THE BATTLE OF THE HANDKERCHIEFS.

        The whisper grew in volume until it reached the ears of the Confederate women of the city. At once, gentle and simple, old and young, matron and maid hurried to the levee to give the boys in gray a warm "God bless you and good-bye." One o'clock was the hour fixed for the departure of the prisoners, but long before the stroke of the hammer on its bell, the levee for many blocks was densely crowded with people - a number estimated by some at 20,000. No New Orleans woman who had a brother, husband or son on that prison boat could have been kept away. These loving and patriotic women - many of them wearing knots of red-white-and-red ribbon or rosettes of palmetto, or carrying magnificent boquets of roses, camelias and violets - like the flow of an ocean tide, steadily poured through Canal Street on their way to the river front. They debouched, a living torrent, upon the levee in front of the "Empire Parish" - a boat around which guerilla guns had recently been quite busy. What a waving of handkerchiefs was there and glad cries, and wafting of kisses as the sight of a loved face was caught in the prisoner crowd on deck! In the throng on the levee, redeeming it from the epithet "mob" could be noted many ladies prominent in culture and social position. Among these were the poet Xariffa, dear to all Louisiana hearts; Miss Kate Walker, the courageous young heroine

of Confederate flag episode, and Mrs. D. R. Graham, then a young wife and mother.

        At first, the crowd was orderly though emotional, as was to be expected. Soon, between the soldiers on the boat and some of the Federals on shore began a banter of wits as to what each might expect the next time they met. Some ladies also, who were adept in the use of the deaf and dumb language, were using this form of wireless telegraphy in talking to their prisoner friends. Through the dumb spelling tossed off upon their fingers under the eye of the unwitting sentinel, they learned that the baskets and boxes of delicacies sent to the Confederate prisoners in the Foundry prison had fed the thievish Federal guards instead of the dear ones for whom intended. This unwelcome news made more pronounced the attitude of defiance gradually assumed by the crowd. A wave of restlessness was sweeping over it. Some one cheered for Jeff Davis. A dozen resonant voices joined in the cheer, and quickly followed with a "Hurrah for the Confederacy," or as a Northern writer puts it, "shouted other diabolical monstrosities." The feeling growing more tense every minute was too strained for safety, and sure to snap in twain. Listen to the narrative of a participator in much that occurred on this eventful occasion:

        "I do not know who conceived the idea of going" (in order to be nearer the prisoners), "on the 'Laurel Hill,' the large river steamer lying beside the 'Empire Parish.' My companions and myself saw the move and followed the crowd on board. As the day advanced, the numbers grew so great that their demonstrations of love and respect nettled the Federals. It was an 'ovation to treason' as they were pleased to term it, and they peremptorily ordered us to 'leave the boat, go off the levee, disperse.' The women could see no treason in what they were doing - merely looking at their friends and waving a farewell to them - so they made no move to obey. And this was what started the trouble. An officer, presumably under orders from Captain Thomas, then in charge, gave the order to withdraw the plank and cut the 'Laurel Hill' loose from its moorings. Jammed from stem to stern with brave and dauntless women, little children and nurses with babes in their arms, the boat, with stars and stripes flying from its jackstaff,

drifted slowly far down the river to the Algiers side. We held our breath as we went off, for we were much startled to find ourselves running away from the 'Empire Parish,' but we waved a brave good-bye with our handkerchiefs to those on shore and they could not be kept from waving to us.

        "After passing beyond the city, we wondered if they were taking us to Fort Jackson to shut us up as prisoners of war. 'Many a good Confederate has groaned within its stony walls, why should we escape?' - we whispered to each other drearily - 'but at least it will be better than Ship Island.'

        "During our enforced excursion down the river, we learned afterward the Federals had certain streets guarded and permitted no one to pass. Relatives of the unwilling passengers on the 'Laurel Hill' were wild with fear for their loved ones, and tried to get to the levee, but the guards brutally turned them back."

        While the "Laurel Hill" was drifting out of sight, on the levee the crisis had been reached. The Federal guards grew tired of the noisy but harmless demonstrations and arbitrarily ordered the women to "fall back, fall back, and stop waving their handkerchiefs." They talked to the winds. Above the rasping order of the guards was heard a laughing retort: "Can't do it. General Jackson is in the rear, and stands like a Stonewall. Again was the order repeated and still above the din of voices and confusion of the multitude came the same jeering response that was caught up by the crowd like the echo from a bugler's blast. In the bright sunshine and friendly river breeze, more briskly than ever, fluttered and waved the exasperating and much anathemized handkerchiefs. Finally, Gen. Banks being informed of the state of affairs, sent down the 26th Massachusetts Regiment to clear the levee.

        With the hope of quelling the rising tumult, augmented by the arrival of the regiment, a cannon was brought out and trained upon the multitude, the soldiers not caring who were terrified or hurt. In the meantime, imagine the feelings of those Confederate prisoners on the boat, forced to witness the cruel act of cutting loose the "Laurel Hill" with its freight of five hundred women and children, and the cannon turned on the helpless crowd on the levee!

        But Gen. Banks met more than he reckoned upon. His cannon neither killed nor drove the women away, for, according to a Union writer, they presented "an impenetrable wall of silks, flounces and graceless impudence." The excitement was at fever heat. The women now wrought to frenzy with heartache and nerves, would not budge an inch, would not drop a single handkerchief even though faced by the murderous cannon. The soldiers first threatened them with the bayonet, and afterwards actually charged upon them, driving every woman and child two squares from the levee. But

                        "Defiant, both of blow and threat,
                        Their handkerchiefs still waved,"

and the onset of the soldiers was unflinchingly met with the parasols and handkerchiefs of the women. Only one casualty was reported - that of a lady wounded in the hand by the thrust of a bayonet. After the fray the ground was covered with handkerchiefs and broken parasols. At last, the belligerent women, tired out but not subdued, went home to sleep in their beds. So much for the battle on the levee. Our narrator on the "Laurel Hill" resumes:

        "I do not know how far down the river we were taken, but I do know we had nothing to eat. In the late afternoon the boat hands were marched into the cabin to eat their supper and, when they had finished and marched out again, we were told we could have the hard-tack and black coffee that was left. Some of us were too hungry to resist eating, but the majority took no notice of the invitation. Not one of the ladies showed fear or anxiety. If they felt either, they would not gratify the Federals that much. The bright and witty girls made things very amusing with their repartee, when a good humored officer came among us, but some there were that were surly, and the guards at the head of the gangway heard many a caustic aside expressive of contempt for Yankees and devotion to the Confederates. There was no white feather among them.

        "Slowly we drifted on, and no one would tell us where the Captain was taking us. After we were prisoners for a few hours, the ladies in passing through the cabin would ring

the bell to let our captors know we were hungry, but none took the gentle hint and soon the bell disappeared.

        "That night about nine o'clock we were brought back to the city, and when we were near the landing and saw that it was indeed home, dear old New Orleans, we felt so happy that we broke out into singing "The Marseillaise," "The Bonnie Blue Flag," and all the Confederate songs we could think of - our own dear poet, 'Xariffa' leading the singing. This deeply angered our Federal captors. To punish us, they said we should not land, and proceeded to back out into midstream, where they anchored for the night. The next morning, after sunrise, we were brought to the levee again - a starving crowd and cold from the night air. They set us free, I suppose because they did not know what else to do with so many obstinate rebel women."

        So ends the celebrated "Battle of the Handkerchiefs," courageously fought on the levee, February 20th, 1863, by the Confederate women of New Orleans.

Authorities Upon Which Above Article Was Based.

        Rightor's History of New Orleans.

        Written data furnished by Mrs. David R. Graham - a participator.

        Mrs. W. J. Behan's "Confederate Scrap Book."

        Mrs. Simeon Toby's "Confederate Scrap Book."

        "The Battle of the Fair," a leaflet written for the benefit of the Orphan's Asylum and signed "Miranda."

WM. B. MUMFORD.

        In the crowd that soon gathered watching the marines at their nefarious work were four young men - Canton, Burgess, Harper and Wm. B. Mumford. These felt it impossible, at a word, to change allegiance from the government of their choice to one they had repudiated; and, certainly, to the citizens of New Orleans at that time, this over-bold United States flag was as much foreign as that of the two dominations, French and Spanish, which once wielded authority in the State. By what right was it there? - New Orleans had not surrendered. Gazing at the hated symbol of oppression forced upon them as it challenged the Louisiana sunshine and daringly waved in the river breeze, and catching sight of blue uniforms, not quite the fashion in this State since January 26, 186I, there was a sudden blinding rush of blood to the head that upset the balance of reason. It was too much for the patriotic quartette. Madly dashing upstairs, the first to seize the unwelcome flag was young Harper, but Mumford was credited with dragging the hated ensign through the muck and mire of the city streets, soiling and tearing it into shreds. All four young men were involved in what we now construe as a most rash, but not criminal, act brought about by the excitement of the time. Three of them escaped, but Mumford was the scapegoat that bore the heavy penalty for all.

        Three days after, on April 29th, New Orleans capitulated to Flag Officer Farragut. Through the glittering pageant of

the military occupation of the city that followed, one resolve - that of the death of Mumford - was never lost sight of by the invaders. But it was his own unguarded, boastful speech relative to the flag that is said to have been the immediate cause of his arrest. He was at once confined in a room in the northeastern corner of the Customhouse, where subsequently his imprisonment was shared by two of our veterans, Capt. J. W. Gaines and Mr. Howard Zachary. To us of this day, it is a matter of surprise that after the commission of an act which could not fail to draw down upon him the hostility of the entering army, he should have remained in New Orleans. Probably, his family was the magnet that held him.

