when it failed to lodge the other side would try its hand.  One side would call out, “Anthony,” to which call the other party would reply, “over.”  Then the first crowd would sing out, “Here she comes,” throwing the cap with the uttering of those words.  The peals of laughter from both sides, when the effort to lodge the cap would fail and the teasing of each side, made me laugh whether I wished to do so or not.  After awhile it lodged alright, then “good-nights” were exchanged, and then to bed.

I need not add that on the next day all was good humor at headquarters, and in six days afterwards Colonel Nance, Colonel Rutherford, and Major Maffett were all painfully wounded in battle.

* * * * *

IN DECEMBER, 1862.

While Longstreet’s troops occupied the City of Fredericksburg in the winter of 1862, I had learned that at night one of the quartermasters of McLaws’ Division was in the habit of going across to an island in the Rappahannock River, just above the city, to obtain hay and corn, and to come down to the main incentive, that there was a very charming old Virginia family who lived there, and that a bright-eyed daughter was of that family.  I set about getting a sight of this “Island enchantress,” and at last Captain Franks, who was Quartermaster of the Seventeenth Regiment of Barksdale’s Brigade, agreed to take me with him one night.  Here I was, the Adjutant of a Regiment, going over to an island without leave, with the enemy in strong force just across the river, and therefore liable to be captured.  Nevertheless, the hope of a peep at bright eyes has got many a man into dangerous ventures, and my case was not different from the rest.  So I went.  I saw the fair maid.  She was not only beautiful, but very interesting.  After it was all over prudence whispered to me not to tempt my fate again—­especially as a fair lady in another State would have had a right to except to such conduct on my part.  I never regretted my visit to the island, though!

* * * * *

AN ACT OF HEROIC FIDELITY OF A NEGRO SLAVE IN THE WAR.

In looking back at the incidents of the War Between the States, it is with great pleasure that an incident highly honorable to the African slave race is recalled.

It was on the 13th of December, 1862, when the Third South Carolina Regiment of Infantry was ordered from the position at the foot of Lee’s Hill, at Fredericksburg, Va., to Mayree’s House, near but to the right of the sunken road protected by the rock fence, that in going down the Telegraph Road the regiment was for a time exposed to the fire of the Federal batteries on the Stafford Heights.  A shell from those batteries was so accurately directed that it burst near by Company C, of that regiment, and one of the results was that Lieutenant James Spencer Piester, of that company, was instantly killed.  His body lay in that road and his faithful body servant, Simpson Piester, went to the body of his master and tenderly taking it into his arms, bore it to the rear, so that it might be sent to his relatives in Newberry, South Carolina.  Anyone who had occasion to go upon the Telegraph Road in that day must appreciate the courage and fidelity involved in the act performed by Simpson Piester.