resident Lincoln.

My own personal experience on that eventful night of April 14th and 15th
had in it an element of interest. The road from the quarter of the city
where Ford's Theatre stood, to the Navy Yard bridge across the Anacostia
River near the Navy Yard, passed quite near one corner of Emery Hospital,
which was laid out in the form of a square. I was quartered at that time
in a tent that stood at the corner near the road, and heard a man ride
past at great speed going in the direction of the Navy Yard bridge. It was
an uncommon thing for any one to pass along that road at night and it
attracted my attention. A few moments elapsed and a squad of cavalry rode
past like the wind. That aroused me again and I called the attention of
the night watchman to it. "Oh, you've been dreaming," said he, "go to
sleep." But I could not go to sleep, I was sure something out of the
ordinary had happened. A little after midnight the news was brought to
the hospital that the President had been assassinated. I was then
confident that it was Booth I had heard ride past the hospital, and later
reports proved my conclusion to be true.

Early in May I was transferred to the veteran Reserve Corps and assigned
to a company in Philadelphia and then was detailed to the
adjutant-general's office of the state of Pennsylvania to do clerical
work, and stayed there until I was discharged in July. The work amounted
to very little; an occasional hour's work was all I had to do.

The captain of the company of the Veteran Reserve Corps to which I
belonged, Buckley by name, was a specimen. He was a typical Irish
politician with all the bluster and swagger of that class. He was
associated with the sutler and was, all in all, one of the most unsavory
specimens to be found anywhere.

In July, I received a notice from the adjutant-general of Massachusetts
that my regiment had been mustered out of the service of the United
States, and on the 22d, I was paid off, mustered out of service and
returned home. Thus ended my four years and six days' service during the
Civil War, and thus end these recollections which have assumed proportions
quite surprising, considering what was contemplated at the outset.

In studying the history of the Revolutionary War, I have often wished I
could read the diary of a private soldier of that time, that I might form
an impression of the life of the soldier in the ranks during that war.

If, some day, a student should come