        On April 29th, Gen. Butler now being in possession of the city, announced: "I find the city under dominion of a mob. They have insulted our flag - torn it down with indignity. This outrage will be punished in such manner as in my judgment will caution both the perpetrators and abettors of the act, so that they shall fear the stripes, if they do not reverence the stars of our banner."

        If words convey purposes, Wm. B. Mumford was by them prejudged. By the finding of the Military Commission convened by Special Order No. 70, June 5, 1862, it was "ordered that he be executed on Saturday, June 7th, between the hours of 8 a. m. and 12 m., under the direction of the Provost Marshal of the New Orleans District."

        Influential persons interceded in his behalf, and it is said that Mrs. Butler entreated that he might be spared. But the Man of Infamous Orders was inflexible and his threat of punishment was carried out.

        There was a certain dramatic effect conceived by Gen. Butler, in having this military murder of his take place from a gibbet projecting from the peristyle of the Mint and erected below its flag-staff. There, under the now triumphant folds of the symbol of Northern authority he so detested, just forty days after his futile attempt to destroy it, the life of Wm. B Mumford was taken from him in the presence of a large body of the Federal soldiery. Both cavalry and infantry were placed around the inclosure to overawe the vast crowd of sympathetic witnesses to his martyrdom. Governor Moore in a speech at

Opelousas a few days after the occurrence says: "Brought in full view of the scaffold, they offered him life on the condition that he would abjure his country and swear allegiance to the foe. He spurned the offer. Scorning to stain his soul with such foul dishonor, he met his fate courageously." In a newspaper clipping of that time published in the "War of the Rebellion," with much other data on the subject, we read: "He died as a patriot should die - with great coolness and self-possession. An instant before he passed into the presence of his Maker he was cool in his demeanor and on his countenance could be found no trace of the ordeal he was passing through." Delving in these same impartial records for traces of one whose name seems "writ in water," we find that his execution was the basis of official correspondence ordered by President Davis, through Randolph, our Secretary of War, and conducted by Gen. Lee with the Federal Generals, Halleck and McLellan - all of which resulted so unsatisfactorily that Robert Ould, Agent of Exchange, was instructed on January I7, 1863, by way of retaliation, to refuse Federal officers release on parole. In the proclamation issued by President Davis, in which he declares Gen. Butler to be a felon and an outlaw, one-half of it is given to an analysis of the Mumford execution.

        If devotion to his flag, whether as civilian or soldier, be the test of a citizen's character, then surely Mumford, judged by this standard, stands high. Through history the one who has passed such a test has ever been ranked nobly by

                        "That mysterious after-time
                        Which circles round the grave."

        Almost a parallel case with that of Mumford was the rending from its staff by Col. Ellsworth, of the Confederate flag that waved over the Marshall House at Alexandria, Virginia, and the trailing it in the dust of the stairway. Jackson killed Ellsworth for its destruction and himself, in turn, was shot by one of Ellsworth's Zouaves. Here a friendly book tells us that in sympathetic admiration "a monument was proposed to the hero of Alexandria and a grateful people contributed towards the wants of his bereaved family."

        With Mumford it was an instinctive love for what represented the sovereignty of the South, and an ardent dislike for the emblem of Northern invasion that incited his emotional act. But it was an act committed in a Confederate State, of which the city was a part, not yet surrendered to the Union of which she had declared herself "free and independent." He died on Louisiana soil as truly a martyr to his love for the Confederate flag as did Jackson who was shot down in his own home in Virginia. The one before the city was occupied, tore down the flag usurping that of his choice; the other avenged an insult to the Stars and Bars that floated over his own roof. Greater love cannot be shown for a principle than by giving one's life for its sake. Both men gave this proof but, of the two, poor Mumford's was the harder fate. Jackson passed in storm, but quickly, while Mumford, after weary days of imprisonment, met a felon's death.

        It is a matter for surprise and regret that the first martyr to Butler's regime, whose shameful death stirred the entire Southern heart to anger, should be so entirely forgotten by the present. What token of remembrance or honor - save what is found in the official records of the war or a few scant lines in the telling of a military incident - has ever been awarded his memory? At least, we know where he sleeps. Sixty paces from the entrance to the Firemen's Cemetery on Metairie Ridge, he lies in a lonely, neglected grave, in the top row of the ghastly "bovedas," or ovens, in the inclosing left wall. The marble slab that shuts in his dust bears only the curt inscription:

        Mumford's Grave

         - his name even shorn of its legitimate initials!

        Sam Davis, of Tennessee, died as a spy on the gallows, but his dual monument - the one in marble, the other in unforgetting hearts - effaces its shame and the Daughters. in honoring the gallant young patriot with their prodigal bounty of bloom, themselves are honored. Jackson's deed was in the same spirit as that of our Mumford - he is not forgotten by his fair countrywomen of Virginia, but William B. Mumford - his name, with many, is unknown in the city he loved and in

which he died, and, at least, the bold deed which cost him his life is held but a vague remembrance.

        Both pitiful and strange, is it not?

Authorities Consulted.

        Fortier's History of Louisiana.

        Dimitry's Military History of Louisiana.

        The War of the Rebellion, and others.

THE QUEEN OF THE MISSISSIPPI.

                        "On the South's imperial river,
                        There's a name that fadeth never,
                        'Tis the name of battle's champion,
                        'Tis the peerless Arkansas;

                        For when navies all are rotten,
                        When the art of war's forgotten,
                        She shall lead the fleet of story,
                        Titled queen without a flaw."

        After the capture of Island No. 10 by General Pope, April 7, 1862, the Tennessee - consort of the Arkansas - was destroyed to prevent its falling into the hands of the Federals, who were then making ready to swoop down upon Memphis. Ordered by the Government, the Arkansas, despite the unfinished condition of its hull, under the command of Captain Charles H. McBlair, was towed down the great river, up the Yazoo, until it reached the only Navy Yard in Mississippi. This primitive Yard - upon whose site now screams a prosaic saw-mill - was situated upon the east bank of the Yazoo, about the southern boundary of the small city of the same name. Soon it resounded with the clang of forge and metal, for brawny workmen wielding heavy hammers made their mighty strokes ring out in unison with the pulse of their own resolute, hopeful hearts. Lieutenant Isaac N. Brown, already with a distinguished record in the Confederate States Navy to his credit, was appointed supervisory workmaster for the completing and arming of the boat. The patriotic planters of Yazoo furnished laborers; forges were sent in; the hoisting engine of the steamboat "Capitol" was employed to drive drills. The logs that lined the inside were some forty or fifty feet long, hewed

square to a dimension of one and a half to two feet thick. Her engines were taken from the Mississippi steamboat "Natchez." The armor that plated her sides in rows of double thickness was of ordinary railroad iron collected from all over the State. At the bow, these iron plates were fashioned into a sharp point that meant murderous work when driven with force into the ribs of an enemy's vessel. One hundred feet in length, with a battery of ten big guns manned principally by detailed navy men, but with a sprinkling of landsmen in her crew of 200, and commanded by experienced officers from the old United States navy, she was, indeed, for those days, a formidable war ship. There were no curving lines of beauty about the Arkansas. Although the child of Confederate love and hope, it was an ugly, rough, sinister-looking craft that tumbled like an ungainly leviathan into the yellow waters of the Yazoo. The Arkansas was born of the need of the hour and was built not for grace, but for power and destruction.

        From the fact that this famous gunboat was constructed of timber growing in the Valley forests when first the work began; completed at its navy yard through the patriotic zeal of the farmers and carpenters of the county and of laborers furnished by the planters, within five weeks after being brought up the Yazoo; with several pilots and part of her crew taken from the vicinity, it is only fair to call the historic ram a "Yazoo production."

        It was due to Captain Brown's skill and intelligence that he was put in command of the Arkansas for its brief but glorious career of twenty days.

        In the summer of 1862, after a day spent in organization and drill, Captain Brown started the Ram on her race of fifty miles for beleagured Vicksburg. That morning, the 15th of July, the sun rose in smiles and blessed her perilous cruise. Six miles from the mouth of the Yazoo river, Ellet's small fleet consisting of the iron- clad "Carondelet," "Tyler" and "Queen of the West" kept steady watch. Instantly, so soon as met, like a shark running afoul a shoal of minnows, the "Arkansas" darted forward, steering directly for the "Tyler." A running fight ensued. After chasing both the "Tyler" and "Queen of the West" into the Mississippi, she paid special

attention to the " Carondelet." A shot went so true to the vitals of the Federal boat with a stolen Southern name that she soon hauled down her colors; a few more brought out white flags at her ports and shortly after the " Carondelet" sank. But victory was not without loss to the "Arkansas." Captain Brown was knocked senseless for a time by a ball passing through the pilot house. Two pilots were killed. One was Shacklett, a Yazoo river pilot who, as they were carrying him below, had the courage and devotion to exclaim with his dying breath: "Keep her in the middle of the river."

