The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-12-23

CContinued-1
 stWhy, think of it-in three months he-may I say we?-have marched, suppose, 600 miles, fought four pitched battles and seven minor engagements, to say nothing of the regular daily. slxirnnishes And we have defeated four armies, captured seven pieces of artillery. 10000 stand of arms, 4,OOO prisoners and any amount of stores, besides fabulous sums (as I hear) of cash money
 What our adversaries' losses in killed and wounded foot up I don't know, but they could not have been small Ours were less comparatively; but, oh, Gertrude, we have lost our Ashby. He fell in a moment of tri- umph, and his last words were, sVir- ginians, charger I am sure his name will always be remembered and hon. ored by the people of Virginia.
 He was not a Presbyterian, like Old Jack, but he was devout and childlike in his religious faith and regular at tendant at the services of the Episcopal church, which was the church of his ancestors He may have kept himself a bit aloof from the vulgar camp fun or moments of abandonment, though no man was more frank and gay on the march or In bivouac.
 s'Is it worth these sacrifices? Ger xrude in spite of all our successes I wish this nightmare of civil war were over and well over. But who can tell now when we shall be out of the woods?''
 Washington, remembering Bull Run, had nervous prostration whenever ''Stonewall'' Jackson was reported in action anywhere within a hundred miles of the Potomac. For this reason it is probably historic truth to say that s'StonewaH'' Jackson saved Richmond to the Confederates in 1S62-in the first place by diverting McDowell's army to the valley, in the second place by marching fresh from his own victories in that same valley to join Lee in the seven days battle around the Confed- crate capital.
 T am going back home,'' said Ger trnde Ellingham with determination. T long to see the valley once more, and I can do just as much good at Belle Bosquet as I can here, perhaps more, now"
 It was not because of the anxious outlook in Richmond, with McClellan's army almost within gunshot. On the contrary. that in itself would have kept her in the threatened Confederate capital had not stronger ties of both duty and sentiment drawn her home ward.
 As Gertrude read in northern news papers the accounts of the desperate fighting and of the suffering of Jack sons troops she exclaimed:
 Let them send the whole population of the north down here if they will, but they can never conquer us! When they have killed off our men we will shed the last drop of our own blood.''
 Captain Kerchival West of the Union army of southwest Missouri, as he read the account while alternately burn ing and shivering in the ague strick- en camps of the lower Mississippi val ley around Corinth, thought in fever fsh fancy that he could hear Gertrude saying just such words as these. Her hate, as he imagined it, was like his lOre-an unreasoning, all consuming passion He felt himself ominously fortified with the double strength of hope and despair, for love is a flame that feeds upon despair and takes lurid halo of glory most of all when lavished wildly and in vain-
 One sovereign solace he had, that he was wearing the blue and fighting loy- ally for the old flag in campaign sufficiently remote from the valley of Virginia After all, fate hac been kind to him, he thought, as he recalled his farewell words with Bob Filling ham. at Charleston-was it ages ago or only little more than a year back? '-AIl right. Bob- I only hope we never meet in battle, that's all.'
 And then they both saddened as they added:
 Who knows2'
 Who knew, indeed? What a tangled ekein of lives it was, anyway! One khing was certain-he may have been glad he was not fighting in Virginia. and yet his heart was there all the time
 Meanwhile Gertrude's decision to leave Richmond and go home to the valley was put into execution with characteristic impulse. It was a bad time for such journey. That made no difference about her embarl1ing upon it. but it did lead to some very com pIicated and roundabout arrangements for the accomplishment of the trip.
 Her Confederate war office friends, for reasons essentially their own, de- creed that if she went at all it must be