was, where he came from, and how he had
procured his commission, was a mystery to officers and men. He told
tremendous stories about the Crimea and the Italian war; and now for the
first time intimated that he was the only survivor of the company which
led the advance at the storming of Chapultepec, in the Mexican war.
However much the officers enjoyed his stories, it is not probable that
all of them believed what they heard.

Lieutenant Somers was perfectly familiar with the company and battalion
drill; and, having quick perception and abundant self-possession, he was
competent at once to perform his duties as an officer. He had no vices to
be criticized by the men, who respected him not only for his bravery on
the battlefield, but for his good moral character; for even the vicious
respect the virtues which they practically contemn. Being neither
arbitrary nor tyrannical, he was cheerfully obeyed; and his company never
appeared better than when, by the temporary absence of his superior, it
was under his command.

He was, however, allowed but a short time to become acquainted with the
routine of the new duty before he was summoned to participate in those
tremendous events which have passed into history as at once the most
brilliant and disastrous operations of the war; brilliant in that our
gallant army was almost invariably victorious, disastrous in that they
were the forerunners of the ultimate failure of a hopeful campaign. The
victory at Fair Oaks had raised the hopes of that brave, thinking army.

The picket-lines were within a few miles of Richmond, and the soldiers
were burning with enthusiasm to be led against the enemy in front of
them. They were ready to lay down their lives on the altar of their
bleeding country, if the survivors could grasp the boon of peace within
the buttressed walls of the rebel capital--peace that would hurl to the
ground the defiant traitors, and insure the safety and perpetuity of free
institutions. The notes of victory, those thinking soldiers believed,
would reverberate through the coming ages, and point an epoch from which
America would date her grandest and most sublime triumphs.

But not then was the great rebellion to be overthrown; for not yet had
the leaven of Liberty leavened the whole lump; not yet had the purposes
of a mysterious Providence been accomplished; and the brave men who
sighed for victory and peace in the swamps of the Chickahominy were
doomed to years of blood