        Buoyed and borne on by the strong, friendy current of the Mississippi, the heroic "Arkansas" - although with smokestack riddled by shot and shell and pumping a heavy stream of water - stubbornly kept on her way. The great Federal fleet composed of Farragut's sea-fleet and Flag-officer Davis' river-fleet, like a forest of masts and smoke-stacks, barred her path. The "Arkansas" stopped not to ask the reason "why," but at once opened on the "Hartford" - afterwards the Admiral's fateful flagship at New Orleans, and soon all her guns were in action. Now began the real race, a race that was full of danger, a race through shot and shell, a race through bomb and mortar, a race through an entire fleet. The brave vessel was in one of the most desperate fights any one ship ever sustained since ships were made. In addition to the fire of the fleet, she encountered strange rains, and hails and showers from the Federal fortifications that lined either side of the river. There was no rest for the "Arkansas." A target for a hundred guns, the heavy shot of the enemy pounded her armored sides like sledge-hammers. The day was still and heavy smoke-clouds hung so close that it was only through the momentary blaze of a discharged gun that aim could be taken. But never did the musical guns of Groningen more harmoniously sing their fierce ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la than did the guns of the crippled "Arkansas" make ready and joyous response to the enemy through the flashes of flame. Nothing could stop her! Onward through the fire of transports and vessels of war belching death, she boldly, unflinchingly fought her way.

        Now, through the smoke and above the din of shot and shriek of shell, was heard a voice crying out that the colors of the "Arkansas" had been shot away. In an instant, a young hero, Midshipman Dabney M. Scales - with a courage equal to that of the wild, intrepid Beggars of the Sea - scrambled up the ladder and fearlessly treading the terrible path of death, swept by a hurricane of shot and shell, again raised the Stars and Bars aloft. Onwards, the irresistible "Queen of the Waters" swept her way victoriously - rushing through the deadly hail of iron hurled by two fleets of about forty vessels of war and emerging shattered, bleeding, weakened by heavy losses of her crew, but triumphant - to anchor safe under the protecting guns of Vicksburg.

        On the hills above, Generals Van Dorn and Breckinridge with thousands of soldiers eagerly watched the brave race. All hearts were anxious and sympathetic, but the hands that longed to help were powerless to aid. The heroic vessel plunged through the waters firing in every direction, never refusing a challenge as each war ship in turn tried to sink or disable her. It was as though the bold heart of the Confederacy beat under her iron ribs! On she pressed, unswerving in the path to her goal, until, finally, as she entered her fair haven opposite the City Hall, with Southern colors still aloft, still streaming in the breeze, still gloriously defiant of the mighty men-of-war filling the river, a burst of enthusiastic cheering greeted her. It was an ovation to a conquering hero!

        At night, Farragut's sea-going fleet and Davis' iron-clads passed down the river. They came by singly and, at their coming, the "Arkansas" - sorely crippled, yet ever ready for a fight - dashed out and gave each a broadside as it dropped past. Admiral Farragut, deeply mortified at the success of the daring rebel ram in running the fiery gauntlet of his two fleets, sent a last spiteful death-dealing shot as his flagship went by and killed and wounded many of her crew. A few days later, her old enemy "Queen of the West," also the powerful iron-clad "Essex" under Captain D. D. Porter tried to ram or capture her. But again the "Queen of the Waters" was triumphant. Both ships were not only beaten off, but disabled. Captain Porter, "The Boastful," found the rebel

gunboat more than a match for his big "Essex," and his next despatch to Washington must have been less rosy than usual. But now the Arkansas, though lame and halt from her fierce fight and with a crew reduced to seventeen, was called to another field. She was born to fight, never to rest! Here came a telegram from General Breckenridge in Louisiana to General Van Dorn invoking the aid of her guns, and forthwith the Arkansas was sent - her blacksmiths making music with their hammers on repairs as she laboriously steamed down the river.

        On the morning of the 5th of August, the attack on Baton Rouge opened. All day long General Breckinridge listened eagerly for the roar of the guns of the Arkansas, but he was destined never to hear those guns again. The last hour of the veteran ram had been tolled by the battle-clock. Born in Mississippi, she was destined to end her glorious career in Louisiana. Five miles off, already within hearing of the artillery of the Confederates, the engineer announced that her machinery was so broken it could not be repaired. Alas! the old engines of the "Natchez" were no longer equal to the work required. The heart of the "Arkansas" could no longer beat. Sternly resolved that the foot of an enemy should never tread her deck, with the deepest grief, her officers fired and left her. She was free to go where it pleased her - her guns all shotted - her colors waving in the breeze. One by one, those guns as the flames reached them, roared out; and so the last race of the "Arkansas" was run, not only without dishonor, but with a glory that will long be remembered on the shores of the great river.

                        "And her Banner sparkled prouder
                        Till the fire had reached her powder;
                        In her loudest peal of thunder
                        Went the Queen of Battle down;

                        And in all her olden manner,
                        Flared her never-conquered banner,
                        Sinking 'neath the Southern waters
                        That remember her renown."

"MEMMINGER'S CANARIES."

        A simple outfit - consisting of penholder and pen, a spring-clamp and a blotter-pad - was handed to the new employee and, by grace of her oath of allegiance to the young Confederacy, she was henceforth known in the small world of the Treasury building as a "Note-signer," or a "Bond-numberer." With a bundle of Treasury notes, eight to a sheet, flung over her arm, she then sought the desk allotted her among those who were, from 9 a. m. to 3 p. m., for long months to be her daily associates. It was a unique world of toil, for the toilers were those who, once tenderly reared in refinement and luxury. were now forced to earn their daily bread at a salary of $1,000 per annum, with such increase as might, from time to time. be allowed by Congress. No one was allowed to be a mere cipher filling up space, for the Secretary was something of a martinet and, during office hours, exacted strict attention to work.

        No great amount of brain power was expended in signing one's name several thousand times in the course of a day; but, at first, the common quality of paper caused many pouts and some tears - a sharp pen point often jagging or blotting the note. Eventually, our Richmond mills removed the difficulty by their success in turning out a fair quality of linen paper so smooth of surface as to admit of rapid writing with freedom from blots and, consequently, less exasperation of nerves. Although forced to substitute lithographs for steel engravings on our notes, we thought they presented quite a handsome appearance, for it was Southern currency and our faith was unbounded

that, "Six months after the ratification of a treaty of peace," it would be as "good as gold."

        It was the special ambition of each lady to record her name upon that fair and costly note known as the $500. It was the highest denomination issued by this Government and had a noble beauty unlike all others. On the left side was our flag with its starry cross crowned with laurel; on the right, great "Stonewall Jackson," as the guardian of its honor, faced it with uncovered head. Although the writing of the signature was merely a mechanical process, the fact of being entrusted with the signing of a note so high in value always gave the recipient of this coveted honor much prestige in the note-signing community. As the notes were caught fast in one corner by means of a clamp, signing a name eight times on a sheet and throwing it over to take up another was swift work that did not always admit of thorough drying. There was an unwritten law to the effect - so it was whispered - that the penalty for carelessness in blotting notes was redemption of their value out of the offender's salary. Shortly after a certain lady's promotion to the $500 note, to her unspeakable horror, a clerk placed upon her desk several sheets condemned for blotted signatures, all requiring duplication. For some days. the lady avoided the manager's eye as he made his tour of the room, but pay-day passed and she breathed more freely upon finding that her salary was intact and the Government yet had need for her pen.

        What types of youthful Southern womanhood and dignified matronly grace, of social position and heroic endeavor, were brought together within the dingy limits of that old note-signer's room on Main Street - reached only by a narrow stairway! The girls climbed the rickety stairs, light-hearted. because filled with the joy of youth - strengthened for the day's work, perchance, by a savory breakfast of toasted cornmeal, coffee and baked sweet potatoes. We had not yet reached the starvation days of Richmond, when the hungry rats came out of their holes and were fed from the hand, gentle and playful as kittens, and there was murderous talk of turning them into broilers for food. "Why," it was asked, "should Richmond be more dainty than Vicksburg?" The

girls of that period were irrepressible and, on the calendar, every day was a red letter day. They cried: "Glorious Lee and glorious Jackson keep watch and ward, therefore, all must and will end well." So they sang their rebel songs with unabated ardor, put white and red roses in their hair for defiance. and kept the hearts of their soldier friends aglow with their own enthusiastic patriotism.

        But it was the Confederate matron who sorrowed ever, for she bore upon her heart the dual burden of anxiety at home and fear for the beloved ones in battle. On the faces of many of these most noble women were reflected the "divine lights and shadows" that tell of the soul's growth within its garment of flesh. So much of their time in the gray hours of morning was spent on bended knee, or in reading and pondering upon the bright promises of God! There was the source of that marvelous power which made their courage as invincible at home as that of the veteran on the field.

        After the lapse of years, it is difficult to recall many, but a few names will give some idea of the personnel of the Bureau. Again they rise and flit, like eager ghosts, through the shadows of the past. There is Miss Darby, allied to the Prestons and Hamptons of South Carolina, passing many a jest in quiet undertones; vivacious Victoire Blanchard of Louisiana, in dainty organdie and silken wrap, with the voice of a lark in her fair young throat, keeps up a monologue in a charming medley of French and English; Miss Stuart, a pale, serious slip of a girl of the Virginia house of that name, bends over her desk intent only upon preserving the fair integrity of her name upon the $500 note; the ladies Garnett, Bartow and Norton, Huger and DeSaussure, of Cavalier and Huguenot ancestry, are placidly killing time by diligent work. Seated near is Mme. Proctor, the majestic sister of General Beauregard. What a picture she makes with her abundant snowy hair dressed a la marquise, clad in silk, in winter wrapped in velvet, and wearing the costliest lace. She is numbering bonds, but, with pen poised for a moment in air, in her erect regal dignity, looks not unlike Marie Antoinette when about to affix her signature to some royal document of grace. In those vanished days, as a queen, she daily gave audience at

her desk. The younger ladies, with one accord when through with their personal allotment of notes, were ever ready to assist this superb old lady with her bonds.

