est value being taken. One of these specimens of Southern chivalry preferred the modest request for my entire wardrobe. His language was a trifle short of classic elegance as he told me to "come out of that ar hat and overcoat, and them ar boots too, you d-d blue jacket!"

In looking over my career as a soldier, I can see how vitally this day of capture affected my whole after life. Like the springs on high mountain ranges where a slight change of conformation decides whether their clear waters shall flow to the east or the west, so there are hours in the history of most men whose events, however slight, decide the direction of all their after lives. Out of the experience of which this day was the opening page, grew my first book, "Beyond the Lines," and "Soldiers of the Saddle," a record of three years of cavalry life in the Union service-followed in natural sequence.

Just before the cavalry action of New Baltimore began, Kilpatrick had stopped at the house of a citizen near Gainesville to whom he declared that "Stuart had been boasting of driving him from Culpepper, but now he was going to drive Stuart." General Kilpatrick, on that day, is described as having been as “furious as a wild boar." He was about to sit down to a well-cooked dinner when the sound of artillery from the direction of Buckland Mills, announced the tumult of coming battle. Kilpatrick sprang to his feet, threw himself into the saddle and almost immediately was galloping away like the wind, to lead his command. But the disastrous denouement of the battle dispersed his division and sent his men flying for dear life. The

General's race-horse Lively,' a thorough-bred mare, flew the track on this occasion, and fell into the hands of Moseby.

After the action of New Baltimore, Lee and his army resumed their march southward, and General Meade commenced a forward movement from the line of Cedar Run to the line of the Rappahannock. In November, the Army of the Potomac was located along the Upper Rappahannock, and the enemy occupied the south side of the Rapidan. Here both armies fortified their respective positions and active operations were suspended for the remainder of the year.

CHAPTER XXXV.

FORT FISHER.

Outer Defences of Wilmington.-Blockade-running.-Admiral Porter's Expedition.-Rough Weather.-The Attack.-The Torpedo Vessel. The First Day's Bombardment. Reconnoissance. Strength of the Fort.-Return to Hampton Roads.-Renewed Preparations.-Attack of the Second Expedition.-Bivouac Fires.Terrible Bombardment.-Desperate Assault of Union Troops.They Effect a Lodgment.-The Attack goes on.-The Last Trenches Cleared.-Fort Fisher Ours.-Valor of Colored Troops.-Spoils of Victory.

T the southernmost extremity of a narrow neck of land branching out from the North Carolina coast, and separating Cape Fear river from the tumultuous waters of the wide Atlantic, stands Fort Fisher, grimly guarding the approach to Wilmington twenty miles to the northward, up the river.

During the year of 1863, Wilmington was the great center of blockade-running, and owing to the vast difficulties of enforcing the blockade, the port had defied all effort to abridge its privileges, and in consequence an extensive trade was carried on between Wilmington and foreign ports.

Early in August, 1863, a joint naval and military expedition under Admiral Porter was organized with the avowed purpose of closing this port by capturing its outer defences. The squadron, however, did not

start on its hazardous enterprise until December twelfth, owing to the difficulties of obtaining a sufficiently large co-operating land force to insure success. Leaving Hampton Roads, where they had remained since August, the squadron, numbering seventy-five vessels all told, sailed for their destination, having on board a land force of six and a half thousand men under General Butler. The fleet arrived off Wilmington on December fifteenth, but owing to rough weather, the vessels were unable to get into position to land the troops or to make an attack until noon of the twenty-fourth, when a furious fire was opened upon Fort Fisher. The storm of shot dropped at the rate of thirty per minute and continued until night.

On the day previous to the attack, a torpedo vessel, disguised as a blockade-runner, was towed to a point within four hundred yards of Fort Fisher, and two hundred yards of the beach, where she was securely anchored while preparations were made to blow her up.

She had on board an amount of powder supposed to be sufficient to explode the magazine of the fort. The enemy were completely deceived as to the character of the vessel, believing her to be a blockaderunner, and in consequence giving the signals customary with that class of craft. The party under Commander Rhind in charge of the torpedo vessel, set her on fire under the cabin and then getting into their boats, made good their escape to the Wilderness,—one of the boats belonging to the fleet. As soon as the torpedo party were on board, the Wilderness put out towards sea, to avoid the explosion.

"At forty-five minutes past one o'clock on the morning of the twenty-fourth, the explosion took place, but the shock was nothing like so severe as was expected. It shook the vessel somewhat and broke one or two glasses, but nothing more.'

As the morning of the twenty-fourth dawned, the fleet got under way and was soon arrayed in battle line ready to make a grand attack on the almost impregnable walls of Fort Fisher.

At half-past eleven o'clock, the ship Ironsides begun the assault, the rest of the fleet following in succession and opening fire as soon as their guns were brought within range of the fort. The enemy

were driven to their casemates by the iron hail, and for five long hours the terrible storm continued without intermission. But it was without result. The transports did not arrive off Wilmington until the twenty-fifth, having been delayed on the way by a storm which obliged them to put into Beaufort. A fresh attack was then ordered, under cover of which a force of three thousand men, General Weitzel commanding, was landed at a point five miles east of the fleet. General Weitzel made a reconnoissance and reported that an assault at that time would be butchery. As General Butler was of the same opinion, the troops were ordered to re-embark and the transports returned to Hampton Roads. General Butler, in a letter to Admiral Porter, written on the twentyfifth, says that the strip of land up which the attacking party would be obliged to pass in order to assault the fort, was not wide enough for more than a thousand men in line of battle. Flag Pond Hill Battery