed and planted its guidons on the late Confederate capitol. The retiring traitors in their eagerness for destruction had fired large warehouses filled with tobacco situated in the heart of the city; and though Weitzel's soldiers were at once hurried to the spot and fought the fire with all their power, it could not be checked till the business part of the city was destroyed and a vast number of people rendered homeless. General Lee on retiring from Petersburg moved north to Chesterfield Court House, half way to Richmond, where the fragments of his army from different directions concentrated, marching thence with all speed due west. The route led across the Appomattox at Goode's Bridge to Amelia Court House on the Danville railroad, thirty-eight miles west of Petersburg, |