        Many of the note-signers of that year, 1863, dressed in most unusual fashion - a creation of hard times. Handsome clothes, that seemed sadly out of place, were not infrequently in that old room. But, while homespun was most durable, it could rarely be got; and though a simple calico dress was cheap at $30, it was cheaper still to wear the costly garments already paid for.

        One day, in the yard, a pot of machine oil coming in contact with some burning waste, caught on fire. It seemed as if a conflagration was imminent. The smoke ascended and billowed through the room, causing a sad flutter and fright among "Memminger's Canary birds," as the ladies were facetiously called. They swayed from side to side peering through the dense clouds of smoke at the open windows, seeking an avenue of escape. Finally, moved by a common impulse, they rushed pell-mell down the stairs into the open street, some with hair flying in the wind, without bonnets, hats or cloaks - all forgotten in their mad panic. The worst that came of it was a waggish paragraph in the next day's paper.

        There was one order of the Bureau officials, so considerate as to deserve mention. Whenever the day ended in rain. an omnibus was directed to stop at the door and convey to their respective homes, free of charge, such ladies as lived at a distance. This humane bit of courtesy, coupled with the rather humorous resolution passed by Congress declaring that in calling for the ages of clerks in various departments, it was not understood to include that of the ladies, certainly, in the eyes of the ladies themselves, distinguished our Southern Government as one rarely chivalrous.

        The spring-time of 1864 with its lustrous mocking sunshine passed, and never were the Solfaterre roses sweeter, nor the oleanders whiter in the gardens of Columbia, nor the Congaree Falls more musical as we listened to their play in the midnight silence, and dreamed of Lee and victory. Then the long, slow summer came and went, and the dreary autumn

followed. With its going, we began to live on anticipated horrors. The new year of 1865 dawned sadly enough. There was much talk of Sherman's advance, and an effort was made to draw troops from Lee for the defence of Columbia; but in vain, every soldier was needed for Richmond. After Sherman's burning of Columbia - involving the destruction of the money-printing machine and of a large amount of Treasury notes - there was some expectation at the close of February, of removing the employes to Lynchburg, Virginia, and of starting anew the manufacture of the notes. But chaos had come again and this scheme was never carried through. The collapse of all things dear to the Confederate heart was close at hand. Appomattox followed swiftly upon the evacuation of the Capital, and then - "the Confederacy took its place in the graveyard of nations."

JUDAH P. BENJAMIN.

        With such an environment of storm and grace, was it strange that our nursling of the tropics should, through all the years of life, have felt their quickening influence in heart and brain?

        It is a coincidence that out of the West Indies should have come, from the twin-sister islets of St. Croix and St. Thomas, two of her greatest sons to unite their names and fortunes with the mighty Republic of the West. Alexander Hamilton came in an epoch of seething storm and revolution to be the trusted friend of Washington and to sit in her councils of State. Later, came Judah P. Benjamin to make himself ready for the services of a younger nation that the prophetic soul of Hamilton already saw dimly shaped in the future.

        In 1818, the green hills of St. Thomas sloped below the horizon and the Southern Cross faded from view as - his fortunes at a low ebb - Benjamin pere, with wife and children, left forever behind the sunny little island to seek a home of larger possibilities in the United States. Landing in Charleston, South Carolina, he resolved to secure for his young tribe that liberal, lasting wealth of which adversity could not rob them. The children of Benjamin were at once sent to a popular academy. Here Judah proved so diligent and aspiring a student that at the age of fourteen he entered Yale. The

soul of the ambitious boy must have grown dark when, for lack of funds at the end of his second year he was compelled to discontinue his collegiate course without gaining his coveted degree. Early realizing that he was no petted favorite of fortune, but that the glittering baubles of success and reputation were to be forced by his own unaided strength from her closed, unwilling hand, with the resolute patience of his race he at once faced the struggle.

        In 1828, destiny drew the friendless boy to New Orleans. Here we find him in the office of a notary delving as clerk, but, meanwhile, scant as was his leisure, studying law and, the better to understand the complicated jurisprudence of Louisiana, mastering the French and Spanish languages.

        At twenty-one, on December 16, 1832, he was admitted to the bar, and so encouraging was his future that, in the spring of the following year, with the confidence of youth in himself and in his own bright star, he led to the altar Miss Natalie St. Martin - a beautiful Creole girl of New Orleans. Upon her and the daughter Ninette, who came to bless their union, he lavished without stint all the wealth of his affections and purse. As he was now a man of family, he also became one of affairs. He spent much time on his plantation of Bellechasse, deeply interested in the chemistry of sugar, and gave his leisure to writing articles both practical and entertaining for magazines. Such work was delightful recreation for one who loved the humanities and was accomplished without neglect of Chitty and Blackstone. But while engaged in work so congenial the failure of a friend, for whom he had endorsed notes for a large amount, so crippled his fortune that he resolutely closed his ears to the enticements of literature, and turned with renewed ardor to the practice of his profession. Henceforth, though interested like a good citizen in all that made for the public welfare, the world knew him best as the silvery-tongued, eloquent orator, and famous, astute lawyer.

        Elected in 1842, to the legislature of Louisiana, ten years later he was sent to the Senate of the United States. In that great body of statesmen he was peer of the highest. A disciplee of Calhoun, he held to state sovereignty in his brilliant speeches upon noted questions involving the two great issues

of the day - Centralization of Government and State Rights. Upon the secession of his adopted State, with warm enthusiasm of feeling and in far-reaching musical tones, he expressed his conviction that the "State of Louisiana had judged and acted wisely in this crisis of her destiny." His farewell address to his colleagues of the Senate, in its high-hearted, impassioned patriotism was declared by Sir Geo. C. Lewis - a cool-headed, discriminating Englishman present at its delivery - to "be better than what D'Israeli could have done."

        At Montgomery, in the formation of a provisional Government for the young Confederacy, he was placed in the Cabinet as Attorney General - an office for which his great legal abilities supremely fitted him. In Richmond, upon re-organization of Government on a constitutional basis, he was made Secretary of War. With its stern, dry complexity of duties he was not familiar, as several disastrous events soon proved. Not relishing the caustic criticisms of the public upon his administration of the War Department, he resigned his portfolio; but in February, 1862, President Davis who delighted in honoring him, invited him to take a seat in the Cabinet as Secretary of State - which he retained to the end of the Confederate Government. To him, both by training and temperament, diplomacy was congenial. True, he failed in his unwearied efforts to secure recognition for our young nation by the great European Powers; but we may safely assume it was because the Star of Empire shone not upon the cradle of the Southern Confederacy. When the swords of great Lee, Stonewall Jackson and Stuart could not achieve our independence, surely Benjamin may be pardoned that he did not gain our admission into the family of nations.

        When Richmond fell, Benjamin, true to his personal friend the President, with the other Cabinet officers, accompanied him to Danville. All the long, dreary way he was the life of the party. When the President went southwards he was still at his side; but, on arriving at Washington, Ga., finding that further resistance was reduced to "save himself who can," he assumed a disguise and made his way to the Florida coast. Again, after many hardships, a

                        "Forlorn and shipwrecked mariner."

        life threw him upon St. Thomas - the isle of his birth. Thence, once more he set out to fight the battle of life in a foreign land - this time, he was middle-aged, a man of fifty-five. Landing in Liverpool, he hastened to London and took up the study of English law. In June, 1866, a year after planting foot on the soil of Great Britain, he was admitted to the English courts as barrister at law. Six years passed, and in 1872, he became Queen's Counselor and presently was so famous as to appear solely before the House of Lords and Privy Council.

        A portrait of him in his Counselor's wig - his dark, intellectual Semitic face framed in stiff rows of white woolen curls - clearly shows in its triumphant smile the indomitable heart and persevering genius of his great race. In his Hebrew lexicon there was no such word as fail. Overthrown on one plane, he never lost heart, but was ready cheerily to challenge Fate to another wrestle - ever another, and again so long as life lasted!

        In the early spring of 1883, failing health admonished him to lead a less strenuous life, and he resolved to give up his magnificent practice which now ensured him a fortune of 18,000 pounds in English money - the third he had made. Before his final retirement to Paris, leading members of the English bar bestowed upon him a most unusual honor. Desiring to take a collective farewell and to testify their high sense of the honor and integrity of his professional career, and of their desire for a continuance of their relations of personal friendship they tendered him a grand complimentary banquet June, 1883, in the Hall of the Inner Temple. Sir Henry James on this occasion, in allusion to his forensic ability, voiced the recognition of all present when he asked: "Who is the man, save this one, of whom it can be said that he held conspicuous leadership at the bar of two countries?"

        He did not live long to enjoy his honors, for the seeds of death were already planted in his frame. With the well-merited plaudits of all England ringing in his ears, he crossed the Channel for the last time. A Hebrew, he never obtruded, nor endeavored to conceal the birth of which he was proud. He might well say that "the world was his home." A man of

two nationalities - British and Confederate - he passed the short remainder of his days chiefly in Paris, in the beautiful home he had built for his wife and daughter in the Avenue d'Jena. Here, he died May 6, 1884. He now sleeps in the famed Cemetery of Pere la Chaise.

