CHAPTER XIV.

THE EASTERN ARMIES.

OPERATING NEAR WASHINGTON AND HARPER'S FERRY.

June 1864-June 1865.

THE advance of Gen. Grant's army gave an immense increase to the Delegates' work in the Washington hospitals. Thither, when Fredericksburg was abandoned, were brought the wounded of the earlier battles of the great campaign. Camp Distribution, the point of departure for the convalescents of the hospitals, was well filled, and here was continued the blessed work of grace, begun so long before, until the return of the victorious. armies and the close of the Commission's operations.

Rev. J. W. Hough' writes from the camp in June, 1864:

One of our candidates for baptism had been, to use his own words, a very hard boy." Some months before, he had been confined in the guard-house for a misdemeanor, and on coming out he was ashamed to mingle with his comrades, lest they should taunt him with his disgrace. He determined to find something to read. Entering the barracks, he picked up a volume put there by the Commission,-Baxter's "Call to the Unconverted."

"What Right Have I?"

"I was mad," said he, "when I found it to be a religious book,

1 Pastor of Congregational Church, Williston, Vt.

and threw it from me. But afterwards, when I could find nothing else, I picked it up again, and lay down to read. It interested and impressed me at once. The question came to me, 'What right have I to treat God as I do? He has never injured me.' I was very much troubled, and so continued a long time, till I began to think less of myself and more of Jesus; and then His love came into my heart."

On the day of his discharge from the camp, he entered publicly into covenant with Christ.

Rev. Milton L. Severance1 has preserved a soldier's straightforward form for expressing his thought:

The apostle says, " By this shall ye know that ye have passed from death unto life, because ye love the brethren," and I have never seen a livelier test of this than a colored soldier gave at the close of one of our evening meetings. There was a simplicity in his expression and manner which touched all our

hearts:

Charity.

"I love my Saviour, I love the Church of Christ, I love the world, I love everybody, I love them that don't love me.”

I felt that the poor son of Africa had reached the climax of Christian experience. Like the martyred Stephen, and his Saviour before him, he could pray for those who had despitefully used him.

Rev. Dr. C. W. Wallace, in December, writes.

Crying out after God.

One Sabbath morning at the camp, I met a boy at my door, waiting to see a Delegate. Poor little fellow, what a life he had had! His parents died when he was quite young, in New York city. He fell to the care of a brother, a most abandoned man. There was no one really to care for his welfare; the only faint bond between him and anything higher was the dim remembrance he retained of a good mother. For he was a street "Arab," sleeping at night in boxes and doorways,anywhere to escape Summer heat and Winter cold. His food was

1 Pastor of Congregational Church, Boscawen, N. H.

2 Pastor of First Congregational Church, Manchester, N. H.

years

CHAPTER XIV.

THE EASTERN ARMIES.

OPERATING NEAR WASHINGTON AND HARPER'S FERRY.

June 1864-June 1865.

THE advance of Gen. Grant's army gave an immense increase to the Delegates' work in the Washington hospitals. Thither, when Fredericksburg was abandoned, were brought the wounded of the earlier battles of the great campaign. Camp Distribution, the point of departure for the convalescents of the hospitals, was well filled, and here was continued the blessed work of grace, begun so long before, until the return of the victorious. armies and the close of the Commission's operations.

Rev. J. W. Hough' writes from the camp in June, 1864:

One of our candidates for baptism had been, to use his own words, a very hard boy." Some months before, he had been confined in the guard-house for a misdemeanor, and on coming out he was ashamed to mingle with his comrades, lest they should taunt him with his disgrace. He determined to find something to read. Entering the barracks, he picked up a volume put there by the Commission,-Baxter's "Call to the Unconverted."

"What Right Have I?"

"I was mad," said he, "when I found it to be a religious book,

1 Pastor of Congregational Church, Williston, Vt.

and threw it from me. But afterwards, when I could find nothing else, I picked it up again, and lay down to read. It interested and impressed me at once. The question came to me, 'What right have I to treat God as I do? He has never injured me.' I was very much troubled, and so continued a long time, till I began to think less of myself and more of Jesus; and then His love came into my heart."

On the day of his discharge from the camp, he entered publicly into covenant with Christ.

Rev. Milton L. Severance' has preserved a soldier's straightforward form for expressing his thought:

The apostle says, "By this shall ye know that ye have passed from death unto life, because ye love the brethren," and I have never seen a livelier test of this than a colored soldier gave at the close of one of our evening meetings. There was a simplicity in his expression and manner which touched all our

hearts:

Charity.

"I love my Saviour, I love the Church of Christ, I love the world, I love everybody, I love them that don't love me.”

I felt that the poor son of Africa had reached the climax of Christian experience. Like the martyred Stephen, and his Saviour before him, he could pray for those who had despitefully used him.

Rev. Dr. C. W. Wallace,2 in December, writes

One Sabbath morning at the camp, I met a boy at my door, waiting to see a Delegate. Poor little fellow, what a life he had had! His parents died when he was quite young, in New York city. He fell to the care of a brother, a most abandoned man. There was no one really to care for his welfare; the only faint bond between him and anything higher was the dim remembrance he retained of a good mother. For years he was a street "Arab," sleeping at night in boxes and doorways,— anywhere to escape Summer heat and Winter cold. His food was

1 Pastor of Congregational Church, Boscawen, N. H.

Crying out after God.

2 Pastor of First Congregational Church, Manchester, N. H.

picked up in various indefinite ways. In his fifteenth year he entered the army. I found him to be a sincere inquirer for the truth.

"What shall I do?" he said. "Since I was a boy I've done nothing but swear and steal and everything else that's bad, and now to try to be good,-it's very hard."

The poor fellow in his ignorance would weep, and put his hands out gropingly for the better way, but it was hard to direct him to Christ in a manner which he could understand. The few times I saw him he would come to the place of prayer, and bow himself very humbly among the others; but he was soon ordered to the front, and I met him no more. His strange, pitiful face and earnest cry for the truth deeply impressed me. They must surely have found an

answer.

The permanent Agent in charge of the Commission's work of the camp was Rev. Jas. P. Fisher.1. From the final report prepared by his wife after his death, we select the following incidents:

A soldier rose one evening and told his story:

The Re-written Letter.

'My friends, I left home an infidel, but I left a praying wife. A week ago I received a letter from her, in which she expressed anxiety for the welfare of my soul, and desired to know if I still held to my old views. I wrote an answer, and in bitter words defended my old position. As I was about to seal the letter, it seemed to me I could not send it. I wrote another, softened down considerably from the first; but when that was done, I could not send it. I began another, but such was the power of the Spirit upon my heart, that I fell upon my knees, and begged for forgiveness before God. I could not finish the letter until I could say to my dear wife that Christ had forgiven my sins. I have been permitted to write to her that I am to-night rejoicing in her Saviour. I feel that I am now prepared for the battle-field, and, if I am ever permitted to return home, I trust I shall go back prepared for that also—a better man than when I came into the army." Another comes to tell of the preserving care:

1 Of Westfield, N. Y.