“Well, sir.”

“We had a brigade here, at Hanover Court-House—­Branch’s brigade.  While you were retreating, and when you were very near Hanover, McClellan threw a column on Branch, and used him very severely.  You were not in the fight exactly, but were in hearing of it, and saw some of Branch’s men after the fight.  That is how we know what brigade you belong to, although it will not claim you.  You know that you are from South Carolina, and your buttons prove it; and your diary shows that you were near Branch’s brigade while it was in the fight; and the only South Carolina brigade in the whole of Lee’s army that had any connection with Branch, is Gregg’s.  Do you see?”

“I see,” said I, “what is the date of that battle?”

“May 27th; your diary tells you that.”

“Yes, sir.”

“You continued to retreat to Richmond.  So did Branch.  The division you are in is A.P.  Hill’s.  It is called the Light division.  Branch’s brigade is in it.”

“Yes, sir; now let me see if I can call the organization of the army down to the company.”

“Go ahead.”

“Lee’s army—­”

“Yes; Army of Northern Virginia.”

“What is General Lee’s full name?”

“Robert E.—­Robert Edward Lee, of Virginia; son of Light-Horse Harry Lee of Revolution times.”

“Thank you, sir; Lee’s army—­A.P.  Hill’s division—­Gregg’s brigade—­what is General Gregg’s name?”

“Maxcy.”

“Gregg’s brigade—­First South Carolina, Colonel Hamilton—­”

“How did you know that?”

“Bellot told me; what is Colonel Hamilton’s name?”

“D.H.—­Daniel, I believe.”

“Company H, Captain Haskell—­”

“William Thompson Haskell.”

“Thank you, sir; any use to write the lieutenants?”

“No.”

“Well, Doctor, that brings us to date.”

“Now read what you have written,” he said.

I read my notes aloud, expanding the abbreviations I had made.  My interest and absorption had been so intense that I could easily have called over in chronological order the principal events he had just narrated.

“Now,” asked Dr. Frost, “do you believe that you can fill in the details from what you can remember of what I said?”

“Yes, sir,” said I; “try me.”

He asked some questions, and I replied to them.

My memory astonished him.  “I must say, Jones, that you have a phenomenally good and a miraculously bad memory.  You’ll do,” he said.

His account of the fight of the ironclads had interested me.

“What has become of the Merrimac?” I asked him.

“We had to destroy her.  When Yorktown was evacuated, Norfolk had to follow suit.  The Federal fleet is now in James River, some halfway down below Richmond.  A blockade has been declared by Lincoln against all the ports of the South.  We are exceedingly weak on the water.”