challenge credence. It was a common thing to seek to embroil them in
personal altercations, and to fall upon them with violence and malice, and
it is our opinion, that in almost every case where soldiers ever became
involved in personal difficulty, the provocation came from Copperheads. We
may mention an instance in point. During the summer, a Union soldier
presented himself at our office and required surgical aid. His head was
bleeding copiously, and his hair matted with blood, and so mutilated was
he that he could scarcely speak or walk. He was perfectly sober, and
evidently a very quiet, worthy man. It was doubtful how his injuries might
terminate, but the poor fellow received our best attention, and thanks to
a kind Providence, recovered after a long and painful illness. It appears
that he was beset by a party of Copperheads, without the least
provocation, only that he was a _Union soldier_. For our act of humanity
in rendering professional aid, we were gravely suspected for a time of
being "a dangerous man," and received several lectures of censure from the
Sons of Liberty. He was but a "Union soldier," and his death, they said,
was a matter of congratulation rather than of regret.




CHAP. X


THE REASONS WHY REBEL AGENTS WERE SENT TO CANADA, AND THEIR
DOINGS--VARIOUS PLOTS OF MISCHIEF, HARRASSING, PILLAGING, &c.--THE
WATCHWORD OF THE REBELS IN CANADA.

The United States armies being continually pressed forward, step by step,
towards the heart of the Confederacy, occupying more and more of the soil