has caught the weakness of the unguarded roads to the heart of the
Confederacy.

Stone River and Murfreesboro' tell of the wintry struggle to the
death for the open doors of Chattanooga. Though another shall wear
the laurels of victory, it is the proud boast of Rosecrans alone
to have divined the open joint in the enemy's harness. He points
the way to the sea for the irresistible Sherman. While the fearless
gray ranks thin day by day, in march and camp, Valois thinks often
of his distant home. Straggling letters from Philip Hardin tell
him of the vain efforts of the cowed secessionists of the Pacific
Coast. Loyal General George Wright holds the golden coast. Governor
and Legislature, Senators and Congressmen, are united. The press
and public sentiment are now a unit against disunion or separation.

Colonel Valois looked for some effective action of the Knights of
the Golden Circle on the Pacific. Alas, for the gallant exile!
Impending defeat renders the secret conspirators cautious. In the
cheering news that wife and child are well, still guarded by the
sagacious Padre Francois, Valois frets only over the consecutive
failures of Western conspiracy. Folly and fear make the Knights of
the Golden Circle a timid band. The "Stars and Stripes" wave now,
unchallenged, over Arizona and New Mexico. The Texans at Antelope
Peak never returned to carry the "Stars and Bars" across the
Colorado. Vain boasters!

While Bragg toils and plots to hurl himself on Rosecrans in the
awful day of Chickamauga, where thirty-five thousand dying and
wounded are offered up to the Moloch of Disunion, Valois bitterly
reads Hardin's account of the puerile efforts on the Pacific. It