HOW TO GET A FARM 



States may be said to be an army of land survey 

 ors. The soldiers see for themselves that the trait 

 orous owners of vast plantations have abandoned 

 them, that repossession is impossible, and that they 

 must fall into ne*w hands. In some cases this change 

 of ownership will be caused by confiscation, .in 

 others by a hasty sale at ruinous sacrifice. In other 

 cases the soldiers will acquire title by marriage. 

 All these methods of transition came into active 

 operation soon after the war began. The magnifi 

 cent climate of the rebellious region, the fertile hills 

 and valleys, soon won the admiration of men whose 

 homes had been among the bleak and rocky soil of 

 New England, or the sparsely populated prairies of 

 the West. Their long stay in that region made 

 them familiar with its value, and there thousands 

 have resolved to settle. &quot;With true Northern flexi 

 bility of character, they immediately became at 

 home. Intercourse between loyal residents and the 

 soldiers led to intimacy, and intimacy to marriage. 

 Thousands of young volunteers have already mar 

 ried Southern women, and will settle in the South 

 when peace is established. In a single company, as 

 many as thirty such contracts have taken place. 

 These marriages are not restricted to this or that 

 regiment. Wherever the army has gone, there it 

 has been greeted with sympathizers, and there such 

 ties have been established. The longer it remained, 

 and the further it advanced, the more numerous 

 they became. In addition to marriages actually 

 entered into, there will be innumerable engagements 

 to be consummated on the return of peace. Officers 



