and saw no pig nor hen nor duck, and no man
in civilian's costume. The fences are all either
broken down, or have been carried off for winter
fuel in the camps. The fields lie untilled, and
few signs even of their past cultivation now
remain. Dead mules and dead horses (in one
place five-and-twenty all together) lie upon
the road. At Centreville we found, in a strong
position, the sham fortifications that had
sufficed to check the advance of McClellan, armed
with logs painted black outside, to resemble
guns. Behind them, are yet standing admirable
camps, each of about two hundred and fifty log
huts, coated with clay and covered with shingle,
all furnished with fireplaces, and those of the
officers even with carpets—palaces compared
with the kennels supplied to the men of the
Union Potomac army. The Union soldiers, in
whom habits of temperance had been so
carefully cherished that they had been confined to
cider and small beer, looked with envy at the
numerous empty brandy and whisky bottles left
by the enemy. We pursued our journey across
the field of the battle of Bull Run, which we
reached by a ford near a broken bridge, where
there is a destroyed railway on our right.
Striking aside from the line of the railway that
would guide us to Manassas, we rode through
the woods, here and there thinned with large
clearings; and, for miles, except the birds, a
dying mule was all of life we saw. Then we
regained the clue of the railway, and were in
Manassas before we knew it; for there are no
houses, only a few burnt huts with a quagmire
road between them, in which my horse sunk to
his belly.

At the station the scene was most curious.
There lay scattered in confusion, property of all
kinds that the Confederate soldiers, in the hurry
of departure, had not time to pack and carry
with them. Trousers, coats, shirts, drawers in
abundance; old iron and brass; bottles and
tin boxes, trunks, valises, knapsacks and boots,
barrels of provisions, bacon and hams, flour and
cracknels; bowie-knives, swords, guns, cars and
carriages, blankets and horse-covers, books and
papers. A troop of our cavalry arrived,
dismounted to rummage the plunder, suddenly
mounted again at sound of trumpet, and rode
forward to pursue stragglers behind the retreat
of the Confederates; whose main body had been
withdrawn in railway cars. Only two or three
persons remained at the station after the departure
of the cavalry; one of them, the artist, of
an illustrated New York paper, who, by sticking
a large bowie-knife into a chest, made a peg
whereto we fastened our horses, while we joined
the rummage of the field. Our own artist, having
a professional turn for the picturesque, laid
hands on a very fine scarlet under shirt—which
he put on over his coat—and a white woollen veil
—which he attached to his hat. With the lance
of a Confederate flag in his hand, he looked
on horseback competent to bring down three
rounds of applause at Astley's. Buttons bearing
the regimental stamp are tokens much in
demand, and a commissary who came from afar
with a doctor for the express purpose of doing
a stroke of business, loaded his horse with bowie-
knives, coats, horse-covers, and other plunder.
He was much envied also for the discovery of
several muskets and a secession flag. A few
negroes stood about, rolling their eyes at the
desirable things on the ground. Encouraged to
help themselves, they went away, and returned
soon with sacks, which they deliberately filled.

My own inclination was for search among the
books and papers. The books were chiefly bibles,
prayer books, sermons, and books of sacred
music. There was a sprinkling, also, of very
moral novels. Little else of any value. A couple
of illustrations of the volunteer spirit found
among the scattered papers interested me. One
of them will, I am sure, interest others. The less
interesting is an old letter from his brother, left
behind by one of the soldiers. These brothers
evidently belong to the poorer class of volunteers
from South Carolina ("old S. C."). One is
already in arms, and the other, detained to take care
of a family, has his heart with the men who volunteer,
if he has not himself already enlisted. To
make his information somewhat more intelligible,
I will so far meddle with it as to divide the
sentences by an interpolation of full stops:

"S. C. Abbevill Destrict, Sept. the 19.

"Dear Brother i seat my self this morning to
Drop you a few lines to let you no that i and family
is Well excep the Hooping Coff and Hoping when
thes few lins com to hand they may find you enjoying
the same Blessing. the People is Generly well
a Bout her at presen. i received your letter on the
8 of this month. i was glad to her that you was
gitting well. i am Doen pulling fedder. i am now
piking Cottan. Cottan is haf open. i took a trip
throwe goirgia this summer. Crops is good in som
Parts and very sory in others. i was at uncle
thaniel Pluket. they was all well and dooing
torable well. ther is too of his Boys in the army.
they went from mississippi and they had never herd
from them sences they left. they Dont no whether
they ar in virgina or not, and ther is a nother one of
his Boys volenteered but he wasent gon. Georgia
aint turing out volenteers like old S C. Givinit
County has only sened one Company to the war.
They ar scird in georgia. Kernel Harper's
Company is at lightwood knot springs; orr rigment is en
roliven's island at galy and Pinok Tucker is making
up a Company.  hisakier Hall Gohn Hall, lewes
Hall, Mashel Hall, S Mecadams R D tucker and all
the rest of the Halls and newels, and Games sarks
has volenteer in that Company. Pickers Black is at
home verry sick with the tiford fever.  it is thot
that he won't git well. Cornelie armathly is well
and harty. G D Press has got the Hooping cof but
it Dont hirt him much. He grows fast, i will haft
to Close my letter for the want of news to wright.
i will haft to start after the mail this morning.
wright to me as soon as you Can. So no more at
present fare Well.

The more interesting witness to the spirit of
the South is the diary of a widow's son, one of
a half adult family of boys and girls. It opens
with a record of his schoolboy life at Lexington,
county Rockbridge, Virginia, in one of the
colleges in many respects so creditable to the
American States, which, carrying on the work