At this point, Lake Providence, there were large numbers of sick soldiers brought on board, discharged from the service for disability, and given to our care on their way home. One of them, a boy of seventeen, died ere we reached Memphis, and was buried in the grave-yard of the convalescent camp at Memphis. Anxious to see his mother once more, of whom he talked incessantly, it seemed hard for him to die on his homeward journey to her-and yet it was a relief to see the poor suffering fellow at rest in death.

Another one of our protégés was a boy of fourteen, a native of Petersburg, Va. His case was a peculiarly interesting one. He was the son of a gentleman of property in Petersburg, who was a staunch Unionist, and voted against secession, talked against it, and opposed it with all his might. . For this he was arrested, and sent to Richmond to jail, where he died. The boy, whose mother had previously died, and who was brotherless and sisterless, stood by his father in this emergency, and spunkily declared him right, and Virginia wrong. For this he endured much persecution, until one of his father's friends advised him to seek an uncle in Missouri, and helped him to a horse and money, and started him on the journey. The boy lost his uncle's address before he reached Kentucky, where he fell in with the 20th Illinois, before the battle of Donelson, and had shared the fortunes of the .regiment ever since. He was now just recovering from a fearful sickness, and weak, feeble, and despondent, I found him crouched on the lower deck of the "Maria Denning," bound North-he knew not whither. It needed but little persuasion to induce the poor lad to come home with me.

Our protégés were further increased at Cairo by an orphan

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girl of fifteen, a refugee from Arkansas, whose father was killed at Island No. 10, fighting for the Union, and whom I also brought home. The generous arms of the "Home of the Friendless" received them, where they now are, receiving such maternal care and medical treatment as their cases demand. By-and-by, when they shall have forgotten their hardships and multiplied sorrows, and shall have become recuperated in health and strength, homes await them in the free North, scores of which have already been tendered them.

The boat which brought us home was freighted with misery. On the lower deck were five hundred condemned Government horses and mules, sent to St. Louis to be sold-diseased, mutilated, and worn out, some of whom died daily. Above were contrabands, only a week out of slavery, clothed in rags and vermin, with scanty food, on their way North to seek new homes, their joy mingled with regret for some who were left behind; and in the cabin were sick and dying soldiers, some with sinking hearts, feeling that though each hour brought them nearer to their loved ones, they were yet drifting further and further from them out into eternity. Slowly we floated northward, gladly leaving the "abomination of desolation" behind us, and when we emerged from the cars into the streets of Chicago, it was, to us, as though we had entered a new world.

M. A. L

CHAPTER XVII.

Gen. Grant's plans to reach the rear of Vicksburg.-Transports running the batteries.-Overland march of the army to New Carthage.— Cross the river at Hard Times.-Six successive battles to reach the rear of Vicksburg.-Assaults on Rebel fortifications.-Steamer "City of Alton" sent for wounded Illinois soldiers.-Prisoners on board from St. Louis.-Incidents of travel.-Prisoners' guard.-Camp of Union army in ravines and rifle-pits.-Dining with regiments.Southern bayous.-Visit to rifle-pits.-Bravery and endurance of troops. Incidents of the visits.-Visit to 113th Regiment Illinois Volunteer Infantry.-Visit to its hospital.-Death of its color-bearer.

THE fruitless attempts made by Gen. Grant to reach the rear of Vicksburg, by a canal cut across the peninsula on which the city lay, by the Lake Providence, Moon Lake, and Steel's Bayou routes, would have so disheartened a less persistent man, that the task would have been abandoned as hopeless. On the contrary, as is well known, he determined, as a last resort, to run the batteries at Vicksburg, with transports under cover of gunboats, and by a land march of his forces into the interior, meet them at New Carthage, cross the river, and thus reach the long-coveted position in the rear of Vicksburg.

In the latter part of April, A.D. 1863, the bold experiment was successfully made, and seven out of the eight transports passed through the terrific thunder of artillery, safely. The invincible army, with its brave leader, at once commenced its perilous march into an enemy's country, building roads

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and bridging streams as it went forward, till New Carthage, the "rendezvous," was reached. Behold! it had become an island, by the strategy of the enemy, and the weary troops were obliged to add fifty miles to their march, at the end of which they reached "Hard Times," where the transports awaited them, and carried them safely across the river to Grand Gulf.

The wary enemy, apprised of their approach, had at that point erected batteries, that proved too powerful for army and navy combined. Admiral Porter again braved the storm of iron hail, belching fire, and thunder of rebel cannon, and successfully reached Bruinsburg, where he met the troops who had pushed through the forest to meet him. The army landed on the 29th of April, Gen. Grant being the first man to set his foot on shore.

Then began a campaign of unequalled brilliancy, compris ing the battles of "Grand Gulf," "Port Gibson," "Raymond," "Jackson," "Champion's Hill," and "Big Black River." By these six successive engagements, this pertinacious man, with his three army corps of "backers," Sherman's, Logan's, and MacPherson's, pounded his way to the rear of Vicksburg, cutting the rebel army in two, dividing Pemberton, driven into the intrenchments of Vicksburg, from Johnson in the rear. Even then this unflinching man did. not stop to rest. While the country was shouting hosannas, the great Union constrictor was enfolding the rebel stronghold, and the army extending its lines, till on the 19th of May its east and west terminus touched the Mississippi, above and below Vicksburg, and formed a safe and permanent base of supplies.

The battles of this marvellous campaign were swift, crushing and destructive. At Champion's Hill, where two batteries and 1,000 prisoners were our trophies, 3,000 heroes bit the dust. At Big Black we paid for 1,500 prisoners and 18 cannon, with 373 loyal lives. But why dilate on this campaign, that for celerity, persistence, prowess and results, has rarely, if ever, been excelled? Hon. E. B. Washburne, the warm and steady friend of Gen. Grant, says he took with him "neither a horse, nor an orderly, nor a camp-chest, nor an overcoat, nor a blanket, nor even a clean shirt. His entire baggage for six days was a tooth-brush. He fared like the commonest soldier in his command, partaking of his rations and sleeping upon the ground, with no covering but the canopy of heaven." Such conduct proved the General's ability to comprehend the situation, and his resolution to master it.

But what did the "Boys in Blue"? They started, minus the tooth-brush. Unmurmuringly they marched and toiled. Forward! was their watchword, and Work! their motto. They felled trees, built roads, erected bridges, plunged into opposing streams in the face of showering bullets, fought six battles, won six successive victories, scarcely stopping to cover their uncoffined dead, or drop a tear to their memory. God and the home sufferers alone know what these victories cost. These passed, the triumphant army, in sight of the SouthWestern Sebastopol, fixed its eager gaze on the prize. Its approaches were enfiladed with batteries, and serried with the picked sharpshooters of the rebel army. The fortifications commanded the entire plain below, embarrassed with chevauxde-frise, fallen timber, under-brush and rifle-pits, forming almost insuperable barriers to the advance of the Union