more as rector of Memorial Church, and have been here ever since.
Hence I have served in the ministry for fifty years--forty-one of which
I have spent serving the Memorial Church, and having, as a side line,
been Chaplain of the "Fifth Regiment Maryland National Guard" for
thirty-odd years. When one is bitten by the military "bee" in his youth,
he never gets over it--the sight of a line of soldiers, and the sound
of martial music stirs me still, as it always did, and I have had the
keenest interest and pleasure in my association with that splendid
regiment, and my dear friends and comrades in it.

So, through the changes and chances of this mortal life, I have come
thus far, and by the blessing of God, and the patience of my people, at
the age of seventy-four I am still in full work among the people, whom I
have served so long, and loved so well--still at my post where I hope to
stay till the Great Captain orders me off to service in the only place I
know of, that is better than the congregation of Memorial Church, and
the community of Baltimore--and that is the everlasting Kingdom of
Heaven.

=Origin of This Narrative=

Now, what I have been writing here is intended to lead up to the
narrative set forth in the pages of this volume. Sam Weller once said to
Mr. Pickwick, when invited to eat a veal pie, "Weal pies is werry good,
providin' you knows the lady as makes 'em, and is sure that they _is
weal_ and not _cats_." The remark applies here: a narrative is "werry
good providin' you knows" the man as makes it, and are sure that it is
facts, and not fancy tales. You want to be satisfied that the writer was
a personal witness of the things he writes about, and is one who can be
trusted to tell you things as he actually saw them. I hope both these
conditions are fulfilled in this narrative.

But some one might say, "How about this narrative that you are about to
impose on a suffering public, who never did you any harm? What do you do
it for?"

Well, I did not do it of malice aforethought. It came about in this way.
Young as I was when I went into the war, and never having seen anything
of the world outside the ordinary life of a boy, in a quiet country
town, the scenes of that soldier life made a deep impression on my mind,
and I have carried a very clear recollection of them--everyone--in my
memory ever since. As I have looked back, and thought upon the events,
and especially the spirit, and character, and record, of