place, and of the dreadful scenes which had occurred during the
night, I had not the slightest knowledge.

As I became fully awake and sat up, the surgeon turned to me, and
said, "Well, you are alive at last. I thought nothing but an
earthquake would wake you. We have moved you about like a log, and
you never groaned or showed any signs of life. Men have trampled on
you, dying men have groaned all around you, and yet you slept as
soundly as a babe in its cradle. Where is your wound?"

How I endured the horrors of that night, rather how I was entirely
unconscious of them and slept refreshingly through them, is to me a
mystery. But so it was, and it seemed to be the turning-point of my
knee-wound, as it has never troubled me so much since.

I now rode on to Corinth, where I changed clothes, had a bath and
breakfast, and found a hospital and a surgeon. He decided that I was
unfit for duty, and must take my place among the invalids. After
dressing my wounds he advised rest. I slept again for six hours, and
woke in the afternoon almost a well man, as I thought.

Thus ended my courier service, and I then resolved that no earthly
power should ever force me into another battle against the
Government under which I was born; and I have kept my resolution.

General Beauregard's official dispatch of the second day's battle,
given below, was a very neat attempt to cover up defeat. It
expresses the general opinion of the people in the South as to the
battle of Pittsburg Landing.