very interesting. He reminded them that he had predicted this war ever
since Fremont's time, to which some of the crowd assented; he gave a
very intelligent account of that Presidential campaign, and then
described most impressively the secret anxiety of the slaves in
Florida to know all about President Lincoln's election, and told how
they all refused to work on the fourth of March, expecting their
freedom to date from that day. He finally brought out one of the few
really impressive appeals for the American flag that I have ever
heard. "Our mas'rs dey hab lib under de flag, dey got dere wealth
under it, and ebryting beautiful for dere chilen. Under it dey hab
grind us up, and put us in dere pocket for money. But de fus' minute
dey tink dat ole flag mean freedom for we colored people, dey pull it
right down, and run up de rag ob dere own." (Immense applause). "But
we'll neber desert de ole flag, boys, neber; we hab lib under it for
eighteen hundred sixty-two years, and we'll die for it now." With
which overpowering discharge of chronology-at-long-range, this most
effective of stump-speeches closed. I see already with relief that
there will be small demand in this regiment for harangues from the
officers; give the men an empty barrel for a stump, and they will do
their own exhortation.


December 11, 1862.

Haroun Alraschid, wandering in disguise through his imperial streets,
scarcely happened upon a greater variety of groups than I, in my evening
strolls among our own camp-fires.

Beside some of these fires the men are cleaning their guns or
rehearsing their drill,--beside others, smoking in silence their very