rs, all fully armed, thoroughly
drilled, and impatiently waiting a signal to explode a mine deeper than
that in front of Petersburg.

But the assembling of the Chicago Convention was postponed to the
twenty-ninth of August, and the fourth of July passed away without the
bonfire and the fireworks.

The Commandant, however, did not sleep. He still kept his wits
a-working; the bogus "Butternuts" still ate prisoners' rations; and the
red flame still brought out black thoughts on the white letter-paper.
Quietly the garrison was reinforced, quietly increased vigilance was
enjoined upon the sentinels; and the tranquil, assured look of the
Commandant told no one that he was playing with hot coals on a barrel of
gunpowder.

So July rolled away into August, and the Commandant sent a letter giving
his view of the state of things to his commanding general. This letter
has fallen into my hands, and, as might sometimes makes right, I shall
copy a portion of it. It is dated August 12, and, in the formal phrase
customary among military men, begins:--

"I have the honor respectfully to report, in relation to the supposed
organization at Toronto, Canada, which was to come here in squads, then
combine, and attempt to rescue the prisoners of war at Camp Douglas,
that there is an armed organization in this city of five thousand men,
and that the rescue of our prisoners would be the signal for a general
insurrection in Indiana and Illinois....

"There is little, if any, doubt that an organization hostile to the
Government and secret in its workings and character exists in the States
of Indiana and Illinois, and that this organization is strong in
numbers. It would be easy, perhaps, at any crisis in public affairs, to
push this organization into acts of open disloyalty, if its leaders
should so will....

"Except in cases of considerable emergency, I shall make all
communications to your head-quarters on this subject by mail."

These extracts show, that, seventeen days before the assembling of the
Chicago Convention, the Commandant had become convinced that mail-bags
were safer vehicles of communication than telegraph-wires; that five
thousand armed traitors were then domiciled in Chicago; that they
expected to be joined by a body of Rebels from Canada; that the object
of the combination was the rescue of the prisoners at Camp Douglas; and
that success in that enterprise would be the signal for a general
uprising throughout Indiana an