alled that which was poured upon Sumner's command during
the last grand, but hopeless, charge at sunset. At nightfall, when the
wearied soldiers could lie down for rest, Carleton began the work of
writing his letter. Among other things he said:

"With the deference to military strategics, my own common sense
deprecated attempting the movements which were made, as unnecessary
and unwise,--which must be accomplished with fearful slaughter, and
which I believed would be unsuccessful....

"It is a plain of Balaklava, where the Light Brigade, renowned in
song, made their fearful charge."

Then follows a simple but sufficient diagram of the Confederate
impregnable position, where, with only common printer's type, and the
"daggers" of punctuation standing for Blakesley and Armstrong guns,
printer's ink told the story. Though nearly exhausted by his manifold
labors of brain and muscle, Carleton, on the 15th, visited the
battle-field, which did not exceed one hundred acres, and the city in
which the troops were quietly quartered, but in which a Confederate
shell was falling every ten minutes. After surveying the near and
distant scenes from the cupola of an already well-riddled house,
Carleton followed the army when it withdrew to Falmouth, seeing
through his glass the Confederates leaping upon the deserted
entrenchments and staring at the empty town.

Returning to Washington, he reviewed as usual the battle, and then
returned homeward, according to his wont, for three weeks of rest and
refreshment. His last letter, before leaving the front, was a noble
and inspiriting plea for patience and continuance. He wrote: "The army
is ready to fight, but the people are despondent. The army has not
lost its nerve, its self-possession, its balance; it is more powerful
to-day than it has ever been. It has no thought of giving up the
contest. The cause is holy. It is not for power or dominion, but for
the rich inheritance decreed by our fathers."

The same bugle call of inspiration sounded from his lips and pen, when
he rejoined the army on the Rappahannock, and Hooker was in command.
He wrote: "The army needs several things; first, to be supported by
the people at home. There is nothing which will so quickly take the
strength out of the soldier as a blue letter from home, and on the
other hand there is nothing which would give him so much life as a
cheerful, hopeful letter from his friends. Let every one look beyond
the immediate pres