At the breakfast table Colonel Eaton remarked: "A number of our new colored soldiers were put on picket guard last night on trial, and not one sleepy head was found among them. Since we accept these men as soldiers I am confident it will do away the necessity of drafting men, as some think must soon be done." I spent a few days in visiting hospitals, often reading portions of Scripture, and kneeling by the cot of the suffering and dying soldiers, imploring the Great Physician to heal the sin-sick soul. For some I wrote letters to their home friends, which I found was often very gratifying to poor homesick boys. One very sick with pneumonia wished me to write to his folks in Kent County, Michigan, that he was in the hospital from a little cold, but would soon be able to join his regiment again. I dared not write according to his directions, and told him I would finish his letter at head-quarters. When he asked my name, he wanted to know if I was a relative of Rev. D. S. Haviland, in Kent County, Michigan. When I told him he was my son, he held my hand in both of his and burst into a flood of tears, and said he had heard him preach many times, and thought he was such a good man. I saw his feelings were deeply affected, and I feared it would increase the fever, and I promised to come and see him again in a day or two. I sat by him with my hand upon his head and consoled him as best I could. When he became calm I left, and called on his physician for his opinion concerning him. He said he was still in a critical condition, but thought the disease was turning in his favor, and advised me not to write to his friends until two days more had passed, as he would then be able to judge better of his case. Two days later I called again and found him much better, but the doctor thought the excitement of my leaving him increased the fever during the afternoon. He was now a little stronger, and he said I had better not let him know that I designed leaving the city. I finished the letter with greater encouragement than I could have done conscientiously on my first visit. As I was passing out one of the convalescents said, "Frank, here is that woman you wanted to see;" and he came on a run. "Are you from Michigan?" I asked. "Not quite," he said; "but I've been in Michigan. I am from Ohio, and that is its next neighbor;" and he seemed as glad as if he was meeting his mother. "O, how much you remind me of my mother! Your advice to us boys is almost in the same words my mother gave me when I left her;" and tears spoke louder than words of his appreciation of visits from his mother's representative. I visited many camps of the freedmen, where there were two thousand, with daily additions. Forty came into Bethel Camp one afternoon. I went among them, and said to the man I met first: "You concluded to use your freedom in coming into the Union camps?" "Freedom!" looking up in surprise. "Yes; you know President Lincoln has proclaimed all slaves free."