The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-09-01
SATURDAY.

TUT put EuiulcEss NCtt uHluuE tHc nuu- dest speetaeles of the war,
 This was intensified and still more deeply embittered by the utter failure Of my ehiyalrous mission for the dseoy- cry and rescue Of Beatrice. This charge had grown upon me as the sacred Mecca of my childish aspi. ration, That white face of the father had haunted me reprovlngly. The beautiful and innocent face of his daughter had beckoned me on.
 Every shot or shell which had leaped from our believing guns upon the doomed city seemed 10 my overwrought fancy a mortal challenge To her tender life. Even when the cry. Atlanta Is ours" went up from an hundred thou sand throats it stiiied my heart and choked my tongue.
 Beatrice hopeful and innocent. Bea- tric helpless and alone. Beatrice ground between the merciless teeth of war fiit- ted through my dreams. whispered en- couragement in the very ping" Of bullets beside my head. hung like the flaming Virgin in the rapt pictures of the masters. fioated spirit.iikc within and above the smoke Of our cannon and took on dolorous and awful forms in every grewsome change of cloud-hung battle.
 Never did old charlie's hoofs ring out such impatient staccato as when he bore me to the ancient mansion where had found Signor Bellini's conserva- tory 10 be located. Never did his lag gard hoofs so drive despairing echoes Into riders heart, as when We turned away from the place. now transformed into army engineers headquarters. where smart sentries were pacing the broad portico or lettering beside the si- lent fountains.
 Then followed weeks of fruitless. heart-deadening search.
 The hutter of every woman's gown. the flash of every woman's hand. the half-caught glimpse of every womaa's face startled me on and on with the thrill of hope which ever ended in q desolate pang of utter dread and loss
 Back at the camp where I had be- come haggard. moody and silent. one day Corporal Ez Carter stopped his ten der numbers of Daisy Deanc" long enough to remark in a melancholy tone to some comrades near:
 "The campaign was too much for Lit tie Buttons. He's going off all in a heapw
 Then the boys began to regard me mare closely. The rough fellows would edge up to me with cheery and sympathetic words. Some brusquely took from me various portions of my work. Even the best of our poor found its way to my plate at mess.
 They piled me with all manner of fatherly questions. While the tears welled in my foolish eyes. could only remain stubbornly silent Then by a little ruse they brought me to the doc tors attention at sick-call.
 "Shamming.-Bah! was his pleasant dictum with an oath, as he mounted his horse and with his assis- tant rode away; but that brigade sur geon never would have returned to headquarters with whole bones had not his good steed taken him at a lively pace out of the clutches of the fighting boys of Battery D.
 Faith, it's shamers ye all are!" in- dignantly remarked Sergeant McGee. Cant ye see it's tn ache O tn heart Ffor tn home behind that's aitin' tn life out O Little Buttons?"
 And so it stood at homesickness with the men: and Ez Carter, loyal soul that he was! sang himself hoarse and whistled himself parched and dry from his efforts to enliven my spirits with the saddening strains of Daisy Deane." and even big Andy. with pro- truding eyes and bulging cheeks. worked beside me for hours out of the very goodness of his honest German heart with his ear-splitting bugle's blare; while Manzel Burr, Freem Har- ford. Doc Lewis and Seed Rogers, from as many different squads-and bless their generous tenderness to the end of their civilian days!-endeavored to win me back to comradeship, through cards. in the adroit bestowal upon my for tunes of various tempting 'jack-pots"
 But I carried my secret and hurt alone; the sorriest way on earth to car ry grievous load.
 Added to it's crushing weight was an- other momentous secret which almost frenzied my boyish heart.
 At department and corps headquar- ters my frequent visits had made of- ficials and attaches unmindful of my tiny presence. had seen enough and heard enough to dimly comprehend the coming scattering of Atlanta's inhabi- tants and the complete annihilation of the city by fire.
 Whatever depths of dollar this life may have in store for me. there can never again come the dread. the actual despair and agony of compassion which I, as that boy soldier. constantly suf- fered until this measureless brutality of pretended military necessity partial ly complete.
 Contemplation of the monstrous hu- manity, coupled with it's certain extinc- tion of my last hope to succor the ill., fated Beatrice, so maddened my child ish soul that would almost have com- mitted murder to have averted it. For the few days between the promulgation of the order for the city's depopulation and this saddest exodus of modern his- tory, I was half beside myself with im- potence and grief.
 The highway leading from the city to the confederate lines above Love- joys, trailed alongside our camp Sher- mans huge army wagons were utilized to transport such as had no other means of conveyance. A double line of Federal guards fenced in the high way to a point where the flag of the