tain Robert
Slivers, of the Sickles Brigade, makes his Appearance at Judge
Owen's--He draws Graphic Pictures of the War, for the Edification
of Colonel Bancker--A Controversy, with further inquiries as to
the Age of the Colonel--The Market brisk for Hirsute Excrescences
on the Cranium, and no Supply--Judge Owen laughs ponderously 446

CHAPTER XXX.

Gathering the Ravelled Threads of a Long Story--What befel
Several Persons heretofore named--Marriages in Demand, and only a
few furnished--A Raid into Canada--What befell Colonel Egbert
Crawford and the Two Hundredth Regiment--A Cavalry Charge at
Antietam, and a Farewell 460

SHOULDER-STRAPS.

CHAPTER I.

TWO FRIENDS--A RENCONTRE BEFORE NIBLO'S--THREE MEETINGS WITH A MAN OF
MARK--MOUNT VERNON AND THE INAUGURATION--FRIEND OR FOE TO THE UNION?

Just before the close of the performances at Niblo's Garden, where the
Jarrett combination was then playing, one evening in the latter part of
June, 1862, two young men came out from the doorway of the theatre and
took their course up Broadway toward the Houston Street corner. Any
observer who might have caught a clear view of the faces of the two as
they passed under one of the large lamps at the door, would have noted
each as being worth a second glance, but would at the same time have
observed that two persons more dissimilar in appearance and in
indication of character, could scarcely have been selected out of all
the varied thousands resident in the great city.

The one walking on the inside as they passed on, with the right hand of
his companion laid on his left arm in that confidential manner so common
with intimate friends who wish to walk together in the evening without
being jostled apart by hurried chance passengers, was somewhat tall in
figure, dark-haired, dark side-whiskered, and sober-faced, though
decidedly fine-looking; and in spite of the heat of the weather he
preserved the appearance of winter dress clothing by a full suit of dark
gray summer stuff that might well have been mistaken for broadcloth. Not
even in hat or boots did he make any apparent concession to the season,
for his glossy round hat would have been quite as much in place in
January as in June, and his well-fitting and glossy patent-leather boots
would have been thought oppressively warm by a hotter-blooded and more
plethoric man. Those who should have seen the baptismal r