use to me and my country.
In this I also failed, from the exceeding, and, I must say, wise
vigilance of the authorities. My pass to enter the city allowed
nothing further--I must procure one to remain in the city, and this
was called for at almost every street corner; and then another to
leave the city, and only in one direction.

Although I appeared in the dress of an assistant-surgeon, with the
M.S. upon my cap, I could gain no access to the army outside of the
city, nor make any headway in my tour of observation; and as they
charged me five dollars per day at the Ballard House, I must soon
leave, or be swamped. I had not been so completely foiled in my
plans hitherto.

I left Richmond for Selma the 20th of May, reflecting bitterly upon
the character of a rebellion which, commenced in fraud, was
perpetuating itself by forcing its enemies to fight their own
friends, and then refused to pay them the stipulated price of their
enforced service. The longer I reflected, the more fully was I
convinced that I never would receive my pay. The conscription act,
which took effect the 16th of May, was being enforced with a
sweeping and searching universality. If I returned to Corinth to
seek the quartermaster there, the payment would be deferred, from
one excuse or another, until I should be forced into the service
again. The thought that the Rebel authorities were breaking their
pledges to pay me, that they might get their hated coils around me
once more, from which I had but partially extricated myself, almost
maddened me. I knew, moreover, that I could not long remain in
Selma, in my present situation. The men were all recovering, except
one poor fellow, who soon passed beyond the reach of earthly
mutilations, and no new shipments of wounded were coming on. And the
force of public opinion in Selma was such, that no man able to fight
could remain there. The unmarried ladies were so patriotic, that
every able-bodied young man was constrained to enlist. Some months
previous to this, a gentleman was known to be engaged for an early
marriage, and hence declined to volunteer. When his betrothed, a
charming girl and a devoted lover, heard of his refusal, she sent
him, by the hand of a slave, a package inclosing a note. The package
contained a lady's skirt and crinoline, and the note these terse
words: "Wear these, or volunteer." He volunteered.

When will the North wake up to a true and manly patriotism in the
defence of their n