Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 08.djvu/178

166 line, and we were all marched to the wharf, where Colonel Mulford's flag-of-truce boat awaited us. As each chaplain's name was called, he was required to step to the front. The counting went on well until the last name was called—that of Chaplain B, when a tall, handsome surgeon, clerically shorn and dressed, stepped to the front, and a Federal soldier, recognizing him, whispered to the Provost-Marshal: "That is not Chaplain B." "Who is it, then?" "It is Surgeon R——." The Provost-Marshal looked confused for a moment, and said to his clerk: "How many chaplains ought there to be?" The clerk answered, "Fourteen." "Count the men, sir."- We were duly counted and found to be exactly fourteen, and without further ado, marched on board the vessel for City Point, where, in due time, we arrived, and after some preliminaries stood once more upon the soil and beneath the flag of our Confederacy, amidst the dearly welcomes and warm congratulations of friends.

Here my narrative, properly speaking, ends, but there is one incident which, even though it be by way of postscript, I must append. In one of the hospitable homes of Richmond, whose intimacies I was permitted to share, there was a comfortable chamber known as the " Soldier-boys' room." Let us come by night or by day, we knew that this room was reserved for us; and many a long and weary march endued in sweet dreams of home, awakened by its soft couches of repose. Towards this pleasant home I instinctively turned my footsteps to enjoy the luxury of the "Soldier-boys' room." But when the hour for retiring came, my kind hostess, who had listened in tears to the story of prison trials, said: "I cannot let you go to the 'Soldier-boys' room' to-night." The special guest-chamber of the house has been fitted up for you to pay for those hard boards on which the Yankees have made you sleep so long," So I was duly ushered into the elegant chamber, and in due time was upon a luxurious bed, which seemed to me the most comfortable I had ever enjoyed, but on which I found it impossible to sleep. I had been so long upon the hard boards that the soft bed wearied me. I tossed from side to side, but in vain, until at length seizing my soldier blanket, which had been stowed in one corner, I wrapped myself in it and threw myself upon the floor, sleeping sweetly and soundly until morning.

When at the drawing-room my kind hostess met me with the question, "How did you rest last night?" and I answered, "Splendidly," she replied with a smile, "I knew you would, for I had that bed prepared expressly for you." That dear friend, whose