sodes, having told me all I know. I will not mar the narrative by pointing out the places in which my brother is myself. This confession redeems the book from being classed either as an autobiography or a romance; and whenever anybody shall say to me, "Why, you were not there?" I will answer, like the Israelite gentleman, "Yes, I know. Dot vas mine brudder." The reader gets the facts as they were, and that is all he ought to expect. I dedicate it to my old Confederate comrades, the bravest, simplest, most unselfish, and affectionate friends I ever had. NEW YORK, September 10, 1899. J. S. W. 1 Hon. Richard A. Wise, Williamsburg, Va. CONTENTS PAGE ·II. THE KINGDOM OF ACCAWMACKE .III. OUR FOLKS IN GENERAL AND IN PARTICULAR 98 XVII. A NEW PHASE OF MILITARY LIFE XVIII. A HUNT AND ALMOST A LICKING XIX. THE MOST GLORIOUS DAY OF MY LIFE XX. THE GRUB BECOMES A BUTTERFLY XXII. THE BATTLE OF THE CRATER XXIII. THE CONFEDERATE RESERVES THE END OF AN ERA CHAPTER I A LONG WAY FROM HOME It was the day after Christmas in the year 1846. Near sundown, two young officers of the army of the United States sat upon one of the benches on the promenade of the great reservoir which supplies the city of Rio de Janeiro with water. Both were lieutenants, one of engineers, the other of artillery. Any one half acquainted with the United States would have recognized them as West Pointers; and their presence in this far-away spot was easily accounted for by a glance downward from the coign of vantage where they sat, at a fleet of United States men-of-war and troop ships riding at anchor in the bay. Nowhere in all the world is there a scene more beautiful than that spread out before them. Below, falling away down the mountain side to the silver sands of the bay, were the palms and gardens, and orange and olive groves, surrounding the residence of the Cateti suburb. To seaward, the southern boundary of the mile-wide entrance to the bay, loomed the bald, brown peak of the Sugar Loaf Mountain, with the beautiful suburb of Botafogo nestling near its base. Huge mountains, their dense foliage lit by the sinking sun, ran down to the water's edge upon the opposite or northern shore. Far beneath them was the Gloria landing for naval vessels. To westward, sweeping out into the bay with bold and graceful curves, and spread beneath them like a map, was the peninsula upon which the city of Rio is built, and beyond this, gleaming in the evening sunlight, and studded with islands of intense verdure, extended the upper bay until it was lost in the distance, where, on the horizon, the blue peaks of the Organ range closed in the lovely picture. The ships bearing the commands to which the young gentlemen were attached were bound to California around Cape Horn. The troops were to take part in the war then flagrant between the United States and Mexico. short stop had been made at Rio for water and provisions, and these two youngsters were among the first to apply for and obtain shore leave. The dusty appearance of their dress, and other evidences of fatigue, showed that they had not failed to sustain the reputation of their countrymen as investigators of everything new and strange. In fact, they had, in the morning, exhausted the sights to be seen in the city. After amusing themselves in the shops of the Rua Direita, and replenishing their stock of Spanish books in the Rua do Ovidor, and wandering through several churches and residence streets, they had become very much interested in the remarkable aqueduct which supplies the city of Rio with water. Our young soldiers, in their engineering zeal, had followed the aqueduct back to its source of supply; and now, bound for the Gloria landing, were resting, deeply impressed by the great work, and by the genius and skill of its builders. But both the youths, recalling the fact that it was the Christmas season, felt, in spite of all the tropical novelty and strange beauty surrounding them, as evening closed in, a yearning for an American home |