e in death,--nor help at His hand into His eternal and holy
heavens. All the aid man needs to ask, all the aid which God has to
the asking heretofore lent, I distinctly surrender, if He the
truth-seeing sees me now truth-wresting." Now the risk of trifling
with such a thunderbolt is not small. The many noble, excellent, and
Christian men, who may have been heedlessly involved in this
Rebellion, in spite of past oaths to the nation, it is not our task
to judge. But the act itself, of disregarding such sworn loyalty to
their whole country,--the act in its general principles apart from
all personal partakers in it,--we may and we must ponder. Now in
this respect, if these views of our national oaths be just, our
present Rebellion has not been merely treasonable, but its
cradle-wrappings, its very swaddling-bands, have been manifold
layers of perjury,--its infancy has been "clad with cursing as with
a garment."[*] Can a jealous God consolidate and perpetuate a power
commenced in perjury?

[* Rev. W.R. Williams, D.D.]

After taking the oath, I told the officer that there were from seven
to ten thousand Rebel cavalry at Chattanooga, a detachment of whom
would surprise him some morning if he was not wide awake.

Having performed this first loyal act under my oath, I went out in
search of Selim. He was not to be found in Murfreesboro, and a
further search would have consumed time and thrown me back toward
the Rebel lines. Overjoyed at my escape from the last danger, and
not reluctant to make this contribution to the cause of my country,
I turned my now buoyant steps homeward, under the protection of the
Stars and Stripes. I rode into Nashville the 28th of June, with
feelings widely different from those which crowded my breast when
four months before I had ridden out of it in the rear of General
Johnson's retreating army. I was then, though pleased with the
excitement and dash of cavalry service, in a cause where my heart
was not, in a retreat from my own friends, and becoming daily more
identified in the minds of others with the Rebellion; now I was free
from its trammels, with my face toward my long-lost home, with a
wish in my heart, which has grown more intense daily, to aid my
country in her perilous struggle.

A few hours at Nashville enabled me to see my father's friend, who
had treated me so kindly when sick, and again thank him for his good
deeds, and then I left for home.

I wil