We confess ourselves somewhat astonished at so large an estimate of the number killed during the riot; but those were horrible days, indeed, and the estimate is, we think, quite probably within the limits of the truth. The book was published in September, 1863, it appears,--a date a sufficiently long time after the riots to have allowed much careful investigation to have been made. Among the other heroes of those days, whom the author signalizes by especial mention by name,--Commissioner Acton, Superintendent Kennedy, Commissioner Bergen, Chief Clerk Hawley, Inspectors Carpenter, Dilks, and Leonard, etc.,--is found our chief subject, as brave, active, earnest, and efficient in the midst of a deathly struggle, as he is ever gentle, kind, and tender in his silent ministrations to the sick, sore, and suffering in the days of peace. On page eighty-two of the book referred to, and where the special history of the conduct of the police of the Twenty-Sixth Precinct is detailed in regard to their conflicts with the mob in the City Hall Park, Printing House Square, and the Tribune Office, the author says,-- "No mercy was shown, and over a hundred lay in the square and park, the well-punished victims of their own folly and crime. While the mob were being thus terribly handled in the street, some of the force turned their attention to the Tribune Building, fighting their way to, and entering it. The fire had just been lighted, and was readily extinguished. Officer McWatters, on entering the door, was assaulted by a burly ruffian, armed with a hay-rung, who, by a powerful blow on the shoulder, knocked him down; instantly on his feet again, he more than repaid, on the heads of the rioters, the blow. The building was cleared speedily, and not a man in it escaped without severe punishment." But it is unnecessary to extend comment upon the career of Officer McWatters, as related to the active operations of the war. As a patriot, his name is not only "without spot or blemish," but is one of which the best of citizens might be proud, and of which only such could have made themselves worthy. OFFICER MCWATTERS AND HIS LITERARY ASSOCIATES.