tattered cotton clothes, that were hanging in frozen strings from his
arms like icicles. I selected a whole suit for him, and a soldier's
overcoat. He stepped in the rear of a cabin and changed, and came to
me weeping.

"I come to show you," he said; "dis is de best dressin' I's ever had
in my life. An' I thanks you, an' praise God."

As we were standing on the bank of the river waiting for the return of
the ferry on her last trip that day, there were thirty or forty men
waiting, who by their favorite gray appeared to be rebel citizens; but
our many bristling bayonets kept them in subjection. The ferry soon
took us over the river, and we were within our post before the sundown
gun was fired.

As I had brought the sick woman and two little children that Captain
Howe had sent his ambulance for in the morning, in one wagon, I must
go to his hospital with them. This made us so late that the guard said
I could not be allowed to enter the camp without a permit from the
officer of the night. I told him where I had been all day without a
fire; and as he knew the storm had continued until late in the
afternoon, and this sick woman whom the captain had sent for could not
get through the lines in the morning, I hoped he would read my papers.
He held up his lantern to see them; but as soon as he caught sight of
my old portfolio he said, "Go on, I know who you are; I've seen that
before." I was permitted to leave my sick family in the hospital, and
drove the two miles to our head-quarters by eight o'clock. Although
very much chilled, I felt relieved, notwithstanding I had witnessed
such scenes of suffering and dying during that eventful day.