m which the sound came, when they
discovered at a short distance from them, a little church half hidden
among the trees, and the parishioners gathering for service. When the
first surprise was over, the word passed from one to another, "It is
Sunday!" "It is Sunday!" and they set up a shout that demonstrated that
they had not forgotten to love the institutions of civilization, even
after so long an absence from a civilized country. Few who were present
at this time, will ever forget the thrill of pleasurable surprise which
we all experienced at hearing once more the sounds which so forcibly
reminded us of home.

Some of the men attended the service. It was a Catholic church, a small
edifice which had once been white, but, by the action of the weather for
many years, it had now become brown. The seats and altar had never been
painted, and the plaster of the inner wall had, in places, fallen from
the lath. The parishioners seemed quite devout people, and the pastor a
sincere man. In his prayers he remembered the President and the
government, and he supplicated for peace. The reverend father said that,
owing to the confusion in town, there would be no sermon, but he wished
the good people to pray for sister A., who was at the point of death,
and for the repose of the soul of brother B., who was already dead. Some
of our officers engaged in a pleasant conversation with the pastor after
service. He was an agreeable, shrewd man, and professed to be a good
Unionist.

It was at Hyattstown that we first learned that General Hooker had been
superseded, in the command of the army, by General George B. Meade. The
announcement of this unexpected change at such a time, was received with
astonishment, and by many with indignation. To deprive the leader of a
great army of his command just upon the eve of a great battle, when, by
the most brilliant marches and masterly strategy, he had thrown this
army face to face with his enemy, thwarting his designs of moving upon
the capital, without some offense of a grave character, was an act
unheard of before in the history of warfare. It seemed, from later
information regarding this extraordinary measure, that a difference had
arisen between General Hooker and his superior at Washington in regard
to the disposition of troops at Harper's Ferry, and that, each refusing
to surrender his opinion, General Hooker was relieved. His successor
demanded the same disposition on the very next day, and it