        * * * *

        And now by way of epilogue, let us take up a most interesting question.

        Is it not singular to find that this great man - who in a momentous epoch of the national history cast his fortune with the South, when doubtless he could have secured preferment at the North - should be so misjudged and accused by men of the present day? If, as has been alleged, he carried with him the great seal, he but took his own property; for unless surrendered to the victor, such it became with the collapse of the government. He thus saved it from desecration; and if he retained it during life there was then no organization which could receive this, no doubt the most sacred of his treasures; and even if there had been, he was under no obligation to part with it until he chose. If, as has been asserted, he donated it to British keeping, he but put it into the care of the world's most powerful and most reverent custodian. And after all, is it not fitting that the longest-lived of the English nations should guard this relic of the shortest-lived? - that the symbol of our glorious quadrennium should abide among the symbols of a millenium, and that the mighty mother of nations should possess this memorial of the noblest of her daughters?

        If Benjamin left the South in the day of her overthrow, he did no more than a score of her generals did, and no more than Davis was trying to do. Glance at the prospect before him as he surveyed the future with the President at Washington. The Confederacy was dead. The Chief Executive and his official family were fugitives. If captured, they could look for nothing less than imprisonment - a merciless vengeance, possibly the hangman's cord from the hands of a party at the North, drunken and crazed with power and flushed with conquest over their sister-section. In addition to this sinister prospect, he knew that all the resources and power of the Confederacy had perished in its death struggle. What was

there for him in Louisiana, what could he do to aid or comfort her in her vast humiliation? Nothing! With the vision of a seer, he must have seen the destiny that was to be hers - the judiciary of which she was once so proud subjected to the rule of the sword, even judges holding their place by sufferance. The dearest part of a man's country is ever said to be his own family and fireside. Benjamin's household gods yet remained and his allegiance as husband and father was due to them.

        Look at the long list shining with the names of other eminent Confederates who, after the surrender, in that first dark hour of collapse and a noble despair sought other lands in which to hide the agony of their hearts, in which to live. or, at least, to breathe until health and strength came back to their sick souls.

        Let us single out a few.

        See Robert Toombs - than whom never breathed a more rampant, defiant, devoted Southerner - yet he, chafing at defeat like an entrapped lion, remained abroad until 1867.

        John Taylor Wood - the brother-in-law of the President and his aide-de-camp - when all was over, escaped to Cuba and subsequently lived in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

        General Early, after riding like a paladin long and hard to attach himself to a Confederate force and continue the war. gave up the fruitless chase and became an exile for a time in Mexico and Canada.

        General John B. Magruder - called "Prince John" on account of his lordly air - sought relief for his exasperation by enlisting in the army of Maximilian and remained with him until his downfall.

        Our own loved Henry Watkins Allen, Governor of Louisiana and gallant officer in the Southern army - unable to stand the changed conditions brought on by the war - took himself with his broken heart to die in Mexico.

        But why add to the list? Against not one of these heroic souls of the Confederacy has envy or detraction ever raised slanderous voice impugning their patriotism. Why then against Judah P. Benjamin? Would it not be ungenerous to ascribe this petty resentment of which he is the victim to the fact that he was a Jew and, therefore, heir to all the obloquy

that Christian tongues have too often meted out to his race. But, rather does it not remind one of the antique Cato's criticism upon the breach between Caesar and Pompey? "The great misery has not come from their being enemies, but from their having been friends." The South, resentful that another should claim the service and prestige of one whom she considered her own son, questions his purity of motive. A weakness of humanity! When a bond of union has once existed, we are apt to take ill even the appearance of a transfer of affection.

        Instead of looking coldly upon one who was ever true to his brethren of the Confederacy, rather should we hold in highest esteem this official of our short-lived Government who in a strange land won honor and dignities so notable. Those honors, by reflection, are ours. Though the Atlantic rolled between the country of his early and that of his later life, yet will the name and fame of Judah P. Benjamin - three times chosen to a seat in her Cabinet - ever be proudly and indissolubly associated with that of the Southern Confederacy.

THE LOUISIANA.

        Though the times were full of war, the Crescent harbor presented a scene of prosperity well-pleasing to the eye of planter and factor. A number of foreign steamers stood in the harbor laden with heavy cargoes of cotton for their return trip across the Atlantic. Around others at the wharves was the cheery hum of contented labor. The red-shirted stevedores, with their iron hooks were toiling and tugging, to the measured rhythm of an old minstrel melody, at the hundreds of bales that crowded the levee to get them aboard before night-fall. Up and down the sheds and over the wharves - as though a flock of sheep had passed through and paid toll with their wool - were great bunches and shreds of the fleecy staple, and everywhere the white lint floated in the pleasant April air.

        Out in the harbor, too, was a staunch little fleet of thirteen vessels, bearing among others such martial names as the Warrior, Defiance, Resolute and the Stonewall Jackson. Some of these were "converted vessels" - that is, river steamers made

shot-proof with cotton bulkheads and provided with iron prows to act as rams, and among these were a few tug-boats for pushing fire-rafts on the enemy, should an engagement ever take place. Yet on her "ways" at the ship-yard in the Jefferson suburb was the naval monster, Mississippi - since said by two navies to have been the most formidable war vessel ever built. Although unfinished, she was fast nearing completion and it was expected that she would rival, or out-do, the dashing exploits of the Virginia in Hampton Roads. The Manassas, glorious name but ill of prophecy, was lying above Fort Jackson eager to try conclusions with Farragut's fleet, should the Admiral be so daring as to extend a challenge. But above all, the heart of the proud city placed its trust in the LOUISIANA. Surely, that was a name to be relied upon as a sponsor for the protection of New Orleans! This formidable ironclad was not much of a trim, nautical craft to please the eye, but it was thought to be a fearful menace to the insolent ship that might brave its guns.

        Far down the river - thirty miles from its mouth on the western bank - was Fort Jackson, guardian of the Passes and the first outpost of defence. Named in honor of the Hero of New Orleans, it bristled with guns and was garrisoned by a goodly complement of soldiers. A few hundred yards above on the eastern bank, the older fort, St. Philip, well gunned and manned, stood sentinel, and more securely to obstruct the river against possible invasion of New Orleans, was a barrier of schooners lashed amidships and anchored across the stream between the forts.

        So, upon this fatal 24th of April, 1862, New Orleans, cradled in war, was not to be scared. Trusting in the strength and loyalty of her forts and in the might of her steam rams - two bearing as talismans against shot and shell the names of Gulf States, and one with the name of a Northern rout - she believed herself invincible. Off in the Gulf, an invasion that threatened might seem alarming, but in the city no one was alarmed. The laugh, the song and the dance went merrily on with the gilded youth on General Lovell's staff and the dark-eyed girls of Creoledom. In the gardens, the red roses and scarlet lilies bloomed in the spring sunlight with ominous

significance of color, but the Queen City of the South - trusting in her defences on river and land - serenely pursued the even tenor of her way.

        The Louisiana was simply a huge vessel built upon a dry dock. In appearance, to one not versed in naval architecture - as its unwieldy bulk lay heavily upon the water - it was not unlike the sloping roof of a house with ridge cut off by a broad open inclosure that, in turn, was surrounded by a parapet. Through this inclosure, like a curious swarthy giant looking out upon the world, loomed its smoke-stack. It was propelled by four engines and was to have been mounted by sixteen guns and carry a crew of two hundred men.

        General Duncan, commander of the two forts, harassed by the fire of Commodore Porter's mortar-boats, called upon Commodore Mitchell of the naval forces at New Orleans for the services of the Louisiana. Yet incomplete, unwillingly, she was ordered down. With machinists and mechanics at work on her propellers, on the 20th of April, under command of Captain Charles F. McIntosh, she was towed down the river - as brave men believed - to be the guardian angel of the river defence. Half a mile above St. Philip she was moored to the left bank. On the 22nd, as the bombardment increased in severity, General Duncan requested Commodore Mitchell to move the Louisiana farther down the river so that she might drive the mortar-schooners off. The Commodore declined, for the reason that the Louisiana's machinery was not yet in working order; that the engineers hoped to have it in a day or two; that its top was unprotected, and if a shell dropped on it, it would pass through the bottom and inevitably sink the ship, etc., etc. It was the same old story so often told of our gun-boats - a state of unpreparedness when occasion demanded their services. General Duncan, naturally believing that the Louisiana was built for use and should take some risks, felt aggrieved at the Commodore's decision - although in its propriety he was supported by all his officers - and unfortunately, from this time, all cordiality between the forts and fleet ceased to exist.

        At 3:30 a. m., on April 24th, suddenly, in the midst of the wild uproar on river and land, in the darkness of the night,

fell the silence of the desert. The mortars were mute; the forts stopped their fire, and the only sound that broke the stillness was the rush of the Mississippi, as the mighty current of its yellow flood went swirling in the pitchy darkness to its watery bourne in the Gulf. Inside Fort Jackson, just as longingly as the besieged Antwerpers in 1585 watched for Gianbelli's "hell-burners," or fireships, that were to destroy the bridge of Farnese across the Scheldt, so did Duncan and the brave St. Mary's Cannoneers watch throughout that woeful, memorable night, counting the hours in hopeless despair of aid from the fire-barges at New Orleans. Through some one's blunder, the fire-ships, that would have carried dismay and destruction into the enemy's fleet, were not sent down on the one night when they might have turned the dark fortunes of the hour.

