An arm, taken off at the shoulder joint, rolled under the table more bloody than any of the rest. The table of torture. A young man lay there unconscious, from

whom that arm had been taken.

Under the influence of chloroform, he appeared not to suffer; but from time to time a sad smile passed over his countenance.

I did not wait his revival. I had had enough of it. The surgeon told me that it was doubtful if the patient survived the operation. He died the following night. When I went out of the house, Sam came in, having finished his work of gravedigger. He bowed very low several times. "Sam," said I, "if you are a good man, go immediately to the well and get some water for the wounded, who are very thirsty."

That was all I could do for them.

CHAPTER XI.

DAYS OF SUFFERING.

Forward march — Engagement at West Point — Subject for discontentDinner at headquarters — Fight of a new kind-The bull and the Newfoundland dog - The death of Bianco - Virginia plantations Marsh fever - The Turner house - Delirium - Manna in the desert - Anxieties - Battle of Fair Oaks First days of convalescenceDeparture for the North.

On Friday, May 9, the followed by the Third.

Fourth Corps at last moved, The Second, having remained at Yorktown, embarked there for West Point, at the place where the Pamunkey and the Mattapony unite to form the York River. One would naturally suppose that the last three days had been actively employed in arranging an advantageous concentration of the army, in getting together and completing the material for transportation, in assuring the regular service of the supply department, in fine, in taking every possible measure to repair the lost time by a rapid advance. The days were long, the sun hot, the roads dried while you were looking at them. But nothing could hasten the methodical slowness of the general-in-chief, and our daily marches were those of the tortoise. We did not reach New Kent Court House until Tuesday the 13th, the fifth day after starting, and we did not leave there till the 16th, two days later. The distance is twentyeight miles, two ordinary marches.

The enemy was not the cause of these delays. He thought only of continuing his retreat; we did not come across him, keeping ourselves at a respectful distance from his rearguard.

General Franklin alone, having arrived at West Point on the 7th by transport, and thus threatening with his division the flank of the Confederates, who were marching by at a distance of two or three miles, had an engagement with them, the importance of which was much exaggerated by the imagination of General McClellan. The most advanced regiments were thrown back and kept near the river, and Johnston continued his march without being further troubled.

When it was known in the army of what little importance was the pretended battle of West Point, it began to be perceived what partialities the general-inchief would show towards his particular friends. He had already cut out new commands for them by reducing the army corps to two divisions each. Great discontent was manifested. Not that the army took to heart the transfer of such or such a division from one command to another. That was an affair for the generals. But Hooker's division was deeply wounded by the injustice of which it had been a victim in the telegraphic bulletins upon the Williamsburg fight. The same sentiment prevailed in Kearney's division and in Peck's brigade. Personally, Hooker was incensed; Kearney protested vigorously; Peck complained against the injustice. As to the subaltern officers and soldiers, their discontent found vent in murmurs and epigrams.

Another grievance, more generally felt because it directly touched the soldier, was the excess of precau tion and the severity of orders to preserve from injury any object, even the smallest, belonging to the rebels. Not a farmhouse, not a cottage, not a negro, but was furnished with a guard on our approach, by the troops of General Andrew Porter, especially ordered, not to protect the persons and the furniture, which ran no

danger, but to watch over the farmyards, the stables, the forage, the wells, and even the fences.

I have seen our men, covered with dust and overcome by the heat, try in vain to get water from wells overflowing, from which stringent orders drove them away, because the supply of water for a rebel family might be diminished. I have also seen them, covered with mud and shivering with the rain, prevented by orders of the general-in-chief from warming themselves with the fence rails of dry wood which were ready at their hands, because the cattle of a rebel farmer might get out and eat the grass in his fields, while he was rebuilding his fences.

In the first case, the soldier had to go a long distance to fill his canteen with warm and muddy water from a pool or creek. In the second, he had to cut down. trees and use the green wood, hard to burn, not fit to dry himself by, and hardly answering to boil his coffee.

And it must not be imagined that the people, treated with such great consideration, were in the least grateful for it. They were animated with such irreconcilable hatred against us that they did not give themselves the trouble to dissemble. The women would sometimes even take advantage of their immunity to boast of their enmity. They were so many spies, whom we were guarding. Everything they heard, everything they could get out of any one was reported to the enemy as soon as possible. The horses, cattle, hogs, which we were so scrupulously compelled to respect, were sent on the first occasion to the Confederates, so that the Yankees might not profit by them.

When the army was before Richmond, letters of these enemies, whom we treated as friends, were intercepted. They were full of exact information as to the location of our pickets and the disposition of our

forces. They designated also the farms where, under our safeguard, provisions were reserved for the Confederates, as soon as they could send for them. It is true that the Richmond papers, which were filled every day with invectives against us, showed themselves more courteous towards our general, whom they called "the only gentleman in his army." It can be seen that they had very good reason to feel so.

So the soldier lived poorly, having no way to add to the insufficient rations, which were furnished quite irregularly. On two occasions the coffee failed us, which, of all privations, is the one the soldier feels the most. The means of transportation are still incomplete, it was said. And the quartermasters incompetent, might have been added without injustice.

On the general's staff they possibly were ignorant of these things, for evidently they did not suffer from the want of anything. Near New Kent Court House, my bivouac being near the army headquarters, I profited by it to make a call on two of my friends, who kept me to dinner. It was an excellent dinner; certainly they were not in want of the means of transportation. The fare was of the best, and we had a certain mixture of Bordeaux and iced champagne, which still lingers in my grateful memory.

I finished my evening in the tent of the Orleans princes, who, influenced by their surroundings, appeared to me to see things somewhat differently from what they really were. At headquarters they had but one bell, and consequently only one sound was heardpraises of McClellan.

It was near New Kent Court House that the brigade had a fight of a new kind, from which it did not come out without disorder. The people of a neighboring farm, who had taken care to house their cattle at our