as a means of making the Federal officer by my side at the hotel table useful to me.
My friend asked me what company my brother belonged to, but I said that I could not tell him that. All I knew was, that he was under Averill, and that, as the command had been engaged in some sharp fighting lately, his family, as they had not heard from him, were becoming exceedingly anxious.
I believe that I wiped 'the semblance of a tear from my eye as I told all this, and looked as distressed as possible, in the hope of working on the quartermaster's sympathies. He proved as sympathetic as I could have desired; and bidding me not to distress myself unnecessarily, but to hope for the best, he promised to undertake to find out for me where my brother was, if still alive, or, if it should turn out that he had been killed, where he was buried.
Accordingly, when we had finished breakfast, he escorted me back to the parlor, and then, saying au revoir, he went immediately to headquarters to inspect the roll of the command. Before a great while he returned, and, with a very sorrowful countenance, stated that it gave him pain to tell me that my dear brother was dead.
"O, that is awful!" I cried, and began to go on at quite a rate, actually, I believe, squeezing out a few real tears.
My friend tried to soothe me as well as he could, and finally, becoming calm, in response to repeated requests to do so on his part, I asked him where Dick was buried, and declared that I must visit his grave.
That I should desire to see, and to weep over, the grave of my dear departed brother, seemed to the quartermaster both reasonable and natural, and he said that he would get an ambulance and take me to the burial-place.
At my Supposed Brother's Grave.
Before many moments, therefore, the vehicle was in attendance, and my friend and I drove out to where my supposititious brother was buried. It was now my turn to question; and my escort proved to be so exceedingly communicative, that before we returned to the hotel, I was informed of the exact number of troops in the neighborhood, their positions, their commanders, where the enemy were supposed to be located, who they were commanded by, the results of the recent conflicts, and a variety of other matters of more or less importance. The
20