        The sinister quiet did not last long.

        In one awful instant a wild glare lit up the scene. Then like the deafening detonation of a volcano with its myriad quakings, throbbings and blazings came a crash and a horrible din. Porter's mortar-boats reopened their bombardment, with a shriek and roar of bursting shells, grape, canister and shrapnel. Forts Jackson and St. Philip responded with fury, but little effect. "Oh for the fire-barges whose light would give us aim and accuracy!" groaned Duncan, in his desperation peering into the darkness with a wild hope that he might catch a gleam of their flaming torches. But his appeal was heard only by the night winds struggling with the dense smoke that, belching from the mortars, added to the gloom of the night.

        Under cover of darkness and the fierce hail of the mortar-boats, Farragut's fleet like ill- omened ghosts - each vessel grimed with river-mud to make it more a part of the night - under a full pressure of steam made the historic passage of the forts. Each one in rushing past poured broadside after broadside of shot and shell in swift succession into the forts. Once past, safe and victorious from the perilous transit, they steamed slowly up the river to their appointed rendezvous at Quarantine Station, six miles above. The passage of the fleet was brief in point of time - less than two hours - but long in tension as human hearts beat.

        There were presages enough of coming disaster; but still above the forts floated the Confederate flag inspiring valor. Unhappily, however, the colors while inspiring courage could not confirm loyalty. Mutiny broke out in the two forts and signals were exchanged between the mutineers. Perhaps here best may be emphasized a consolation for state pride. No native Louisianian was among the mutineers.

        In the meantime, the iron-clad Louisiana, pulling and tugging at her moorings and longing like a fierce mastiff held in leash to get at the enemy, had fired only a few scattering shots from her guns. Owing to the position in which she had been made fast to the bank and to the incompleted condition of her interior, her guns could not be trained so effectively upon the enemy's advancing fleet as had been hoped. After the gallant work of the "Manassas" in her bold rush upon the "Hartford" and her subseuent disablement, the "Louisiana" received her officers and men aboard.

        On the 27th negotiations for the surrender of the forts were initiated by Commodore Porter, of the mortar-flotilla. On the 28th, disheartened by the mutiny of garrisons in the forts and the reported capture of New Orleans, the conditions were accepted by General Duncan. Soon after, the Harriet Lane with Commodore Porter and officers - a white flag at the fore - came opposite the forts to receive and sign the terms of capitulation. Negotiations were proceeding amicably on the Harriet Lane, when on the Mississippi - of late so rich in stately spectacles - appeared a portent as awful as it was mysterious, floating by to interrupt the proceedings on board.

        It was the "Louisiana," once a powerful iron-clad, but at this moment a helpless wreck, drifting and discharging her guns at random. How worse than useless! The fleet which she had been specially armed to resist and terrify, was lying at victorious peace in the river in front of New Orleans. The mortar-schooners which she might, if properly handled, have gripped hard and sunk with her powerful battery, were near the head of the Passes, warily watching her and the forts. Hopeless to save her from the superior power bearing down on her from every side, her officers set her on fire, and sent her with all her guns protruding, down the river. Although in her death

throes drifting aimlessly as the current bore her, she was more fortunate than her sister-craft - the great steam-ram "Mississippi" - which was taken above the city, riddled and burned before she had fired a gun! Abandoned to her own terrible self, the luckless "Louisiana" floated down in the presence of the guns of the mortar-fleet. The clumsy mortars, as she drifted past, struggled to escape the blazing wreck, even in its ruin a menace. When near her old moorings close to St. Philip, suddenly, from the great iron-clad came the deafening explosion of her powder magazine, scattering fragments of her wood-work everywhere within and around the fortifications; then a mighty plunge like some wallowing monster of the deep and the "Louisiana" sank into the abyss of waters! The blowing-up, as if in angry protest against surrender, shook the signers of the capitulation from their seats and careened the "Harriet Lane" on her side. Once righted, her officers rushed on deck, but saw only the river flowing sullenly to the Gulf, while not a ripple upon the surface showed where the "Louisiana" had committed her awful suicide.

        It looked like the grimmest irony or a hostile fate, that the only casualties from the Louisiana's formidable battery should have comprised one of our own men killed in the fort, and three or four wounded.

        So, in a flame of fire, ashes and glory perished the ill-starred "Louisiana," on whose strength and the stout hearts beating within her iron ribs had rested so many fond hopes. She never fulfilled the purpose for which she was built; but who dares deny that her phantom flag will float over the river, from New Orleans to the Passes, so long as the Mississippi has memories!

FOUR RICHMOND GIRLS

        The friends hurried home and packed a few necessaries in handbags. Now, their number augmented by two others, they hurried to the depot. It was about 4 p. m. and the platform was jammed with struggling humanity seeking entrance to a long train that was drawn up for departure, and impatiently signalling to be off. What was remarkable was the fact that there were no noisy protests when trunks were refused. or tumbled off when surreptitiously put on - whatever came was stoically accepted. All was confusion of moment; but it was a confusion dominated by a sullen silence of disappointment

and heart-break. No ticket agent was in sight. It was "save himself who can." After vain attempts to gain a foothold, even upon the open freight cars, the four friends returned to their home. All Richmond was now upon the streets. They passed groups blanched in face standing at street corners, or leaning over the gates of residences asking in troubled tones for the latest news from Lee - their alarm increased by belated orderlies who, carrying despatches, clattered by with whip and spur. It seemed impossible for the four young women to get out of the beleagured city, and yet it was equally impossible for them to remain and face the invading army on the morrow. "What was to be done?" they despairingly asked one another. They knew that they were desperately hungry, for they had eaten nothing for hours - that was the first point. After a scant meal of corn bread and cold turnips left from dinner of the day before, again the quartette with anxious hearts footed the long weary way back to the depot. It was now about 8 p. m. and the aspect of the city had changed. In the semi-darkness, companies of cavalry, like phantom horsemen speaking to none, but stern and grim, thundered over the stony pavements; the gutters ran a river of strong drink and a rabble, both white and black, knelt upon the ground and leaning over the edge drank of its flow like swine, or filled buckets and bottles to take home. Knots of negroes gathered on the sidewalks and seemed dazed, as if they could not make out the turn of events. Like their masters, they too were under the spell that forbade utterance or emotion. Through this half-drunken, but almost mute crowd, the four friends reached the depot. A long line of cars was drawn up that in the uncertain light seemed to stretch a league into outer darkness, and promise accommodation for the constantly increasing mob of refugees. But again the girls found that expostulations, entreaties, prayers were only a waste of vital energy. However, deliverance was at hand. A rough, but sympathetic official standing near, wearied perchance with the feminine din, gruffly said: "Ladies, this is a Government train with no room for civilian passengers, but, if you will go, the only place is on top of the cars. Up that ladder at the end is where you have to go." The friends, in dismay, contemplated what was before

them. A perpendicular climb of several yards and afterward should they survive the attempt, a ride through rain or shine on top of a car. Oh, shades of Southern ancestry and instincts of feminine reserve! But it was the time for action, not words. Miss X. was a young woman of decision and solved the problem. Out of that city she had to go,for her two brothers lying in soldiers' graves had sworn that their sisters should never be within the enemy's lines. Bravely, she seized a round of the ladder and with strong pulls finally reached the sloping top. Amid hysterical encouragement to one another, friend followed friend, until the four were aboard, drawn up close together on what seemed a central plank, on top of a carriage that promised both peril and discomfort. The train lingered and from their point of vantage they looked with aching hearts upon the motley scene below, and thought with dread upon what the morrow was to bring forth. The car on which they perched was out in the open and they watched the rockets, signalling retreat and disaster, flashing high up among the stars. They shivered in the chill night air and drew closer together as a dull report following an explosion was heard, or the blaze of a house in flames lit up the darkness. Towards the morning hours the train pulled out on its long journey, and the last view of the heroic city by the James was framed in the smoke and flames of burning cotton and tobacco.

        Away the train sped through desolate fields, but ever under a mocking blue sky. Not much chance or desire for conversation was there. Sometimes, an overhanging branch from a wayside tree made the ladies duck their heads to escape a stinging slap in the face, and the swinging of the cars on long unrepaired roads produced a giddiness as if tossed on the ocean waves.

        At last, the long dreary day ended. That night, April 3rd, at 11 o'clock, Danville was reached and the free ride was over. Half asleep from exhaustion and fatigue, stiff from cramped muscles and faint from the fast of hours, Miss X. and her companions backed down the narrow upright ladder and stood upon the ground. Imagine the amazement of the adventurous damsels, when horrified friends informed them that they had made the journey from Richmond to Danville atop an ammunition train!

        NOTE - This and the following sketch are compiled from the author's own personal experience while as Miss Ada Stuart she served the Confederate Government so loyally and faithfully.

