few weeks completely dead gone, much of it from thinking on their
condition--hope all gone. Has himself a hard, sad, strangely deaden'd
kind of look, as of one chill' d for years in the cold and dark, where
his good manly nature had no room to exercise itself.


DESERTERS

_Oct. 24_.--Saw a large squad of our own deserters (over 300)
surrounded with a cordon of arm'd guards, marching along Pennsylvania
avenue. The most motley collection I ever saw, all sorts of rig, all
sorts of hats and caps, many fine-looking young fellows, some of them
shame-faced, some sickly, most of them dirty, shirts very dirty and
long worn, &c. They tramp'd along without order, a huge huddling mass,
not in ranks. I saw some of the spectators laughing, but I felt like
anything else but laughing. These deserters are far more numerous than
would be thought. Almost every day I see squads of them, sometimes two
or three at a time, with a small guard; sometimes ten or twelve, under
a larger one. (I hear that desertions from the army now in the field
have often averaged 10,000 a month. One of the commonest sights in
Washington is a squad of deserters.)


A GLIMPSE OF WAR'S HELL-SCENES

In one of the late movements of our troops in the valley, (near
Upperville, I think,) a strong force of Moseby's mounted guerillas
attack'd a train of wounded, and the guard of cavalry convoying them.
The ambulances contain'd about 60 wounded, quite a number of them
officers of rank. The rebels were in strength, and the capture of