e it. He told them in
simple, but glowing, language that the first blow for liberty had been
struck and struck home; that the hosts of the North had been scattered
like chaff before southern might and southern right; that the cause was
just and must prevail. Then he spoke words of consolation to the
stricken city. Many of her noblest were spared; the wounded had reaped
a glory far beyond the scars they bore; the dead were honored far
beyond the living, and future generations should twine the laurel for
their crown.

The great crowd listened with breathless interest to his lightest word.
Old men, resting on their staves, erected themselves; reckless boys
were quiet and still; and the pale faces of the women, furrowed with
tears, looked up at him till the color came back to their cheeks and
their eyes dried. Of a truth, he was still their idol. As yet they hung
upon his lightest word, and believed that what he did was best.

Then the crowd dispersed, many mournfully wending their way to the
Capitol where the dead officers lay in state, wrapped in the flag of
the new victory. An hour after, the rain descending in torrents, the
first ambulance train arrived.

First came forth the slightly wounded, with bandaged heads, arms in
slings, or with painful limp.

Then came ugly, narrow boxes of rough plank. These were tenderly
handled, and the soldiers who bore them upon their shoulders carried
sad faces, too; for happily as yet the death of friends in the South
was not made, by familiarity, a thing of course. And lastly--lifted so
gently, and suffering so patiently--came the ghastly burdens of the
stretchers. Strong men, maimed and torn, their muscular hands straining
the handles of the litter with the bitter effort to repress complaint,
the horrid crimson ooze marking the rough cloths thrown over them;
delicate, fair-browed boys, who had gone forth a few days back so full
of life and hope, now gory and livid, with clenched teeth and matted
hair, and eyeballs straining for the loved faces that must be there to
wait them.

It was a strange crowd that stood there in the driving storm, lit up by
the fitful flashes of the moving lanterns.

The whole city was there--the rich merchant--the rough laborer--the
heavy features of the sturdy serving-woman--the dusky, but loving face
of the negro--the delicate profile of the petted belle--all strained
forward in the same intent gaze, as car after car was emptied of its
ghastly freigh