THE HALT

        It was here that President Davis and his Cabinet halted for a few days after the flight from Richmond. The reopening of departments, the dash of mounted soldiery, of couriers coming and going gave quite a martial, lively air to the sleepy, country town. Refugees came crowding in from all over the State, for the dread of separation from loved ones by falling within the enemy's lines was upon all. We literally lived out of doors those last days of the Confederacy, for hearts were too restless and oppressed to remain within. Sitting on the front steps, the swift hoof-beats of a horseman galloping past would bring every one in a tumultuous rush to the gate to scan his face and read the message it bore of good or ill tidings. It was in the air that our troops in North Carolina would have to fall back to some more distant Southern point; but we were not dismayed, for we understood that it meant only a new line of defence where Johnson would form and fight again. Then came the President's stirring, hopeful proclamation that rang out in our ears like the notes of a clarion invoking renewed effort and devotion. We caught its indomitable spirit, for Appomattox had not yet been reached, and we likened our

gloomy present to the dark days of Wallace and Bruce when they fought for Scotland's deliverance. Boldness and adventure won for the Scots, why not for the Confederates? Our hearts, like that of the President, were unconquered and unconquerable. So truly confident were we that the God of Battles was with us, despite the fact that we were overborne by numbers; driven from our Capital; our once victorious army sullenly falling back, still we cried: "God is in it all - as truly in the dreadful retreat from Petersburg as in the sun-glory of the first Manassas." Though fronting constant disaster, our hearts stubbornly assumed that victory, in the end, would crown the South. Sometimes, however, when we thought of Lee in whom we always trusted, now so far away; of his right arm, great Stonewall Jackson, forever still; of his left, Stuart, that "Flower of Cavaliers," under the sod, in spite of the effort to be brave and strong against such heavy odds, a shadowy fear crept out of the future and chilled our hearts.

        It was in this epoch-making time that two young Government employes of the Richmond post office - Miss Selden and Miss X. found themselves in Danville, still attached to the fortunes of a fugitive Government; but without opportunity for giving it service. Until the routine was established calling for renewal of their duties, they were fortunate in finding friends who opened hospitable doors to them. Miss X. was taken in charge by the mother of "raiding Jeb. Stuart," whom the fair Virginians dubbed "The Knight of the Golden Spurs." To be thrown so intimately with this distinguished and stately old lady, and to hear from her own lips, told with a mother's eager warmth, delightful home gossipry of the bold leader of the famous Pamunkey expedition, was an incident that appealed most strongly to the hero-worshiping, enthusiastic temperament of this young girl. It came into her life like a bright flower found blooming under a gray, wintry sky.

        Several restless days were spent in anticipation of a summons to duty - varied one beautiful Sunday morning by church services and a prayer for President Davis. How little we dreamed it was for the last time! Then the two friends were notified to hold themselves in readiness to report to their

department at Greensboro, North Carolina. The sunny afternoon upon which they received orders found them promptly at the depot. They were at once given accommodations in a rough box car whose sole merit was that it was wholly private to themselves. It was roomy, but with open doors, and void of any attempt at comfort or convenience. Its furniture was limited to two chairs and some nondescript luggage. The fearless temper of the women of that time is clearly shown in the fact that these two young girls - brought up in comfort and refinement, and with a most scrupulous observance of the proprieties of life - accepted the situation, not only without question or complaint, but with cheerful stoicism as a necessary outcome of the times. Alone in a box car, in a season of war; off on a train that went whizzing away to Greensboro like an uncanny monster in the darkness and silence of the night! A perilous trip for two young maidens, does it not seem - as we view it in the light of this quiet, uneventful. prosaic present - forty-five years after occurrence? Life demanded prompt action in those stormy days and everything was so topsy-turvy that, if called upon to ride on the horns of the moon in discharge of their accepted duty, they would have responded to the call, feeling that some way would be provided to make the feat possible.

        The train stopped a short time at Compay Shops beyond the Virginia line, and kind old Col. Clement of the Richmond post office, like a good Samaritan, sent a couple of hospital mattresses, a new tin basin and also some apples for the refreshment of the young marooners. Matters were much improved by his thoughtful kindness and in the twilight they became quite merry, as they spread their apples for a "starvation party" and speculated upon the future. President Davis and his aide, Col. Wm. Preston Johnston, loyal Judge Reagan with several other members of the Cabinet. were in a car not far from that occupied by the two young girls. Judge of their surprise when a little after sunrise the next morning, Colonel Clement suddenly appeared from somewhere and asked to borrow the tin pan for the President's ablutions. Fortunately, their slight toilettes had been discreetly made in the early dawn so, regretting that they could not furnish towels also, the

laughing damsels cheerily sent the pan for His Excellency's service and felt quite honored by the requisition - homely though it was. Later in the day, it crept out that the entire Presidential party, one by one, had followed their Chief's example in the use of the pan. Only an humble bit of tinware was it, but a relic to be sought after, when one recalls the distinguished and historic group of faces reflected from its shining surface.

        From Greensboro, a day or two after, the Confederate Government as represented by its Executive and Cabinet went Southward. Then came the crash of doom! With the Government in the saddle, the two employee realized that the death warrant of all things Confederate was written, and their connection with the post office had ended without the formality of a dismissal. The "Lady Mayoress" of Greensboro, having heard of the freight car episode, cordially invited the young ladies to accept her hospitality during their enforced stay in the town - an invitation of which they gladly and gratefully hastened to avail themselves. In the meantime, events were making history fast. Fate struck the South two hard blows. One was the assassination of the Northern President, and the other - crushing us with anger, grief and humiliation - was the capture and disgraceful treatment of the Chief Magistrate of our beloved Confederacy.

        The two young employes never understood why, or through whose agency they were awarded thirty Mexican dollars, each, also a 20-pound box of tobacco apiece, as a share of the ex-Government spoils. What became of the tobacco was problematical, but the silver money came in most happily, for the treasury notes were now worthless, save for sentiment. On their return to Danville, Miss Selden finding the North an open door, at once went on to her friends in Maryland. Miss X. was again taken under the wing of Mrs. Stuart until, later on, she rejoined her friends in that city of ruins and sentinel chimney-stacks, the fire-scarred, blackened Capital of the dead Confederacy - sad Richmond-by-the-James.

PART II.

THE CONFEDERATE GIRL.

PART I.

        JUNE 3, 1861, Tennessee severed her connection with the Union. At once "Soldier Serving Societies" were organized by the ladies of Memphis for the purpose of making uniforms and clothing for our troops, and the preparation of bandages, lint, etc., for the hospitals. Old and young, matron and maid were eager to aid in a cause that appealed strongly both to their affection and patriotism. Soon the gatherings outgrew private houses and, when other buildings were not available, the churches were pressed into service for their noble work - a work all untrained, but pursued with a heart and soul that gave it life and energy.

        Among the numbers that daily crowded one of these churches - turned during the week into an immense sewing-room - might be noted a young school girl, Margaret Thurman Drane by name, a golden haired lass of fourteen with eyes of Scottish blue. Ardently Confederate, each day after school she hastily tripped to church to aid in what warm fancy and a generous heart proclaimed a glorious task - that of making garments for the brave boys already on their way to Manassas, battle field of Virginia. Her eyes must have grown large from wonder and dim from dismay when the grey uniform coat of an officer was put into her untried hands to make. Poor little lass! She knew how to hemstitch, but not how to back-stitch, and it was before the days when sewing machines were made as much a part of the household equipment as beds and chairs. However, her heart was stout and with fingers both willing and diligent, after two days of hard toil and the breakage of a paper of needles, the coat was completed. Alas! when her labor of love was scrutinized at headquarters, no fault could be found with the stitches, but it was discovered that while the front and side pieces had been laboriously sewed together, the

back had been innocently left out! She did not receive the blue ribbon for her work that day, but was assigned the less responsible task of bringing hot smoothing irons from the basement, upstairs, to be used in pressing seams.

        A new hotel that had never been used as a hostelry was converted into a hospital and the city was divided into sections, each section taking its turn at service. The mothers, with a train of household servants nursed the wounded and sick, while the young girls carried flowers, wrote letters for the convalescent soldiers and sometimes - it was told with much glee by the mischievous recipients - they again washed faces that, in the course of a day, had already received due attention by earlier visitors, at least half a dozen times - all equally solicitous of giving aid and comfort to our brave defenders. Here came our lass - most eager to help, but so little knowing how. Timidly threading the long aisle of cots, she was implored by a soldier suffering from a gunshot wound to rub his arm with liniment to cool his fever and ease its throbbing pain. Proud to be called upon, her eyes bright and face aglow from sympathy, she seized a bottle nearby and hastily poured its contents on arm and in wound - bathing, saturating, rubbing it in with all the energy of which her young muscles were capable to make sure it would do good work. "Ah! unfortunate girl!" shrieked the soldier from the cot, his agonizing pain getting the better of his chivalry. At the sound of his wrathful voice there was a sudden flutter of skirts and patter of feet, for the young practitioner fled down the aisle that seemed endless, for fear that she had killed him! We will trust that the remedy was curative - it certainly was heroic and the pungent odors of turpentine were not a sweet, health-distilling fragrance in a ward filled with sick folk.

        The days had now come when the looms of Dixie, hitherto an unknown quantity, were to be busy weaving homespun for its people to wear. But Margaret Drane with her sister and two young friends may claim to be the first of the "Homespun Girls" of Dixie of gentle birth who wore that much derided, homely material. A good-humored merchant of the city, doubtful of their brave, oft-repeated cry to

                        "Live and die for Dixie"

resolved to test them on a point where he was confident their girlish vanity would shake their constancy. It was in the first days of the war when Southern maidens still affected what was dainty and becoming. Cynicus challenged them to put aside their pretty, airy, muslin frocks and walk down the fashionable thoroughfare of Main Street clad in humble homespun. While daring them to do this, he offered to make the material a gift. At once the quick pride of the Confederate girl was touched. She gloried in this opportunity for the sacrifice of personal vanity upon the altar of patriotism. The merchant's offer was accepted so soon as made and the girls marched in a bevy to his store. There they selected the unmistakably genuine article, with their own hands made the dresses in the style of the day - ten widths to the skirt, tight waist and low-corded neck. Wearing their homespun, not as housemaids, but as if it were the ermine of royalty, and trying to keep step in their ungainly brogans; with cornshuck hats of their own braiding, bravely trimmed with red-white-and-red ribbons, shading their blushing faces. the appearance of the quartette on Main Street at once set the patriotic fashion and made them the toast of the hour.

