So Harry was permitted to enter the army.  By his promptness and valor he soon won the hearts of his superior officers, and was made drill sergeant.  Having nearly all of his life been used to colored people, and being taught by his mother to be kind and respectful to them, he was soon able to gain their esteem.  He continued in the regiment until Grant began the task of opening the Mississippi.  After weeks of fruitless effort, Grant marched his army down the west side of the river, while the gunboats undertook the perilous task of running the batteries.  Men were found for the hour.  The volunteers offered themselves in such numbers that lots were cast to determine who should have the opportunity to enlist in an enterprise so fraught with danger.  Harry was one on whom the lot fell.

Grant crossed the river below, coiled his forces around Vicksburg like a boa-constrictor, and held it in his grasp.  After forty-seven days of endurance the city surrendered to him.  Port Hudson, after the surrender of Vicksburg, gave up the unequal contest, and the Mississippi was open to the Gulf.

CHAPTER XV.

ROBERT AND HIS COMPANY.

“Good morning, gentlemen,” said Robert Johnson, as he approached Colonel Robinson, the commander of the post, who was standing at the door of his tent, talking with Captain Sybil.

“Good morning,” responded Colonel Robinson, “I am glad you have come.  I was just about to send for you.  How is your company getting on?”

“First rate, sir,” replied Robert.

“In good health?”

“Excellent.  They are all in good health and spirits.  Our boys are used to hardship and exposure, and the hope of getting their freedom puts new snap into them.”

“I am glad of it,” said Colonel Robinson.  “They make good fighters and very useful allies.  Last night we received very valuable intelligence from some fugitives who had escaped through the Rebel lines.  I do not think many of the Northern people realize the service they have been to us in bringing information and helping our boys when escaping from Rebel prisons.  I never knew a full-blooded negro to betray us.  A month ago, when we were encamped near the Rebel lines, a colored woman managed admirably to keep us posted as to the intended movements of the enemy.  She was engaged in laundry work, and by means of hanging her sheets in different ways gave us the right signals.”

“I hope,” said Captain Sybil, “that the time will come when some faithful historian will chronicle all the deeds of daring and-service these people have performed during this struggle, and give them due credit therefor.”

“Our great mistake,” said Colonel Robinson, “was our long delay in granting them their freedom, and even what we have done is only partial.  The border States still retain their slaves.  We ought to have made a clean sweep of the whole affair.  Slavery is a serpent which we nourished in its weakness, and now it is stinging us in its strength.”