was a prisoner in the hands of the enemy. In August, 1862, he was released, to the great joy of his friends, and was immediately appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers, his commission dating from the day of the battle of Bull Run, July 21, 1861.

On the 8th of September he joined the Ninth Corps at Leesboro', Md., and was assigned to the command of the division lately under the command of the lamented General Stevens. From that time forward until the end of the war, General Willcox was connected with the Ninth Corps, serving sometimes in command of the Corps, sometimes in command of a division, and proving himself, as the reader will have occasion to see in the course of this narrative, a gallant soldier and an honorable gentleman. He had long been an intimate friend of General Burnside, and the two companions in arms shared together many a scene of peril and of glory.

CHAPTER V.

TOWARDS FREDERICKSBURG.

W

HAT to do with the large army now entrusted to his guidance was now the anxious question which General Burnside discussed with himself. He accepted the command with the greatest reluctance. With as genuine a modesty as that which characterized Washington himself, when he was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the armies in our Revolution, he shrank from the responsibility and the task. He confessed that he was not competent for the command. Washington, with all his consciousness of the possession of great gifts, did not hesitate to write to his wife and his intimate friends, that he considered the duty as "a trust too great for" his "capacity;" and also to declare in his place in the Congress that appointed him: "I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in the room, that I this day declare, with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with.", But, in writing to his wife, he said, “I shall rely confidently on that Providence which has heretofore preserved and been bountiful to me." General Burnside had as sincere a humility and as profound a trust. He has never rated himself at as high an estimate as his friends are accustomed to place upon him. He has cherished no particle of that overweening self-confidence which considers itself equal to every duty and every occasion, and which boastfully promises large results ere yet the enterprise has fairly commenced. It might have been an undue self-distrust that led him to say that he did not consider himself competent to