ide, and its houses low, it covers a vast
space. No place that I have seen in the Southern States shows so little
traces of the war, and it formed a delightful contrast to the war-worn,
poverty-stricken, dried-up towns I had lately visited. I went to the
Episcopal church, and might almost have fancied myself in England: the
ceremonies were exactly the same, and the church was full of
well-dressed people.

At 2 P.M. I dined at the house of Mr Carmichael, son-in-law to Bishop
Elliott, who told me there were 2000 volunteers in Augusta, regularly
drilled and prepared to resist raids. These men were exempted from the
conscription, either on account of their age, nationality, or other
cause--or had purchased substitutes. At 3 P.M. Mr Carmichael sent me in
his buggy to call on Colonel Rains, the superintendent of the Government
works here. My principal object in stopping at Augusta was to visit the
powder manufactory and arsenal; but, to my disappointment, I discovered
that the present wants of the State did not render it necessary to keep
these establishments open on Sundays.

I had a long and most interesting conversation with Colonel Rains, who
is a very clever, highly-educated, and agreeable officer. He was brought
up at West Point, and after a short service in the United States army,
he became Professor of Chemistry at the Military College. He was
afterwards much engaged in the manufacture of machinery in the Northern
States. At the commencement of this war, with his usual perspicacity,
President Davis selected Colonel Rains as the most competent person to
build and to work the Government factories at Augusta, giving him _carte
blanche_ to act as he thought best; and the result has proved the wisdom
of the President's choice. Colonel Rains told me that at the beginning
of the troubles, scarcely a grain of gunpowder was manufactured in the
whole of the Southern States. The Augusta powder-mills and arsenal were
then commenced, and _no less than 7000 lb. of powder are now made every
day_ in the powder manufactory. The cost to the Government of making the
powder is only four cents a pound. The saltpetre (nine-tenths of which
runs the blockade from England) cost formerly seventy-five cents, but
has latterly been more expensive. In the construction of the
powder-mills, Colonel Rains told me he had been much indebted to a
pamphlet by Major Bradley of Waltham Abbey.

At the cannon foundry, one Napoleon 12-pounder is turned out