WET T STEIN. 81 



mill (for which an Illinois regiment furnished a 

 miller), gave us a bountiful supper. At day- 

 break we set out for our last day's march, still 

 supposing that Marmaduke's men would put the 

 river between themselves and us before night, 

 but confident of comfortable quarters at Bates- 

 ville. A few miles out, we began to pick up 

 Rebel stragglers, and Wettstein soon came rat- 

 tling through the woods, from a house to which 

 he had been allowed to go for milk, with the 

 story of a sick officer lodged there. Following 

 his lead with a surgeon and a small escort, I 

 found the captain of the Evening Shade company 

 lying in a raging fever, with which he had found 

 it impossible to ride, and nearly dead with terror 

 lest we should hang him at once. His really 

 beautiful young wife, who had gone to enliven 

 his recruiting labors, was in tears over his im- 

 pending fate. While we were talking with him 

 concerning his parole, she bribed Wettstein with 

 a royal pair of Mexican spurs to save his life, 

 evidently thinking from his display of finery that 

 he was a major-general at the very least. The 

 4* f 