        Ah! those early days of a war that had not yet grown cruel and when, to the bounding heart of youth, the drama seemed just enough touched with danger to be wonderfully fascinating and entertaining! In the summer of '61 it was more of a game than a reality. Our girls, from daily visits to the soldiers' target practise, were fired with a spirit of emulation. "Who could tell' - they reasoned - "but what, like the Maid of Saragossa, behind the rampart of cotton bales with which General Pillow has fortified the river front, we, too, may defend our city." True, many of the young maids had learned to handle without fear the pistols coaxed from brothers and friends and, too proud to betray ignorance, after a unique fashion of their own, loaded them. First they carefully rammed in a generous wad of paper, then bullets and all the powder the chambers would hold. But lo! nothing they could do would induce the weapon to go off and the entire contents persisted in rolling out. Again and again the charge was varied, bullets at bottom

and paper on top, but of no avail. Possibly the cap was omitted. They could not tell, but cheerily looked to the future to remedy their inexperience and crown them with laurels. By no means discouraged, they turned to the target-practise - shooting with guns and cartridges already prepared and about which there could be no perplexing mixture of contents. Their spirits rose, for it seemed so easy. Margaret led her companions in this as in whatever enlisted the sympathies of her adventurous spirit. Ambitious to excel, she flouted the friendly counsel of her wise but over-mischievous escort, and chose for her first essay a sharp-shooter rifle intended to pick off its victim a mile distant. Averting her eyes, she resolutely pulled the trigger. What fatal ease! There was a terrific bang as if earth and heaven had collided. The rifle was dropped - our brave sharpshooter knew not where, for a space she knew nothing! Dazed by the shock of sound, she fell backward and rolled down hill to be picked up a somewhat bruised and aching young rebel, but irrepressible as ever and burning with the desire to fit herself for the service of Dixie.

        If there was one delinquency more than another resolutely frowned upon, and that excited the keenest contempt of a Dixie girl, it was the cowardice of a man that kept him at home in a safe berth and left the fighting to be done by others. The girls looked upon that as a blot which all the power and wealth of the world could not purge away. Those not enrolled and known as "Minute men" - enlisted for the war and ready for the field at a moment's notice - received short shrift at the hands of these young fire-eaters. Margaret bribed a young man, whom she suspected of being unduly slow in entering the ranks, with a promise to mould the bullets he was to fire at the enemy. To do this tardy young Southerner justice it must be said that he was the only stay of his mother and she was both a widow and helpless invalid. But golden hair and eyes of Scottish blue have more than once taken the crook out of the way for a man. It was so in this case. The young man went to an early battle-field taking with him the pledged dozen bullets shining like newly minted dollars. Soon it was his good fortune to return proudly to dangle before Margaret's shining eyes an empty sleeve, and tell her that was her

work. And the stouthearted little maiden was glad while she grieved, for the South's true boy had stood General Bragg's grim test of manhood - "To the front to die as a soldier."

        So the memorable year of 1861 passed away and the shadows were fast deepening over the land. A typical girl of the '60's, our Margaret had sewed, wept and sung for the boys in gray through the golden summer months and early autumn days. At this time there was a Thespian temple in Memphis, newly built, but never opened to the player folk. The grand old "Mothers" of the city took possession of it and through local talent gave concerts for the purpose of equipping several companies with uniforms. Memory recalls one of those tuneful evenings, when all the girls who had melody in their voices gathered upon the stage arrayed in whitest muslin, with reddest roses for jewels, to sing the songs of Rebel-land under the waving Stars and Bars. And the rebel girls sang with a warmth and volume of voice that stirred tender old memories, or touched a patriotic chord whose vibrations set the audience wild with enthusiastic cheering and clapping of hands.

        The "Marsellaise," "When this Cruel War is Over," then the sad sweet strains of "Lorena" in clear bird-like notes floated through the hall and a hush, born of its pathos, fell upon all. Who so deservedly proud as Margaret, our Confederate Girl, when one who loved the song told her that she sang it better than a great singer, claiming the fame of an artist! "Lorena" suggested tears and heart-break, so there was a quick transition to lively old favorites - as well known to the audience as the whistlings of their own mocking-bird - such as "Maryland my Maryland," "Hard Times Come No More," "My Mary Ann," with a score of others, but always sliding at the close into the inevitable "Dixie" that was the signal for a shower of bouquets, sonorous hand-claps, pounding of feet, and strong-throated hurrahs.

        In the meantime our Confederate Girl retires from the stage to come forth again with the story of her refugee life and subsequent return from Memphis.

THE CONFEDERATE GIRL.

PART II.

        For the active, sunny temperament of our Confederate girl, Canton, a small inland town of Mississippi, proved rather a dull place of residence compared with the constant excitement of the river city, Memphis, in war times. The young girl's madcap energies must needs have a vent and with odd perversity reached their climax in the formation of a Cavalry Company. Among the numerous girls of the neighborhood she soon enlisted sufficient recruits, but, with all its rosebud beauty and grace, in picturesque accoutrements it might have vied with Falstaff's Ragged Regiment. A mixed multitude of mules and broken down army horses bore the joyous, adventurous patriots to the ground where they drilled by Hardee's Tactics. Their bridles were formed of bag ravelings and girths and blankets were made of gunny sacks. There were no privates in this well appointed company - it consisted wholly of officers, the lieutenants alone being seven in number! In her green riding habit Capt. Margaret gaily and fearlessly at the head of troop rode an army horse loaned for the occasion by a young officer at home on furlough. On a certain evening as she rounded a corner on returning from her daily drill, it so chanced that some soldiers were being put through military instruction in the taking of a battery. The drums beat, the trumpets gave forth a blare and the soldiers charged - yells of men and clatter of swords rising above the tumultuous dash and rush of horses. At once, Margaret's brave warrior-steed

caught the familiar notes and needs must charge along with its army mates. No check of bit or bridle could change its course. Its mettle was up and the frightened girl, borne up the hill, was carried in the onward rush to the very front of the battery. Once there, having led the onset, the old battle horse halted, its ambition was satisfied; but the cavalrymen made the welkin ring with cheer after cheer for the dauntless courage and gallant ride of blushing Captain Margaret Drane.

        Despite her strenuous, open-air life, our girl never lost sight of the practicalities. Confronted by the shoe problem - one that often tried the soul of a Dixie girl to the uttermost - in her own interest she bravely turned cobbler. From an old ministerial coat of her father's she cut out what was known as uppers. Carefully ripping the coat seams apart, she threaded her needle with the silk thus obtained for sewing on the soles, that meanwhile had been soaked in water to make them pliable for stitching. Tiny foldings of the satin lining made strings and lo! her small feet soon twinkled in new comfort and glory as, in pride and gayety of heart, she pirouetted from room to room.

        Only six months of refugee life in Mississippi when the illness of a daughter left behind in Memphis called for the presence of one of the family. It was decided that Margaret should go to her. Fortunately, two old men, Messrs. Horton and King, the first well-known to her father, were about to make one of their periodical trips to Memphis. It was hinted that these old men were a brace of smugglers and spies but, as they were known to be on the right side in the war, loyal to the Confederacy and otherwise trustworthy, such small transgressions of the moral code counted for little in those wild days. Delighting in adventure and laughing at the perils of the trip in prospect, Margaret - confided to the care of these old men and with Miss Horton as companion - set forth in a topless buggy to make the distance between Canton and Memphis. It was just after Grierson's raid had desolated the land. The railroads were torn up, bridges burned and the long stretches of country highways were almost a continuous quagmire from the incessant rains. Seven days over these rough army roads,

exposed to every whim of weather, brought them to Hernando, Mississippi.

        In the meantime Commodore Foote had taken Memphis after a most dramatic naval combat which, from its high bluffs, was witnessed by the citizens. Bragg was in Kentucky and Confederate spies were busy collecting and forwarding him information. The weather was sultry, but, despite the heat the girls had a quilting bee. They made, and wore beneath their hoop-skirts, petticoats, into which were stitched important papers to be delivered to agents in Memphis. Tape loops at the top of these petticoats made easy their quick removal should occasion call for it. Heavy yarn gloves of her own knitting covered Margaret's pretty hands, in the palms of which she concealed despatches so valuable that she was bidden to contrive their destruction rather than risk discovery.

        After leaving Hernando and reaching Nonconnah - the little stream with melodious Indian name five miles out from Memphis - the girls took out their weapons. Bravely equipped with pistols they made the perilous crossing only to fall into the hands of a group of Yankee soldiery drawn up to guard the bank and fire upon all daring enough to come within range of their guns. They were at once halted by a Colonel - an elderly officer who threatened to have them searched at the barracks hard by. Margaret, having her head in the lion's mouth, was bent on saving it from being bitten off. Young in years, yet she was a true daughter of Eve and resolved upon showing a charming candor to this elderly man of war. Extending her gloved hands, palm downward to conceal the bulky despatches, and putting out her shapely feet en