fugitives should be returned to their masters, and that the Union soldiers should be made instruments for returning them. He accordingly wrote a mandatory order to General Garfield, in whose command the darkey was supposed to be hiding, telling him to hunt up and deliver over the prop-. erty of the outraged citizen.

The staff officer who brought the order stated the case fully to General Garfield before handing him the order, well knowing the general's strong anti-slavery views. The general took the order and, after reading it carefully, deliberately wrote on it the following indorsement:

"I respectfully but positively decline to allow my command to search for, or deliver up any fugitive slaves. I conceive that they are here for quite another purpose. The command is open and no obstacle will be placed in the way of the search."

When the staff officer read the general's indorsement he was inclined to be frightened, and remonstrated against Garfield's determination. He said if he returned the order in that shape to the division commander he certainly would arrest and court-martial the writer. To this the Ohio general simply replied:

"The matter may as well be tested first as last. Right is right, and I do not propose to mince matters at all. My soldiers are here for far other purposes than hunting and returning fugitive slaves."

The staff officer returned to the division commander and communicated Garfield's indorsement and resolve. The division commander was highly incensed, and at once sent for Garfield, whom he attempted to bull-doze into abandoning his position. The Ohio abolitionist was, however, not the man for the operation, and in return the division commander was obliged to listen to such a lecture as made him think possibly that he was in the wrong. At all events no court-martial was convened to try the general who had so flagrantly refused to obey orders, and thereafter the division commander refrained from issuing orders on the subject of slavery.

General Garesche, Rosecrans's chief of staff before Garfield, was killed the first day of the fight at Murfreesboro. A solid shot took his head off. "Old Rosey," as he was familiarly called, who was at Garesche's side when the fatal shot struck him, glanced at the headless body of his faithful officer and exclaimed "poor fellow! poor fellow!" Then he called out, "scatter, gentlemen, scatter!" The order was obeyed by staff and orderlies with more than alacrity, as the enemy had the staff in blank range of a well-manned battery and the shot were flying thick and fast without any respect to persons. "A few days after," says Thomas Dougherty, "I do not remember how many, when we had got into quarters at Murfreesboro, General Garfield joined us to take the dead man's

place as chief of staff. The boys were delighted and thought him a perfect success. As an illustration of his kindness of heart, a virtue not practiced often by army officers in the field, they delighted to relate the following story as told by a sergeant in Rosecrans's army.

"One night, very late, the boys were rolled in their blankets on the hall floor asleep, and I was at my post, sitting on a chair at the door of the tent of the general commanding, awaiting orders to be taken to their destination by the then sleeping men. The light was but a tallow candle, stuck in a sardine-box. I, with chair tilted against the wall, had fallen asleep, when General Garfield, the new chief of staff, emerged from the head-quarter room with quick step. Not noticing my extended limbs, he tripped over them and dropped on his hands and knees on the floor. He was no light weight, and even then the fall was not easy. Affrighted, I started from my sleep, sprang to my feet and, as the general arose, saluted. I expected nothing else than to be cursed, and probably kicked and cuffed, too, from one end of the hall to the other. To my astonishment, the tall general said, kindly and quietly: 'Excuse me, sergeant, I did not see you.' I not only excused him, but with my comrades, to whom the incident was related, we all learned to revere and respect the kindly-hearted man who had come to us as chief of staff."