eet
the hostile invader. Alarms often repeated, by night and by day,
suggested the imminence of the danger. Others, with a more deliberate
devotion to their country's cause, had volunteered for long periods of
service. To fail to rally for the protection of our own firesides,
with all their consecrated associations, would have been unworthy of
the very lowest requirements of patriotism. The most abiding sentiment
of those who were called to no severer military duty than the militia
campaign of 1862, or that of the following year, must always be a
heartfelt appreciation of, and gratitude for, the services of the
brave veterans of the War of the Rebellion, to whose heroic deeds we
are indebted for the preservation of our liberties, and the blessings
of a reunited country.

But, justice to the minute-men of 1862 requires it to be said that,
although in the light of subsequent events, the achievements of their
brief campaign seem to sink into such comparative insignificance--so
marked indeed that the very narration of them appears to savor more of
humor than of valor--there were among their number multitudes who were
animated by as warm a patriotism as that which burned in the breasts
of their gallant comrades then already at the front--who were as ready
as they to lay down their lives in defence of the dearest interests of
freemen, and who, had the occasion presented itself, would have done
equal honor to their country's service. It is not to be forgotten,
moreover, that at the crisis when they marched to the rescue of the
State, it could not be foreseen what was to be the issue of their
mission, or how great the sacrifice which they might be called upon to
make. It was cause for lasting gratification with them that their very
presence upon the borders at the juncture when they appeared, and in
the numbers in which they came, greatly contributed to encourage their
brethren who were then passing through the heat and fire of the
conflict, as well as to deter the progress of the invading foe. Raw
and undisciplined as they undoubtedly were, who can now say that their
prompt rendezvous at the centre of military operations did not
signally aid the successful efforts of the army to turn backward the
march of the enemy after the terrific shock which he received on the
memorable field of Antietam?

L.R.

READING, September, 1882.

ELEVEN DAYS IN THE MILITIA.