arty cheers for the flag, three for Lincoln, and
three for the cause. No officer who participated in this celebration can
ever forget it while reason holds its sway.

Lieutenant Col. Thorp who had made a ringing speech, full of patriotic
fire and enthusiastic confidence in the justice of our cause, and the
ability of the Northern soldiers to maintain our national unity, restore
the glorious old flag, with the stains of treason cleansed from its
shining folds by the blood of loyal hearts, with not a star missing from
its azure field, urged with the most impassioned eloquence, every officer
in that prison pen to consecrate himself anew on this sacred day, to the
cause of universal liberty, and the perpetuity of our national
institutions, and pledge himself anew beneath that beautiful little emblem
of freedom, to never sheathe his sword, until every traitor in all this
broad land had kneeled beneath its tattered and blood-stained folds, and
humbly craved the pardon of an outraged people, for their dastardly
attempt to trail it in the filthy slough of Secession. I cannot pretend to
give his words, and cannot fitly portray the fierce impetuosity, with
which his scathing sentences were hurled like red hot shot into the ranks
of treason. It was one of the most masterly efforts of patriotic eloquence
I ever listened to, and when he had finished his address, which had been
heartily applauded throughout, his hearers were wrought up to such a pitch
of patriotic frenzy, that I really believe that had he at its close,
called upon that unarmed crowd to follow him in an assault against the
wooden stockade that surrounded us, that few would have been found to lag
behind. He was at that time senior officer in the camp, and as such had
been assigned by Col. Gibbs, the rebel commandant, to the command of the
prison inside.

But shortly after this speech, a notice was posted on the side of the
large building where this meeting had been held, removing him from the
position, for making an inflammatory speech, and appointing another
officer to the place. Col. Thorpe seemed to feel almost as much pride in
this recognition of his effort at a Fourth of July speech, as in the
applause he had received from his prison companions, or as he would had he
been complimented on the field by his superior for a dashing cavalry
charge, and the compliment was all the more appreciated because it had
been paid to him so unconsciously by Col. Gibbs.

The stoc