ous fleet of steamers, almost floating palaces, going to and fro like the ships of Tyre, till merchants had become princes, and planters oligarchs. Southern plantations were among the gardens of the earth for beauty, fragrance, verdure, landscape art, and almost principalities in extent, population, and luxurious appendages of living. Choice libraries, gems of art, curious devices of gold and silver, formed part of the oriental splendor of these Southern palaces; abodes of luxurious ease and unsuspecting, indolent repose. Beneath, around, at the very core of this seeming prosperity and dazzling display, lay the element of its destruction; the cause of its decay. Like the fabled vampire, it fanned its sleeping victims while it fed upon their vitals; or like the mistletoe of its forests, it draped the stately trunk with the bright green robe of prosperity, while it drew from it the sap of its existence.

The mighty steamers had not only carried silver, gold and merchandise, but they had transported human beings, men, women and children, born in God's image, for sale and barter, converting them into chattels. They had carried husbands away from wives, and wives from husbands; parents from children, and children from parents. They had borne manacled runaway slaves back to the plantation and the lash; sometimes had become the platform of execution for hopeless beings, who, in the desperation of despair, bursting their bonds, found a watery grave in the turbid Mississippi, to hide them from further bondage, or hopeless separation from wife and children. These princely plantations had been sustained and furnished by the blood and sweat of unrequited, scourged labor. Their stately halls had often

SLAVERY THE CAUSE OF TREASON.

been polluted with deeds of cruelty.

143

The only hope for

the conservation of this iniquitous system, being the legalized perpetuation of the ignorance of its victims, they toiled on, generation after generation, without hope of redemption, or opportunity for improvement, and were then reproached for vice and ignorance.

The God of justice slumbered not, but was silent, permitting this great crime, till by the fulfilment of His incomprehensible plans, those who had clung to this system of abominations, defending it from revelation, and clothing it with the sanctity of heaven, struck the blow themselves that unloosed the manacles; drew the sword that cut the gordian knot, that had perplexed and bewildered statesmen and philanthropists, and gave the key to the solution of the sphinx riddle that had baffled the world. Treason against the "old flag," was the hammer, the sword, the key; and in blood and fiery desolation it did its work. I saw the fruits of this mighty convulsion. Had I doubted the enormity of slavery, or the tenacity of its hold on an otherwise noble people, I should have been convinced when I saw the effects of the scathing revolution, necessary to end its existence and blot out its effects. The Red Sea had been rolled up on either side, crushing, sweeping, obliterating all traces of life and prosperity, and the enfranchised people were preparing to walk over dry-shod. Until this redemption shall be complete, and justice to this long down-trodden race thorough, the South will not be regenerated nor her prosperity restored; for the Lord Jehovah, who changeth not, hath said: "I have made of one blood all the nations. of the earth;" and again: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself."

On our arrival at Memphis, we immediately commenced our visitations to the hospitals, and found them in good order, having been emptied as far as possible by sending the patients North, to make room for the anticipated inmates, from the coming battles. Alas! they were soon filled. The day subsequent to our visit, several hundred wounded from the unavailing assault on Vicksburg, were placed in the vacant beds. The Sanitary depôt, under the care of Dr. Warriner, was in successful operation at Memphis. An accu rate daily account was kept with every hospital, and the precise amount and number of every article, given to each hospital or regiment, stated. These accounts, on printed forms, were remitted each month to the North-Western Sanitary Commission at Chicago; consequently I felt at home in the work at Memphis.

DEPARTURE FROM MEMPHIS.

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CHAPTER IX.

Departure from Memphis.-Arrival at Helena.-Wretchedness of the place.-A sketch of first army Sabbath.-Embarkation of 15,000 troops. Sketch of a cavalry regiment.-Embarkation of a battery. -Interview with Gen. Gorman on fleet. Decision to accompany White River Expedition.-Anxious father on the Ruth.-Contrast between recruits and veterans.-Mouth of White River.-Rumor of battle at Arkansas Post.-Organization of battle fleet.-Entrance to the White River.-Description of its banks.-Council of war.Changing weather.-Organization of hospital on Ruth.-St. Charles. -Gen. Fisk's talk with a rebel.-Cavalry regiment sent out as scouts. -Suffering of the men on marches.-Arrival at Duvall's Bluff.Hardships of soldiers on transports.-The morality of the army.Their endurance.

ON a bright afternoon, with cheers and shouts from the men, beating of drums, waving of flags and handkerchiefs, and hearty farewells of military and sanitary friends, we puffed into the stream, and struck out boldly for Helena. The "boys" insisted the word was spelled wrong. It ought to have had but one syllable, and that the first. As we steamed up to its muddy bank, and saw the ricketty dwellings and narrow, filthy streets fringing the levee, filled with our soldiers, looking as if they were labelled jaundice, ague or scurvy, we did not wonder the soldiers thought the name a mistake. 'Twas difficult to discern the color of their uniforms; they were so bespattered with mud, and moulded with

damp, that but little contrast existed between them, and the bilious faces of the men who wore them.

Fortunately, the coming darkness hid the painful sight, and the morrow's sun ushered in one of the most glorious Sabbaths I ever beheld.

A painful feature of the army, was the almost entire absence of Sabbath observance. The necessary continuance of army routine, frequent and rapid changes, involving numerous orders, and constant vigilance, necessary during the forward march of an army in an enemy's country, rendered it impossible to observe the Sabbath, with any degree of regularity. If any man could have done it, Gen. Fisk could, and would. He failed, but seized every opportunity, as will be seen for the moral and religious improvement of his command.

A sketch of my first Sabbath in the army, passed at Helena, will explain this matter more fully. Twenty steamers lay there, and were at once seized by Gen. Gorman as transports of war, for the use of the expedition up the White River. Orders were issued to fill them with troops. Such orders involve an amount of labor and skill that civilians cannot easily comprehend or appreciate. Camps must be broken up-rations provided, and cooked, if possible— horses, mules, guns, and carriages got on board-commissary and surgeons' stores gathered and deposited-boats must be assigned and put in order-detailed men called in-regiments and batteries consolidated or divided, as the case may be.

This Sabbath-day in Helena was brilliant with sunshine, and balmy as Italy in softness. We sat on the upper deck, with no protection but light scarfs, on the 11th of January, watching the novel and amazing sight of an army of twelve