hood. I had known him in civil
life at home, and hence he was disposed to be more communicative
with me than with the other boys of the company. A day or two after
the battle he and I were sitting in the shade of a tree, in camp,
talking over the incidents of the fight. "Charley," I said to him,
"How did you feel along about four o'clock Sunday afternoon when
they broke our lines, we were falling back in disorder, and it
looked like the whole business was gone up generally?" He knocked
the ashes from his pipe and, turning his face quickly towards me,
said: "I yoost tells you how I feels. I no care anydings about
Charley; he haf no wife nor children, fadder nor mudder, brudder
nor sister; if Charley get killed, it makes no difference; dere vas
nobody to cry for him, so I dinks nudding about myselfs; but I
tells you, I yoost den feels bad for de Cause!"

Noble, simple-hearted old Charley! It was the imminent danger only
to the Cause that made his heart sink in that seemingly fateful
hour. When we heard in the malignant and triumphant roar of the
Rebel cannon in our rear what might be the death-knell of the last
great experiment of civilized men to establish among the nations of
the world a united republic, freed from the curse of pampered kings
and selfish, grasping aristocrats--it was in that moment, in his
simple language, that the peril to the Cause was the supreme and
only consideration.

It must have been when we were less than half a mile from the
landing on our disorderly retreat before mentioned, that we saw
standing in line of battle, at ordered arms, extending from both
sides of the road until lost to sight in the woods, a long,
well-ordered line of men in blue. What did that mean? and where had
they come from? I was walking by the side of Enoch Wallace, the
orderly sergeant of my company. He was a man of nerve and courage,
and by word and deed had done more that day to hold us green and
untried boys in ranks and firmly to our duty than any other man in
the company. But even he, in the face of this seemingly appalling
state of things, had evidently lost heart. I said to him: "Enoch,
what are those men there for?" He answered in a low tone: "I guess
they are put there to hold the Rebels in check till the army can
get across the river." And doubtless that was the thought